HELLO & WELCOME

[WelshPaul]

The Cisco SPA112 is the successor of the Cisco-Linksys PAP2T analogue telephone adapter (ATA). The SPA112 does have a few feature enhancements that weren't available in the PAP2T. Among those enhancements is the Quick Setup feature.

Quick Setup page A Good Idea...
The Quick Setup page (apparently) is intended for direct access to only the most pertinent configuration settings needed to connect to your favorite BYOD VoIP service provider (VSP), very quickly. It appears short and sweet, straight to the point, and only requires that you enter the login parameters absolutely necessary to connect to your VSP proxy servers (appearances can be deceiving). It also includes the ATA default Dial Plan, which will generally work with most VSP's (perhaps a little tweaking required).

SPA112_Quick_Setup.jpg (58.02 KiB) Viewed 1316 times

But... It's Only Half-Baked...
It has the potential to save time and effort when setting up a new VoIP provider account on either Line 1, Line 2, or both. But, it's missing crucial settings that (in my mind) render it a waste of time for the BYOD VoIP enthusiast perspective.

SPA112_Quick_Setup_to_Voice.jpg (24.12 KiB) Viewed 1315 times

So.... What's Missing ?
Well, just a few settings that make all the difference between being a useful feature vs. a useless feature:

1. NAT Mapping (Yes/No)
2. NAT Keep Alive (Yes/No)
3. Register Expires
4. Outbound Proxy
5. Use Outbound Proxy (Yes/No)
6. Auth ID
7. Use Auth ID (Yes/No)

At a bare minimum, the items listed above should also be included on the Quick Setup page. And because they aren't there, you will still have to navigate to the Voice menu to edit Line 1 or Line 2 pages just to finish editing those values, which most of the BYOD VoIP providers I use require in one form or other.

• Most of the BYOD VSP's I've used require NAT Mapping and NAT Keep Alive to be Enabled. After all, most of us are behind NAT Routers and NAT traversal is an issue for successful VoIP implementation.
• Most of the BYOD VSP's I have used recommend changing the default Register Expires from it's default value 3600 to 60.
• Many VSP's require the Outbound Proxy values to be set to their outbound server name.
• Some services require Auth ID values to be entered and Use Auth ID enabled to Yes.

The settings mentioned above are all common and required configuration entries that many, if not most, VoIP services will need to be set one way or another in order to successfully register and/or receive incoming calls with your ATA using their services.

I can only speculate that when Cisco came up with the Quick Setup page idea, they were catering to the enterprise users who connect to one of their Unified Communications systems located behind their firewall on the same LAN. Probably intended to be used with a locally administered IP-PBX on the local LAN vs. for connecting to a VSP, like I do.

The Bottom Line:

Don't Bother With The Quick Setup Page
Without those values (as mentioned in items 1-7 above) being available on the Quick Setup page, there is no point going there in the first place, because you will still have to visit Line 1 and Line 2 pages under the Voice menu to edit the other pertinent values.

Go Straight To the Voice Menu, Line 1 or Line 2 Page
Save yourself some time and go strait to the Line 1 and Line 2 pages and configure it all from there. After all, you'll be going there anyway...

SPA112_QS_Line1.jpg (59.08 KiB) Viewed 1315 times

If Cisco updates the SPA112/SPA122 firmware to include more relevant configuration settings on the Quick Setup page, then this article here will certainly become irrelevant.