If you want a fast and efficient internet connection, one of the best things that you can do is to get look into a VoIP gateway, FXS adaptor, ATA analog telephone adaptor or broadband phone adaptor.  Some functions of an Analog Telephone Adaptor relate to the network side of the connection. The ATA is a network peripheral like a PC or printer. Most are set up to get their network address assigned automatically by the router they are plugged into. This is called DHCP for dynamic host configuration protocol. If no router is being used or if the network uses all static IP addresses, the ATA needs to provide a way to reprogram its address manually. Some ATAs do this by entering data on the telephone keyboard. More sophisticated devices include a web based interface for programming or downloading new software via a PC. The task needed for analog telephones and VoIP are pretty well standardized and designed into specialized circuits and chips. A VoIP phone, also called a broadband phone or SIP phone when it uses the Session Initiation Protocol standard for VoIP, contains many of the same functions, including CODECs, jitter buffers, voice activity detection.  You should know that FXS stands for foreign exchange station. This is PBX system lingo. You can get FXS adaptors for routers. These are modules that plug into the back of the router and give you one, two or more FXS ports. This is how an enterprise level system can add ports to plug in regular phones.

It is also helpful to know that the opposite of an FXS port is an FXO port. FXO stands for foreign exchange office and connects to the phone lines that run to a telephone company office. It is additionally good to understand that Analog Telephone Adaptors have a standard RJ-11 socket where you plug in the wire from your regular telephone. It's just like plugging that phone into a wall socket.  An ATA is also called a broadband phone adaptor because it converts regular phone signals to and from broadband signals. On the back of your ATA, you'll find one or two of the FXS ports we talked about plus a standard RJ-45 network jack. This jack could be labeled "LAN," "WAN connection," "Broadband" or maybe "Ethernet." A standard Ethernet cable plugs into the RJ-45 port and goes to a Router, DSL modem or Cable modem. An Ethernet switch might be built into the ATA to provide two RJ-45 jacks. One connects to the broadband line, the other goes to a computer that shares the broadband connection with the telephone.

The ATA looks simple on the outside, but what is going on inside? Understand that VoIP and analog telephones are completely different species of phone service. Analog phones run on varying voltages and currents. To get from bits to volts, a special chip called a CODEC is used. CODEC stands for Coder. Coding converts analog voice from the microphone to digital. Decoding converts digital back into analog to drive the earpiece. Additionally, comfort noise generation or CNG goes along with VAD.  If nobody is talking, the VAD circuit will stop sending packets through the broadband connection. Your phone will go dead silent for an instant and you might think it was disconnected. The comfort noise generator creates a low hissing sound, like phone line noise, in the background so you have the comfort of knowing that your phone call is still connected. VoIP calls are transmitted over networks so it is good to keep in mind that they can become congested, a dynamic jitter buffer is often included to smooth out the voice signal. Excessive jitter is caused by packets being sent by alternate routes or getting delayed by other traffic.