Free VOIP Unit From Staples?

This is interesting… This page describes how to turn a Linksys Vonage PAP2 unit from something that requires a pay service to a free system by hacking some files. Even better, Staples has a $65 rebate for this $65 unit (or 50/50 if your in USD).

I honestly don’t know enough about this stuff to know exactly what this is all about, however it looked pretty interesting and something I might investigate further. I guess basically it’s a way to get a) free hardware that turns a regular phone into a VOIP phone, and b) get VOIP service through something other than the pay-for service sold with the unit. I think. Can someone enlighten me on this stuff? Is this something worth looking into?

Either way, it’s hardware for free (with a bit of a wait to get your money back). Maybe I’ll stop by staples and check out what the catch is.

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Category: Technology

4 Comments on “Free VOIP Unit From Staples?”

  1. See also:
    http://www.voip-info.org/tiki-index.php?page=Linksys+PAP2+Unlocking+Methods
    We’ve tried a bunch of these tricks, and they work on some revisions of the PAP2 but not other ones. So, we just order the PAP2-NA which comes out of the box unlocked and ready for use with Asterisk. For the $60 they cost, it’s not worth it to spend tons of time hacking them especially when they’re being resold to a customer anyways.
    It’s silly that you can’t buy unlocked PAP2 units at the box stores.
    You can also get the Sipura ATA… it’s identical to the Linksys PAP2 ATAs (same firmware/config) and is unlocked.
    Linksys has another device… combination 802.11 wireless, 3 switch ports, and 2 FXS ports. So an integrated ATA… very nice and pretty cheap too. Helps get around NAT problems that are common with VOIP as well as the requirement for yet another gadget on the network. It should help with QoS too.

  2. You can also get some cheap native SIP phones from voipsupply.com, < $80-100 USD. But often the cheap phones are cheap, so many people are getting the even cheaper ATAs (analog telephone converters) and connect up a good normal phone to it.
    Being able to telnet/web into your phone comes in handy though 🙂

  3. I just finished doing this on a Vonage PAP2 I had sitting in the closet for a while. Worked like a charm! Glad I could turn that paperweight back into an asterisk loving telephone adapter!