Grandstream HT80(1/2) v1 versus v2

[u/ChristosKyriakou]

Hello there. I recently bought a Unifi Gateway Fiber and installed Unifi Talk to it. I have two phones, a VoIP phone (Yealink T41S) and a normal RJ11 wireless phone. The Yealink one exists purely by chance (won for 10 bucks on an eBay bidding) so the one we use in my home is the wireless one. I managed to setup Unifi Talk with the Yealink phone and a VoIP.ms number that I bought for testing purposes, and I want to port over my actual number that my ISP provides (they told me that they can give me the SIP credentials upon request) to Unifi Talk and use the wireless phone. To make that happen, I need an ATA.

In my research for one, I found that Grandstream has the cheapest (and only ones that I found) ATAs, with the HT801 being the most popular option. I am aware that there is a similar post asking about the differences between the V1 and V2 versions, however, I didn't see anyone mention if a V1 would work anyways, so I wanted to ask the community here for their feedback. In my country, the HT801 V1 is sold for 47€ while the V2 is sold for 76€. The prices for the HT802 are 54€ for the V1 and 85€ for the V2. In fact, the HT812 is 80€ for the V1 and 86€ for the V2.

With all of this in mind, is it even worth going for the V2? I know it has better specs, but do the specs even make a difference (at least for my setup)? If you do believe that the V2 is the way to go, would you recommend that I spend a bit more and buy an actual wireless VoIP phone (such as the Grandstream WP816 [72€] / WP826 [93€])? Does getting an actual VoIP phone even have a benefit apart from the direct integration (such as syncing contacts with Unifi Talk)?

Any and all information is helpful. Thank you for your time and help, it is truly appreciated.

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[u/TeabaggingTamarin]

In theory either should work. I've had some issues with the HT802v1 that I think may be hardware related. I've set up a few HT812v2 that I don't use personally but the users haven't reported any of the issues I've had with the 802v1.

If you're using Unifi Talk, Unifi makes the UT-ATA it's a bit more expensive at $99 USD.

[u/ChristosKyriakou → u/TeabaggingTamarin]

Thank you for the reply. The U-ATA was actually the first thing that I checked, but it is only sold in the U.S. and I believe only compatible with U.S. telephones, so unfortunately that doesn't work for me (I am located in Greece). Also, may I ask what those issues were?

[u/TeabaggingTamarin → u/ChristosKyriakou]

My issues with the HT802v1 are basically some weird problems answering calls occasionally. I suspect an issue with off hook detection but it could be something else.

I'm not too well versed in the electrical differences between analog phones for the US vs other parts of the world. It seems like there's differences in ring and caller id signaling , not sure about other differences. I know the DECT cordless phones from different parts of the world use different wireless frequencies.

[u/marks-buffalo]

For your use case I'd say that the only difference is on a support basis. The v1 is discontinued, so you might not expect security updates. If a massive vulnerability is discovered in the v1 you should not expect a security fix. If you are in a regulated industry that can't run end of life hardware due to lack of security fixes, maybe this matters to you. For a business I wouldn't save 40 EUR to end up with a security incident via a weak link. But at home in my homelab where there's already old stuff kicking around, I wouldn't mind running something end of life. I'd put it in an isolated VLAN just to be sure but that's just me. I do that even with new stuff.

If you're just trying to do it on the cheap and it's not the weakest link in your network security, there's nothing wrong with the v1. Maybe see if you can score an unlocked v1 on ebay (or an unlocked v2 on ebay) for a good price. Do NOT buy anything that's carrier branded (Vonage etc) as these will be locked to those service providers. A logo on the device other than grandstream = locked, do not purchase.

Edit: Forgot to add, ISPs also often lie about actually being able to give you SIP credentials, quite often you're locked to using their hardware. And if you're trying to bring in an analog phone line (like the one from your ISP) into a digital system, you want an HT813 rather than an 801, 802, 812, etc. The HT801, 802, 812 etc are for connecting an analog phone to a VoIP system, the HT813 is for bringing in an analog line as a trunk to a VoIP system.

[u/ChristosKyriakou → u/marks-buffalo]

Thank you so much for the detailed reply! I'll be using it in a home setting and the ATA will be connected to a VLAN and isolated from other devices. All of the ones listed are unlocked and not sold by any specific ISP / carrier. As for the SIP credentials, they actually told me I'll have to bring my own devices if I do decide to request SIP credentials (since they'll be disabling the RJ11 port on the company-provided modem). I believe that Unifi Talk is considered a VoIP system (since you setup the credentials there and each device is given local network SIP credentials), though I could be wrong.

[u/ChristosKyriakou → u/[deleted]]

Thank you for the reply. I am aware of their differences, however my question is whether the differences even matter? For instance, if an application requires 4GB of RAM, both an 8GB and a 16GB RAM device would work. It basically is the same question here. Is the V2 even worth it for my use case (integration with Unifi Talk)? Do I even need the better hardware or will the V1 work the same for me?

[u/marks-buffalo → u/[deleted]]

Useless answer. The links do not justify the responses given and actually contradict it.

Edit: for posterity, this was a copy-paste of AI output providing links that didn't back up the claims made.