Two Offices linked by Wireless...Internal VOIP options?

Ok bear with me I'm a rookie but here is the scenario.

We have a main office location and a second location (under construction about 1/2 mile away. We are in the process of setting up a basic Wireless network between the two (802.11G)

There are 3 users at the main location and 3 Phone Lines coming in (all good old analog). I have been asked to setup a phone solution that would put both locations on the same phones.

Ideally I need to keep costs to a minimum. What I would like to do is setup an internal VOIP telephone system that allows users to each have voicemail and an extension and each have access to dial out on the POTS analog lines.

I would prefer at this point not to have to add any outgoing VOIP service as reasonably priced local, reliable solutions have been hard to come by. I just want to make the internal office setup VOIP.

I found these products from Linksys
Linksys SPA9000 IP PBX
Linksys SPA400
Linksys SPA400 Internet Telephony Gateway with 4 FXO Ports
Linksys SPA400 4
Linksys SPA941 VOIP 2-4 Line Phone
Linksys SPA 941

which I think together will work to accomplish what I need but was wondering if there were any better solutions that all the experts here might be able to recommend. Like I said, I'm a rookie at this...my only experience with VOIP is using Vonage

Thanks in advance for any advice.

PC

<edit by Dean>Fixed side-scroll</edit>

One other consideration I forgot which may make this a little tougher to do economically is that they would like to be able to have Cordless handsets if possible so that if needed they can be on the phone but walk away from their desks or answer remotely if they get a call.

These seem a lot more rare/expensive and I am not sure how well they would interface with the Linksys hardware I listed above.

PC

Quick question and an observation before someone comes back with some ideas/suggestions...

Observation ... I don't think your 802.11g is going to manage anything like half a mile (unless you use use expensive, external, directional, antennas with some significant gain) even then it may struggle to give you enough bandwidth to handle VoIP at reasonable quality.

Question ... Can we not consider connecting the second location to a fresh ADSL feed ? Presumably at some point you will have PC's and people there too ?

gray :

Quick question and an observation before I come back with some suggestions... Observation ... I don't think your 802.11g is going to manage anything like half a mile (unless you use use external directional antennas with some significant gain) and give you enough bandwidth to handle VoIP. Question ... Can we not consider connecting the second location to a fresh ADSL feed ? Presumably at some point you will have PC's and people there too ?

I don't know that we have ADSL here (this is in the country in WI, USA). We just got regular DSL last year (I'm not technical enough to know the difference between that and ADSL)

We will be using directional antennas with good gain to ensure a very reliable connection with good bandwidth that should more than meet our telephony needs and our network needs.

The big consideration with going with a set wired broadband connection between the two locations vs wireless is cost. I can do most of the wireless install myself and after its in there is virtually no overhead. On the otherhand if we put in a hardwired connection that requires a contract with the local telco and that is going to be anything but reasonable. At that point we are talking probably $1000+ per year just to have that in place. Thats certainly not unmanageable but the owners of the business would prefer not to have any additional overhead that they don't have to.

Right now I do all their technical work (I am their son in law) and I do it at pretty reasonable prices (they would have to pay 4-5 times more per hour to get in anyone else).

When it comes to PC maintenance, network setup, Voip, etc...I am kind of a jack of all trades, master of none so if I am overlooking anything I am certainly open to ANY suggestion.

And just based on your suggestion I will certainly look at the cost of going through the local telco for connectivity between the two locations as well, but at first blush I don't think its going to be something they want to if they can avoid it.

Hope that helps clarify where I am coming from with the original questions.

Thanks,

Patrick

Hi.

You will need to use Yagi or similar directional arials. Do you have clear line of site between the two sites ?

It may also be worth looking at laser links as well between sites.

Ian

ADSL is just DSL where most of the available bandwidth is reserved for incoming data. I suspect the DSL you mention may well be ADSL.

The wireless connection should be able handle the phone calls but dont expect to use the connection for shifting other data especially with 800 metres between buildings. You will need to maintain a clear line-of-sight. It will be less reliable than a hardwired (A)DSL link but will be less expensive in the long run I suppose. I think I would get information about the DSL that you have locally. You would need two lines at about $30 per month for light usage. You might be able to reduce the number of phone lines that you have and save some money that way.

This sounds like a situation where an Asterisk box might work well. You should be able to get plenty of advice on this site.

dibsmft :

ADSL is just DSL where most of the available bandwidth is reserved for incoming data. I suspect the DSL you mention may well be ADSL. The wireless connection should be able handle the phone calls but dont expect to use the connection for shifting other data especially with 800 metres between buildings. You will need to maintain a clear line-of-sight. It will be less reliable than a hardwired (A)DSL link but will be less expensive in the long run I suppose. I think I would get information about the DSL that you have locally. You would need two lines at about $30 per month for light usage. You might be able to reduce the number of phone lines that you have and save some money that way. This sounds like a situation where an Asterisk box might work well. You should be able to get plenty of advice on this site.

We definately will have clear line of sight both in winter and summer. That was a primary concern I had when I first considered Wireless. We are planning to use directional antenna (probably Yagi) with a 15-20 decible gain. I've done one of these before but it was back in the days of 802.11b and we didn't have wireless bridges then just WAP so we lost half our bandwidth right off the top. Out of the remaining possible 5&1/2 mbps we were able to get a connection of around 2-3 mbps.

I've never done this with 802.11g but I just figured with good high gain directional antennas and with wireless bridges we would be achieving at least 20-25 mbps (and I never can remember is that Megabits or Megabytes?)

I was pretty much assuming it would be worlds faster that an ADSL connection (thanks for the clarification) because our ADSL connection now is 1.5 down and 512 up. Meaning that the sustainable bandwidth between the two locations using ADSL would be something less than 512kbps. To me there was no question that the wireless would be faster unless we wanted to pay to have a full T1 put in and that is not in any way shape or form feasable. If we do that the yearly cost is very substantial.

We are only going to have 2 people at the 2nd location that would mean 2 Voip lines and two PCs. I wasn't expecting that to max out the connection. I was figuring the 2 voip lines at most would take up 1/4 of the avaiable bandwidth if both in use and probably significantly less than that. From a network use perspective for data the requirements shouldn't be overly high...the majority of their use would be relatively small office files. I am sure they will have occasional larger ones but nothing way out of the ordinary.

Internet usage is basic for the business. No live streaming or anything like that. Not sure if any of that information helps.

As far as other solutions go, what is asterisk? I am assuming its a PBX box (PC setup as a server?) that controls the VOIP setup?

Thanks again for all the help and suggestions guys. If there is anyone here who has setup or has knowledge about 802.11g site to site wireless connections I would love to hear about that too. What kind of sustainable bandwidth, how reliable in bad weather etc...etc...

Thanks,

Patrick

Hi,

I run an Asterisk (actually trixbox) server at one office, which is linked via wifi to our other office. In the other office are a host of ATA connected to DECT phones etc.

The wifi link uses Smartbridge units, and works very well. Have a look at their website for further info. They are reliable and easy to install and utilise Power over Ethernet (PoE) to avoid the need to trail mains power all over the place. I use one on a 1/4mile link, but know of others who exceed 1/2 mile with them.

For an overview on asterisk,try www.nerdvittles.com, www.trixbox.org or http://aussievoip.com.au/wiki/TB-Index.

Hope this is of some use,


Cheers


Matthew

Good day to all, Im new to this forum,and Im new to VoIP, but I have some experience with wireless,
I just want to add that the main dis-advantage of using 802.11b or g is that you will encounter some interference since its running on 2.4 GHz, a free band, interferrence can badly affects your link,
Try to use a 5.8 GHz radio or ideally use a licensed band,[/quote]

samsambootan :

Good day to all, Im new to this forum,and Im new to VoIP, but I have some experience with wireless, I just want to add that the main dis-advantage of using 802.11b or g is that you will encounter some interference since its running on 2.4 GHz, a free band, interferrence can badly affects your link, Try to use a 5.8 GHz radio or ideally use a licensed band,

Thanks for the tip sam, We are going to be moving forward with this shortly so I am doing all my research now. This thread has been helpful in pointing me in the right directions.

PCastleberg

Hi

Just completed a project where we have 16 handsets at the far end of a 1KM 5GHz wifi link, It works fine no latency or Jitter to speak of.

Ian