Small office (3 -5 people) - a hardware question

Hia all - I did search and apologise if I did not find an answer elsewhere.

We will have a 4Mb up and 4Mb down service in a couple of weeks and along with this will come a voip service from our provider. I am familiar with most voip issues in general and IT too.

For our voip provider's service we can use ordinary phones. That's fine. But if we want to use some of the other voip services out there...

My questions are these:

a) Almost every voip phone seems to be a Skype phone ! they seem to have it sewn up ! Can anyone recommend a voip phone that can be used with other voip services such as iPhox, voipcheap, etc ?

b) Say we get three phones and connect them to the router. How do we pass a call from user to user ? Do we have to still get a PABX system ?

Many thanks guys !

Saoir

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a) Almost every voip phone seems to be a Skype phone ! they seem to have it sewn up ! Can anyone recommend a voip phone that can be used with other voip services such as iPhox, voipcheap, etc ?

I can only think of a small handful of Skype phones!
Meanwhile SIP based systems have entries from among dozens of others:- Aastra, Grandstream, Snom, Sipura, all the system makers, plus numerous badged jobs and that is before you look at softphones. Try entering SIP Phone into Google, or check voip-info.org.

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b) Say we get three phones and connect them to the router. How do we pass a call from user to user ? Do we have to still get a PABX system ?

Dial by IP, dial the phones number, use a voip gateway.
There are four benefits to having a PBX/voip gateway:
i/ It allows you to make best use of a single account i.e. 3 phones = 3 Accounts at voipcheap (or whoever)
ii/ It will minimize any problems with NAT and SIP.
iii/ It allows you to integrate your PSTN line with Voip phones
iv/ It does make extension ringing simpler and avoids loading your Internet connection unecesarily

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I can only think of a small handful of Skype phones!

Well.... I have spent three days searching for VOIP phones and almost every single one of them goes on and on about how it connects automaticvally with skype. I respect your far superior knowledge on this but this is what I have found.

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Quote: b) Say we get three phones and connect them to the router. How do we pass a call from user to user ? Do we have to still get a PABX system ? Dial by IP, dial the phones number, use a voip gateway.

Ah ... so we put the call on hold and dial the IP of one of the other phones ... ?

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There are four benefits to having a PBX/voip gateway: i/ It allows you to make best use of a single account i.e. 3 phones = 3 Accounts at voipcheap (or whoever) ii/ It will minimize any problems with NAT and SIP. iii/ It allows you to integrate your PSTN line with Voip phones iv/ It does make extension ringing simpler and avoids loading your Internet connection unecesarily

So it really seems that it is a far better solution to just get a PABX system ?

I still find it hard to believe we cannot get a VOIP phone that we can use with iPhox or VOIPCheap....

MANY thanks for your time and suggestions.

Saoir

Think the difference is the range of people selling Skype phones not the range of phones available.

My local newsagent has started to sell a 'Skype compatible headset', which is a bog standard USB headset and a Skype softphone on disc. The headset is equally compatible with any SIP softphone.

SIP phones still tend to be a specialist devices only available on a walk in basis from bigger computer or office systems stores.

Before you splash cash on an exchange or a gateway, compare the costs carefully. If you haven't got a spare PC, then it will set you back £3-400 and that is a fair amount for something you only use the benefits of once a day.

rgower :

Think the difference is the range of people selling Skype phones not the range of phones available.

yes, I imagine you are right on that.

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Before you splash cash on an exchange or a gateway, compare the costs carefully. If you haven't got a spare PC, then it will set you back £3-400 and that is a fair amount for something you only use the benefits of once a day.

Someone PM'd me with the suggestion of a Siemens Gigaset 450 IP, which looks promising at a good price. I am struggling to get a full manual right now to see if it will do the job and if it can pass calls and do conferencing.

Thanks again.

Saoir