Grandstream HandyTone HT801 ATA

The Grandstream HandyTone HT801 is a solid and dependable little device. Setup was quick and straightforward, and it worked flawlessly with my VoIP service right out of the box. The build quality feels good, and it’s small enough to fit neatly beside my router without taking up space. Audio quality is excellent — clear and consistent with no dropouts or echo. Configuration options are flexible for those who like to fine-tune settings, but it’s also simple enough for a basic plug-and-play setup. Overall, a great product that does exactly what it should. Perfect for bringing an analogue phone into a modern VoIP setup.

Arrives in a simple box with absolutely no instructions, a PSU and a short Ethernet lead. A really annoying thing is that they don't tell you that the default password is admin. Easy to connect, but the setup is very complex, you need instructions from your supplier. To connect, you plug an Ethernet cable in to the port on the Grandstream, and the other end in to your router. You then need to find the Grandstream, so you can access the web configuration pages it has. Your router assigns an IP to the Grandstream, and there is no easy way to find what that is. Fortunately, my router displayed it. I then went to the Grandstream and changed the IP to a fixed address, so I could always find it. I believe there is a discovery tool you can download to find it. Your existing telephones plug in to the Grandstream, although you will probably need a UK to US adapter. These are cheap, costing as little as £2. You can plug in old phones in to the Grandstream, or modern phones. Old phones, that use pulse dialling, require a converter that is unfortunately expensive. You can find these on eBay. One will cover you for several phones. You can mix modern and old. I have two old phones and one dect unit on the same Grandstream. To replicate the old BT ring "dring, dring" you need to carefully set up the Grandstream. In advanced settings, you need to set the Ring Cadence to c=400/200-400/2000 To get this all to work, you need to sign up with a SIP provider. There are plenty around. Most of them will detail the setup of the Grandstream you need to access their service. They will provide you with a telephone number. Bought this on recommendation because I was having problems with a Cisco 191. Not only is the Grandstream much cheaper, it works perfectly. Including DTMF, which is very dodgy with the Cisco. Would highly recommend.

This is a great ATA. Having the option to configure for pulse dial as a standard option is a real bonus. Easy to set up. Using with a BT746 phone and sipgate in the UK.

The unit comes without instructions, but they are available online. To set it up, I needed to combine the procedures in the online manual with instructions from my VOIP provider specific to this unit. This met with limited success initially, but to be fair it was the instructions from my provider that were the problem and a support call from their helpline resolved the issues. The next problem was that my real vintage phone unit wasn't compatible and did not ring on incoming calls. Again, this is more likely an issue with the old handset and a new analogue model works fine. For UK customers, you will also need an adaptor plug for female UK to male US. Overall, this works well and I now have a low cost VOIP landline. Recommended, but be prepared for the setup.

Bought this when I moved broadband provider to Open Infra who do not offer a phone. Using Andrews & Arnold's VoIP service, its easy to set this up following the instructions on their support site. As for the comments about the US style plug in the box, it uses micro USB so any USB charger with appropriate cable will do.

Bought this to allow an elderly relative living in a annex to use a phone in the way she was accustomed without paying extortionate BT charges to keep the old copper service live (have fttp installed). Unfortunately unit won't ring the old handset and despite many attempts to get this working (grandstream support were responsive but ultimately ineffectual) I gave up, returned unit and bought a more expensive cisco unit which just worked (tm). If you are prepared to spend hours setting arcane settings in a rather clunky UI (and updating the firmware seemingly with every support response) then you may well have better luck than me - the unit certainly did the sip connection part but this really felt like a throw-back to 1990's electronics - and I no longer have the patience for that....

Compact design, not easy to configure but got lots of help from my selected VoIP service provider, A&A. The unit is supplied with an American power supply but that isn’t needed, the power can be provided by any usb outlet using a micro usb lead. You will need a RJ11 plug to BT socket adaptor. There are no instructions supplied but can they can be found on line.

No instructions are provided in the box so configuration is dependent on third-party websites. The set-up screens (accessed via IP address) are long and require a large quantity of data to be entered manually. This makes it really difficult to know what’s wrong if it doesn’t work first time. There are numerous passwords required and it’s unclear which ones do what. The set-up tool does nothing to acknowledge password entry, leaving the fields blank for “security purposes”. So, you don’t know if a failure is due to an incorrect or missing password. Andrews & Arnold were helpful and responsive to help get me set-up in the end. But, their online instructions lacked clarity too. A redesign of the set-up screens with clear step by step instructions are required. Once set-up, the device works well and is OK value for money. So 3 stars from me overall.