Since I live in the country I have no way to get wired internet to my house. So I’m still living on POTS for some device connectivity. This creates an issue when a POTS line is not available when I’m traveling. I have a current need/want for a POTS to cell “device” and was wondering if anyone has any experience with these. The web is full of people claiming these interfacing devices will work for everything and then others that say they are only good for voice since the POTS device handshaking will not work with CDMA. So I’m not sure who to believe.

My current needs:

When traveling in my RV I would like to connect to home and view via a camera the house. I was given some ViaTV Phone model VC50 POTS conference calling equipment that I would like to connect as follows. TV in my RV -> to the conference calling box -> to the “device” via a POTS cable -> to my cell phone via BlueTooth or other. Then when I call home via the cell phone I could connect up to the other conference calling box at home and see what is going on via the TV in the RV.

My main concern here is that CDMA will not let the conference call boxes connect.

Any suggestions on a device or game plan?





Someday I would like to dump my POTS line however I sometimes connect to our cabin via PCAnywhere (POTS to POTS) and I do fax from home at times.

I'm not sure that I understand.

Just dial your home number from the cellphone, and you've got a connection to your POTS line.

Obviously that's not what you meant, though.

+1

He has both ends of a remote camera viewing gadget. Both ends connect via pots. He wants a cell device that mimics a pots line.

Tv < pots gadget < cell device, calls to Home Plain telephone < pots gadget < cam.

So he can continue to use the legacy equipment.

Most likely easier to replace the whole kit with new and just view it on his pad/phone...

Correct. The conference room devices only connect POTS line -> POTS line. To add a cell connection in here I need to go POTS line -> “Device” -> Cell -> POTS.

I'm looking at devices like this.... but this one specifically says it won't work for POTS devices. Maybe that is a blanket statement to cover their butts.

http://www.amazon.com/Xtreme-Technologies-BT-Bluetooth-Gateway/dp/B00135XU7Q

Will a CDMA fixed wireless terminal work? We use one here with an external yagi antenna.

Verizon Home Phone Connect is similar to what we have.

That looks good but I would like to use my existing Verizon phone. The Xlink device linked to above uses BlueTooth to connect to an existing cell and there is no need to have a new service and fees. However the Xlink is a no-go since it says right in the description that it won’t work for things like fax machines.

My main concern is will the POTS to Cell device CDMA handle the communications of the conference boxes while using my existing equipment. Sounds like a challenge but I like to piece things together.

Ah. Everything is prepaid here so it costs virtually nothing for another line. I always forget how retarded US wireless billing system is.

Good word for it.

Without digging into the specifics of your existing kit, I expect the video is actually being transmitted as modem data over the POTS telephone link. Whether this data is a standard or non-standard modulation or format does not matter. What matters is that the modulated data stream gets from end to end without corruption.

Generally speaking, a cellular VOICE channel will not carry any signal other than speech. Data modulation (Modem chirps and tones) tend to get garbled by the cellular voice channel.

Even Fax, which is a fairly basic type of POTS modem data cannot be handled by cellular voice channels without specific provisions by the service provider.

If you want to communicate _data_ via a cellular link you need to utilize the data channel of the cellular service, which requires a data plan.

At the POTS end you need to somehow connect to the Internet, where in turn your connection from the cellular end would interconnect.

Thanks K447.

Unfortunately that is the answer I was expecting.

I will have internet in the RV so I could connect as follows but are there these types of devices and services…..

Conference box to -> “Device to connect POTS to my android via maybe BlueTooth” -> Android to -> “Service to connect to POTS, maybe GrooveIP” -> Conference box at home.

However, when I use GrooveIP I seem to get up to a 3 second latency issue. I pretty sure that would be a killer issue.

Any suggestions on if a “device” like this exists or what to use for the “service.” I could also use a laptop instead or the android.

Maybe the Xlink device would work in this situation. I'm not sure.

Or maybe I’m chasing a unicorn.

Just get a cheap ip-based video camera and then view the video over the internet. It'd be cheaper than going through all these gymnastics.

+1

You can NOT connect a POTS device (data modem) via a cellular _voice_ connection.

At the RV end you must use a data link through your mobile service (cellular, I presume). No POTS equipment or adapters at the RV end.

So you must use something on the RV end that can provide a video link over a cellular data (Internet) connection. What you choose for the RV end will determine what options you have at the fixed (house) end.

Something like Skype on the mobile phone would provide the RV end of the video link with no added equipment. Then you just need to find a way to have Skype active on the house end.

At the house end you may find that POTS is not viable, primarily due to not tying up the phone line with a permanently active Internet modem connection.

Sorry I wasn’t clear. I'm off the cell voice stuff now and thinking of using a VOIP type connection at the RV which will call the home phone.

So if I go RV conference machine -> VOIP box (which will put me on the internet) -> then call the home phone connecting to the camera via the conference box at that end.

So as long as modem communication will work over VOIP that should work right?

I would LOVE to do that. But I have no internet at home, only at the RV end via a Verizon MiFi connection. The only thing I have at home is a phone line. Thus all that whining about me living in the country.

Also the conference boxes are pretty slick. They answer the phone when called and then you can control the cameras via phone number presses. You can switch cameras, zoom, and even have voice if I hook up a mic.

So I can still have my alarm system at home call me if there is a security breach (no tying up the line with a camera modem connection).

Maybe something like this...

http://www.3cx.com/PBX/FOIP.html

But using conference calling boxes instead if FAX machines

How far is the nearest cellular tower? Do you have line of sight to it?

I also live quite remotely but am able to get internet with an externally mounted Yagi antenna pointed toward the tower in the mountains several miles to the west. I think I paid less than $150 for the whole setup including modem. I've read that you can connect to towers up to 50 mi. away with the right setup.

Unfortunately, your MiFi doesn't come with an external antenna connector (afaik) or you'd be able to just get an antenna and play around with it.

The V in VOIP stands for Voice.

VOIP will not carry data modem tones. As far as I know, the ONLY 'voice channel' that can also carry significant (relatively speaking) data bandwidth is indeed POTS.

What makes POTS unique is that it is essentially an UNcompressed 64Kbit data channel with a CODEC at each end, which is why it can be used for so many things; human voice, Fax, analog data modem, 56Kbit digital 'modem', etc.

When the transition from the old analog POTS phone central offices (telephone switching equipment) was planned the specification for the digital rendition was to (mostly) maintain compatibility with all the disparate uses the old analog POTS lines could handle. Hence the relatively flexible current POTS system.

VOIP, cellular voice, and other digital voice oriented compression/transmission systems all work by hugely focussing on and optimizing for the compressing of human voice 'sound fragments'. That same optimization works against every other form of sound, including modem data tones and modulations.

As far as I know there is no equivilent to POTS in the wireless world. Adapters and such cannot get around the limitations that voice compression systems do not handle modulated modem data well. You can create a 'voice' connection end to end with your home POTS line, but that connection is expecting to carry voice, not data.

Clearly the best solution is to transmit the data as synthesized voice. Your bitrate will suffer, but it might make it through the other side unscathed.

Thanks for the explanation. I guess there is no way around this problem.

Well, perhaps I could have a computer upload some snapshots periodically to a server using NetZero (if there still is a free NetZero). It won’t be live but I could see who much snow is on the ground when I’m in Florida &#61514;

I’m not sure what would be involved here.

How would I synthesize and unsynthesize to my conference calling boxes on each end?

I use my MiFi at home and I have a good signal however the connection is far from rock solid. Plus I’ll have my MiFi with me and getting another one would involve contracts, bandwidth limits and monthly fees.

I’m paying $80 a month for pretty crappy internet access now. I couldn’t stomach another internet bill.

It would be a fun experiment, but that post was mostly in jest.