ATAs, More Than a Butter Knife

It’s not a sentiment that I share but in many people’s eyes analog telephone adaptors (ATAs) are the butter knife of the VoIP world.

Beyond the purpose they are designed for people don’t think there is much else that you can do with them; one spreads your butter and jam on toast, while the other connects an analog device to an IP network.

In both cases, if you do a little thinking, there are other great uses that they can be used for.

Take the butter knife, for example.  From personal experience I know that in times of need it can fill in as a pretty functional flathead screwdriver.

But, this isn’t the Butter Knife Insider so let’s put down our knives and pick up our ATAs to take a quick look at two alternative uses that you may or may not have thought of.

ATA Alternative Use #1

Extending Dial Tone – This is a quite common application but a lot of the time people don’t know that they can do it.

The one example is to use two ATAs to extend the POTS line over the internet or a LAN to a remote location such as a hunting cabin or guard tower.

Another example is to avoid long distance calls using two ATAs and routing the calls out on the regional POTS line. You can read a more detailed explanation in this older VoIP Insider Post, Product Spotlight: Linksys SPA3102.

ATA Alternative Use #2

Home Alarms – One of the industries that has had to adapt to the move away from traditional analog lines is the home security business.

My facts are a little fuzzy and might not be the absolute truth but my understanding is that the alarms use the phone line to send out the signal and call when the alarm was trigged.

As more and more people drop their POTS lines the alarm companies are in need of a new plan of attack. Rather than ripping out and replacing all their equipment what a lot of security companies are doing is placing an ATA in and sending the calls and alarm signal out over VoIP.

Faxing From an El Camino?

As far as alternative uses for VoIP adapters goes, these two examples are just the tip of the iceberg.  I’d be interested to hear what examples others can think of or have done; so feel free to leave a comment with other applications or uses for ATAs.

Maybe you successfully used a combination of a mobile phone with WiFi hub capabilities, a wireless Ethernet bridge, and an ATA to send faxes from your El Camino.

If you have please send photos!