VOIP - Thinking about getting it, need some help though

Hi there,
im thinking about going with VOIP system for my house because at the moment i have a ISDNe2 telephone system which is on its last legs.

its very clear that the VOIP costs much less than ISDN, but im trying to find a provider which will allow me to keep my existing number (BT), and is very reliable.

My second problem is this:

Ok in some areas of my house, I dont have any way of getting a fixed ethernet cable to the rooms, so these areas are covered by wifi, but in some areas the wifi signal cannot pass through the walls and there is no ethernet cable either. In these areas i've only got your standard telephone cables, but im pretty sure that a coreless telephone signal could reach these areas.
My question is, is there a system out there for VOIP which has wifi handset, ethernet handsets, and coreless handsets or handset which can run off standard telephone cables?

What i need from VOIP:
To keep my existing telephone number
Not to lay any new cables
Keep cost to a minimum
A relieable service provider
Cheap international costs
Deciated hardware for VOIP which can plug into my existing cable router.
I need the ability, to make internal calls.
At any one point only a maximum of 2 lines will be used.

Ideally i need a system which can use standard telephone line as a backup option only.

If possible i'd rather buy a ready built system, as im no good with software configuration.


If anyone can help with the hardware needed for this i would really be very grateful.

Welcome to Voipuser.

I assume that you are talking about a private house. If so, unless it is very large you should be able to arrange things so that a good cordless set should works for the whole house (I have a three handset Sanyo cordless that easily reaches out into my garden - better than the wifi). You will need an ATA box to look after the voip lines and PSTN if you keep the BT line. You can get ATA boxes with two voip lines. You can also use ethernet phones if you like. If you have a large number of calls then perhaps another solution would be better. As for keeping the BT number, that may be more difficult in the UK. I have kept my PSTN line for emergencies and local calls (free in Canada).

How mant calls do you expect to handle in a day? Is the system to be used for business?

Hi there thanks for the reply.

Due to the size of the house, one set of coreless phones will not work, hense the need for a system of phones - about 20 phones all in all.

The line isnt used for business nor, in high demand. At the moment im paying almost £300 for ISDN system which, the only reason im keeping it so far is for the internal calls.

Take a look at a Voip gateway product like this one ...

http://www.xorcom.com/products/astribank

It will enable you to run both IP Phones where CAT5 is available and standard phone extensions where it is not. It runs Asterisk . If you want to stick with your ISN lines then you will need the digital BRI version. You could also migrate the lines back to Analogue and use a a cheaper gateway. Your preference based on the number of inbound lines you need.

A quick google search for 'voip gateway' will throw up a lot of further ideas & reading material.

OK i've been doing some research and this is what i've come up with :

I've just looked into 3CX and it seems to do everything i need. At the moment im just trying to put all the pieces of the puzzel together and could use with some help.

I'll be running 3CX from a shuttle PC - which will always be on, and only used for that.
The phones i'll be using are the linksys SPA921 models - 4 will be connected via ethernet, 6 via wireless pack (linksys WBP54g).

Im trying to also have a backup PSTN system should my broadband connection fail. And for that im thinking about using the linksys SPA3102.

As far as i know of the handsets and the analoge adaptor should work fine with 3CX (as its said on the webpage) - i'd be greatful if someone could confirm this to me.

But the problem now is finding a VOIP provider that can meet my needs and work with 3CX!

I live in the UK - and most of my calls will be made to the UK (landline and mobile), Dubai (landline and mobile), Iraq (landline). I need to keep my existing UK landline number from BT. At the moment the only provider i can find is Vonage, but i dont know it it will work with everything above, and the call cost is expensive on them.
Does anyone know of any other provider which can work, and provide me with call lower costs?

Also if this setup is successful, i need to roll out another UK VOIP system and a VOIP in Dubai - what would be the best way to go about this - i.e. free calls between each other?


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Edit:

My existing network setup is :
Cable modem > wireless router > Hub > Wireless AP & ethernet points

Planned setup after:
Cable modem > wireless router > Hub & SPA3102 > Wireless AP & ethernet points & telephones

Will this work ok?


thanks for the help.

If you have a spare PC and want to give it a try then 3CX will be a great intro and a good experiment. Test it out with your Voipuser account.

For longer term use you should do some calculations on 'cost of ownership' running a shuttle day and night is going to set you back more than the cost of buying & running a gateway with asterisk on a ramdisk.

You could also take a look at using a high end router from the likes of Linksys. Many of them can be persuaded to run Asterisk, again saving you the overhead of a PC.

Double check with your preferred ISP in Dubai that they permit Voip - some block voice traffic.