Totally clueless

Hello all. My boss came in to my office and told me to "research the advantages of moving from our current phone system to VoIP." I know nothing about it so was wondering where to start my investigation. Is it best to have the server for this in house, or use a service?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Welcome to voipuser forums.

Please give more information.... How many users? What kind of network will be used. Can a dedicated network be provided for voip? What kind of equipment is already present in your work place?

There will be no more than 30 users. Currently we have a multi subnet network with 3 servers, two being domain controllers. I have be authorized to purchase a server if need be. We have 4.5 gbs T1, a sonicwall nsa2400 firewall/nat/gateway, that I know is VoIP compatable.

Hi

I think you need to double check what you have.
T1 lines are either 1.5Meg or 2Meg. Are you realy sure you have 4.5Gig ?
You also dont say what your lines are at the moment.

There are many Voip solutions avalible of the shelf from suppliers such as Mitel Avaya Digium etc

Quote:

I know nothing about it so was wondering where to start my investigation.

To be honest your boss should have asked someone inhouse or external who does understand it. as with 30 users he has the ability to waste a lot of money here, so needs to be careful and get good advice.

Ian

I should have clarified. We have three 1.5's for a total of 4.5 mbps. As our staff has changed lately, I am for whatever reason the one that has been tasked with this project. I can not say that I am thrilled with it, but as always want to do he best job I can.

Hi,
The thread at the top of this very section- Justifying VOIP for the SME- is aimed very squarely at just your sort of project.

While you may not know much about VoIP, or want to and salesmen are out to flog you lots of fancy phrases, the baseline is you are looking at means of talking to somebody who is not in the room with you.

Work out what you actually have, what you really need and use that as a baseline. Don't be tempted by espensive thrills you will never use, i.e. If you have no use for video conferencing (at present)- Don't buy it

Sorry -I might have considered first asking whether or not you are located in Ireland. If you are we can help. If you aren't then possibly not.

Get something with support until you know what you are doing.

Take a look at trixbox or thirdlane.
Polycom or Aastra Phones

If you go VoIP add a few services for making calls and keep a few real land lines for backup purposes.

-sx