voip office phones setup

Hello everybody!

I want to substitute the normal phones of the company I work for with voip phones, which can make calls out on normal PSTN lines and mobile phones.

I just want to have 15 phones installed which can make phone calls out independently and/or simultaneously on normal lines.

my question is:

What is the list of the requirements? What do I need to set it up?
So far I think I need a pc, voip phones, internet connection ... what is the rest?
1. ADSL or internet connection (what speed should it be to have a normal operating line with all 10-15 phones busy phoning out?)
2. what kind of software do I need to keep track of all the phone calls?

How do I connect the phones to the pc?

Is there another device I need part from the phones and the pc?

If I have to open an account for the voip credits, where would
this be, who offers such a service?
Where can I find voip phones?


Thank You!

Hi and welcome to Voipuser.

I fear your question is open to a lot of different answers, all of them right, but most of them not suitable for your application. It could even work out that VoIP is not an ideal solution for you! *Shock/Horror*

As this is for a company system, it pays to do some serious background homework first. So before you start thinking VoIP, check our thread Justifying VOIP for the SME at the top of the forum for things to check and study what you have and how it is used, then consider what if anything you want to add. You (and us) will be in a far better position to say what you really want and you are less likely to buy a pup.

In general all you need to start is a softphone and an internet connection. When you get start getting ambitious then you will need a suitable ethernet network to plug the phones in to and possibly some form of PBX may be needed, but if you have a lot of potential remote users or serious lack of time/expertise and/or all outbound calls then a virtual or centrix PBX may suit your needs better.

A typical 8M/430K ADSL connection can normally be expected to handle at least a dozen calls. But this depends on whether you are using a compressed or uncompressed coding for voice, whether the ISP deploys a suitable Quality of Service (QOS), if you are sending or receiving other traffic, exchange contention etc. In other words you'll have to suck it and see.

For an account to test VoIP with, you could do a lot worse than our own service. Popular service providers would be Sipgate and Vonage, but there are plenty of others that appear in the Google adds beside the thread.

rgower :

I fear your question is open to a lot of different answers, all of them right, but most of them not suitable for your application. It could even work out that VoIP is not an ideal solution for you! *Shock/Horror*

I chose to make a move towards voip instead of the normal phone lines because it is cost effective and reliable enough as long as you have net connection.
If my question is open to different answers or ways then I would be happy to know at least one of the ways of realizing this idea I have.

Can you tell me why do you think voip is not my ideal solution?

Hi

First things first.

What PBX is in place at the moment ?
How old is it ?
Is it a capex or a lease?

And finally DOES it REALLY need changing .

And now to Voip.

Is the network upto date and in good order?
Have you the skills in house to install and support it?
Or are you looking to get it installed for you?

Im sorry to say but your original post shows you need to do a lot of research so as not to fall into the trap of being missold a pig in a poke. Have a google for IPPBX and have a look at www.voip-info.org which has a lot of info on Asterisk which is an open source IPPBX.

Ian

It is true Ian I do not have much knowledge about voip all I know is some backgroung theory and thats the reason why I am writting in this forum to make my life a bit easier.

The network is fine and I'm a UNIX sys/admin so I will be looking after the network and installing everything I need.

I just don't know what goes into the sytem to make it work.
For instance I would be able to tell you all kind of hardware and software to realize a computer network but I ve never been intereted in voip.
As anything that has to do with networking because it relies on the same priciple IP etc I would be able to sas it out I suppose.

Whatever the project, doing homework to find out exactly what you need is a good idea, if only because it allows you to nail down the salesman.

To start off, there is nothing wrong digging up an old PC and trying Asterisk as a PBX. Either a vanilla version from Astersk.org, or perhaps TrixBox and testing the whole concept, either with softphones, or with a couple of SIP phones. You will then start finding why we recommend doing some homework before leaping in the deep end with lead boots and you will get a better impression of what you need.

You say your network is sound and a modern Cat5e network should be for data. Unfotunately VoIP does not compete well with data traffic. If your network is loaded by network applications (CAD is bad for choking networks), then you will either need to isolate VoIP on a seperate network, or deploy QOS. It may even be the case that it is more convenient and cost effective to deploy the old telephone network from an FXS gateway than use VoIP handsets particularly in dirty environments.

For the ADSL telephony it does heavily depend on what your call patterns are like and the quality of the ADSL connection:
If the users have any access to the Internet you will almost certainly need to look at a dedicated ADSL line just for telephony.

A small VoIP PBX for 15 extensions can cost anything from about £3K if you do it yourself with a SIP gateway or Asterisk, to £15K if you go to Cisco or Swyx for an ACD turret. A traditional PBX will cost about £7K. All have strong points and weak points e.g. A gateway will be more reliable, but Asterisk is easier to expand.

Call costs are not one of the stronger selling points for businesses. Landline rates are at least comparable and non-geographic numbers (087, 084 in the UK), may well be more expensive.

If you are a call centre, where many lines are in use at once, then I would not care to rely on an ADSL connection for all telephony. ADSL may be 99% reliable, but it still means it can be unavailable for 36 seconds an hour, 2 calls per agent lost and if they are not annoying people then you are not making money and that assumes there is no quality problems because of the contended nature of ADSL. So you will need some form of fail over PSTN connection.

If it is an administration office for a single location, then you probably only need 3 lines anyhow and the cost justification goes out the window.

If you are an admin block for a chain of shops (say) then I would be inclined to look at a remote managed PBX and tie everybody to that.

cheers mate, that's the answer I was looking for.