VOIP for Business

[shootingchef]

I am moving my office to my home and want to switch from 4 land lines to a internet based system. Verizon has recently installed FIOS to my house. I am not very computer literate so keep it simple if you would.

I want to have 3 lines and a dedicated fax line. all the standard features with roll over being really important. I have serached the net and found too much information(major overload)! I have a decent analog PBX, can I use it?

What is the most simpleist system to use?

[Chris]

You may want to give Verision a call and see what they have to offer. Most of the telecom vendors have a package where you get internet/voice/tv over the same connection. Also you can go with a vendor like Vonage for VOIP service over your existing internet service, but I think Vonage only supports 2 lines. There may be other vendors out there, but your going to need a switch that can handle 4 lines/numbers, and those usually aren't free or cheap for business use.

[CenTX]

You may want to give Verision a call and see what they have to offer. Most of the telecom vendors have a package where you get internet/voice/tv over the same connection. Also you can go with a vendor like Vonage for VOIP service over your existing internet service, but I think Vonage only supports 2 lines. There may be other vendors out there, but your going to need a switch that can handle 4 lines/numbers, and those usually aren't free or cheap for business use.

The vonage adapter only has connections for two lines, you may be able to have two vonage adapters. however in addition to the hard wired lines you can also have SoftPhones. Which ring to a software application on your laptop. All the Vonage lines, real or soft, can be set up in anumber of ways. You can have them forward to another number, ring for x number of seconds and then forward to another number, ring multiple numbers simultaneously, go straight to voicemail, go to voicemail if not answered, etc. You can also have a local phone numbers in other cities or countries that ring to you vonage number, I had one in Barcelona, Spain that rang to my local phone in Wimberley, TX. I have had Vonage since may of 2006 and love it.

[EricW]

I'd fly before you buy. My buddy dumped his land line for VOIP, and every time someone's on the internet, his phone croaks. OK for personal use I guess, but not a way to run a business.

[RePete]

A friend of mine has Vonage, and it sucks big time.

When I talk to him, it sounds like the old CHEAP cordless phones. Talking though a hollow tube.

I say don't.

[HSMITH]

I have VOIP at the office and it is kick ass, but that is all I know about it. At a glance it seems there are consumer level systems that suck and business level systems that work well. I can unplug the phone from my desk, bring it home and plug it into the cable internet and it rocks here too. Other than an internet outage the phone works great. I have 4 lines on my desk phone, conferencing, text, computer applications to see everyone else on the system at a glance, recording, forwarding, reverse forwarding, you name it and I think it has it.

[HSMITH]

I also have VOIP through the cable company at home. No problems at all, works fine. 911 dial a prayer and all for less than I was spending (by a lot) with the phone company.

[JThompson]

I'd fly before you buy. My buddy dumped his land line for VOIP, and every time someone's on the internet, his phone croaks. OK for personal use I guess, but not a way to run a business.

+100 Don't do it.

[cking]

There are so many factors that can screwup VOIP. So make sure you get a very definitive SLA [service level agreement]. If they are willing to state a level of voice quality, and a month refund for outages over 2 hours, along with 30 day money back. It will probably be OK.

I run a state wide network in florida

[Middle Man]

I have VOIP at the office and it is kick ass, but that is all I know about it. At a glance it seems there are consumer level systems that suck and business level systems that work well. I can unplug the phone from my desk, bring it home and plug it into the cable internet and it rocks here too. Other than an internet outage the phone works great. I have 4 lines on my desk phone, conferencing, text, computer applications to see everyone else on the system at a glance, recording, forwarding, reverse forwarding, you name it and I think it has it.

Yep, we have VOIP here at the office and it is uber-reliable (with our IT staff and their contracts with various hardware, software, and service providers). About half of my department telecommutes from remote offices via DSL connections and it works well about 95% of the time. Cisco is stamped all over our VOIP hardware...

[OpnBlstr]

Check out EvolutionPBX by Intuitive Voice. It's based on Asterisk with an easy-to-use front end. You basically get an old PC, pop in the CD, install it, and forward a few ports on your router. It supports VoIP as well as T1/PRI, and FXO lines with hardware from Sangoma or Digium.

If you're hosting your own VoIP server at home and have dynamic IP, be sure whoever you get your lines through uses password authentication instead of IP auth for the lines.

They have a free version that's perfect for home/small office use.

I use it with Polycom IP phones but you can use analog adapters like the Linksys PAP-2 to attach standard FXS devices.

I also use it with X-Lite softphone when on the road.

As someone else stated, VoIP really requires good QoS. I know many of the newer upper level consumer grade routers work great with VoIP - you just tell it to prioritize certain ports or traffic to/from your PBX local IP.

[CenTX]

I'd fly before you buy. My buddy dumped his land line for VOIP, and every time someone's on the internet, his phone croaks. OK for personal use I guess, but not a way to run a business.

Good point. You definitely want to test before you dump your land lines. Lots of businesses use VOIP. My sister did the implementation for the school district where she works, multiple campuses and hundreds of phones. You have to have enough bandwidth, it's not going to work well with a slow connection.

[WestWorld]

Bandwidth is a major issue with VoIP. Codec choice is another. G.729 will work for 3 or 4 lines off a DSL or Cable broadband but voice quality will suffer. G.711 will sound like your landlines but Vonage will not support that. Your local Cable provider will not give you a SLA. If your SOHO router supports QOS that will help, but most people cannot set this up themselves and will need technical help. There is no free (cheap) lunch in the phone business (yet). They all have drawbacks.

Good luck

[jrguar]

If verizon can deliver the service you are requesting thru the FIOS (and they should be able to) then you can use should be able to use your "Analog PBX" . Basically once the signal is received from FIOS the equipment they supplied converts it back to analog for your existing phones for for all intents and purposes you will have analog service.

The only real wildcard is if the equipment verizon installed wil supply enough ring voltage for the number of lines you request.

I am moving my office to my home and want to switch from 4 land lines to a internet based system. Verizon has recently installed FIOS to my house. I am not very computer literate so keep it simple if you would.

I want to have 3 lines and a dedicated fax line. all the standard features with roll over being really important. I have serached the net and found too much information(major overload)! I have a decent analog PBX, can I use it?

What is the most simpleist system to use?

[p99shooter]

If you really want to use VoIP, your best solution will be to use your existing analog PBX in combination with a VoIP media gateway. You'll need to find a SIP carrier service, preferrably one that doesn't want to place managed equipment at your location. It looks like Verizon offers a SIP carrier service, which would be the best choice, since they are your ISP.

Using your PBX with a media gateway will simplify your networking requirements, since you'll only need on IP address for the gateway. The FIOS services sounds like it is pretty fast, and you'll only need about 512 kbps of bandwidth to support 4 calls at the same time. Quality of service is important for VoIP, but with the amount of bandwidth the FIOS provides, you may not even need to impliment QoS on your network gear for good quality voice.

The benefit that you get out of all of this is reduced costs for long-distance calls.

Edited May 5, 2008 by p99shooter

[shootingchef]

Verizon is trying real hard to get our business. but they are 2 times more expensive then what I can see online. I am looking at the Packet8 and Cisco phones. Thanks for the hel.

[p99shooter]

The Packet8 service sounds good. As far as the phones, just make sure they support NAT and single-port media streams. (I'm sure the Cisco gear will, but some of the cheaper Polycom phones don't). If you have 4 lines, each line will require a UDP port for SIP and a UDP port for media (RTP). This will have to be set up in your FIOS router and on the phones too. I'm sure Packet8 will have some installation guides to look at.

[davidwiz]

If you do go the VOIP route, make sure that they disclose *all* of the upfront fees. When we moved offices, we considered VOIP. The salesman quoted us a great price and when he sent over the contract, we noticed that there was $1,800 in upfront fees that he conveniently forgot to mention, despite us asking him numerous times if the price he was quoting included everything. Needless to say, we don't have VOIP. There are other attorneys in my building who have it and like it.

[benos]

My office is right under some big-ass power lines (please don't tell me to move ), and I've never been able to get the hissing/static off my phone line. Especially in the summer when everyone's running their AC. In the summer it can get so bad I can't even use the phone.

So some time ago, I thought I'd try VoIP... Thinking that maybe putting the phone call through my router would eliminate the static on the hard line. It worked like a dream - I've been static free for almost 2 years now.

I started with SunRocket. And they went under I switched to Vonage because I didn't want to gamble on another "starter" company. Their service/support has been excellent. And their hardware must be better too, because the sound is a lot better on both ends.

be

[shootingchef]

we are going with Verizon as they were the ONLY company contacted who dislpayed a ounce of customer service. Vonage, while on the call, had a terrible connection and they were bragging about the sound quality of their service!? Had to take a pass. thanks for the advice, we'll know by friday if this is a good idea or not.

[benos]

we are going with Verizon as they were the ONLY company contacted who dislpayed a ounce of customer service. Vonage, while on the call, had a terrible connection and they were bragging about the sound quality of their service!? Had to take a pass. thanks for the advice, we'll know by friday if this is a good idea or not.

I wonder if their service/support crew talks on their own system.

be

[-JQ-]

There are other attorneys in my building who have it and like it.

I wonder if this is a good idea for attorneys. (I'm not one). It is my understanding that data has completely different rules regarding warrants and phone tapping as these conversation can be considered data not phone conversations.

I'm not an attorney and don't pretend to be (usually) but it is something to consider. Of course who really know these days??

Just food for thought...

[p99shooter]

There are other attorneys in my building who have it and like it.

I wonder if this is a good idea for attorneys. (I'm not one). It is my understanding that data has completely different rules regarding warrants and phone tapping as these conversation can be considered data not phone conversations.

I'm not an attorney and don't pretend to be (usually) but it is something to consider. Of course who really know these days??

Just food for thought...

My understanding is that there are different laws are applied if the data is intercepted "on the wire," like phone tapping, versus getting data while it is being stored. Federal wiretapping laws also apply to data in transit on networks. This is good, because it makes unauthorized snooping of one's data traffic a crime. The strange thing is, if you waited for the trasmitting of data to finish, and then took the file off of a hard drive, different laws apply.

This all came up after 9/11, when the government wanted wiretapping to apply to VoIP traffic. It all falls under a law called CALEA.

[davidwiz]

There are other attorneys in my building who have it and like it.

I wonder if this is a good idea for attorneys. (I'm not one). It is my understanding that data has completely different rules regarding warrants and phone tapping as these conversation can be considered data not phone conversations.

I'm not an attorney and don't pretend to be (usually) but it is something to consider. Of course who really know these days??

Just food for thought...

Any communication w/ an attorney is protected by federal and state law under the attorney/client privilege. Any work that an attorney performs is protected under federal and state law under the attorney work product privilege. Meaning, it can't be disclosed at all to anyone w/o the consent of the client. The only exception to is if the communication or work is being done in furtherance of a crime. The Wikipedia entry has more details.