I've just installed a 2860vac at home to replace an ageing AVM 7390 that BT was silently blocking the VDSL connections from. I was using the AVM to support my internal DECT handsets and then giving me the option of routing DECT calls via PSTN or VOIP as well as allowing me to attach my mobile phone, using csipsimple, as another home handset.

I decided on the 'vac' as it looked, in the marketing, as a good replacement. I'll leave comments about the outdated web gui for another thread. The VOIP however is leaving me baffled and the knowledgebase articles seem deliberately vague.

Simple, I hope questions, but excuse to loose terminology:

1. Can the Draytek support in-house VOIP handsets and act as a call router?

2. If I want to use DECT in the house, can I use a Yealink or Siemens IP-to-DECT type box and proxy connections via the Draytek?

3. Can the Draytek act as a gateway for private VOIP from outside to inside?

4. There seems very few places in the set-up that mention the PSTN circuit in the context of calls, and it seems to be for a backup more than treated as anything useful.

I've wandered around the web gui and the knowledgebase over the weekend and I am not much wiser.

I may end up simply ignoring the vac's VOIP and falling back to a DECT basestation - which seems a shame.

Hopefully this helps

1. Can the Draytek support in-house VOIP handsets and act as a call router?

That would require an FXO (analog to IP converter). The 2860Vac is an FXS (VoIP to analog phones) device, with PSTN pass-through so that the phones connected can make & receive calls through the PSTN line.

2. If I want to use DECT in the house, can I use a Yealink or Siemens IP-to-DECT type box and proxy connections via the Draytek?

No, but you could connect a PSTN based DECT base station and handsets.

3. Can the Draytek act as a gateway for private VOIP from outside to inside?

It's not able to do that, it's designed for linking PSTN handsets to VoIP, rather than the other direction. That's something that the VigorBX 2000 is capable of, as it's a SIP server / PBX system with both FXO and FXS ports.

4. There seems very few places in the set-up that mention the PSTN circuit in the context of calls, and it seems to be for a backup more than treated as anything useful.

If the the Line port is connected to a telephone line, the calls will be relayed to the phones connected to the phone ports. Calls can also be made outbound using the PSTN line by configure the DialPlan - Digit Map.

Thanks for the answers and the clarifications.

To "solve" my immediate probe I ordered a Gigset N300 IP (non answerphone) for £30 "used like new". That'll do for now, from what I read elsewhere.