First time looking to put together a VoIP system -- product suggestions?

Cerulean

Cerulean

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Jul 27, 2006
Messages
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Greetings,

There is a small business that I wish to migrate away from their super old analogue phone system. They presently have 3 phone lines but will be attaining at least 2 more. We use MyFax to receive faxes, but we do still have a dedicated fax line that I intend on getting rid of and sending faxes through MyFax instead.

Currently we are using a TRENDnet 24-port Unmanaged Gigabit GREENnet Desktop Switch (TEG-S24Dg) (I honestly don't know why/how I managed to not get the rackmount version, maybe it didn't exist at the time) as a core switch, and some 130 USD Buffalo DD-WRT router as a core router & WiFi. I am willing to personally spend the money on a 500 USD POE Cisco switch as necessary to get this done, including half the cost of the VoIP system itself. (Because it's a fun thing I'm doing on the side and learning opportunities! :) )

Right now we have 5 analogue phones deployed, but I think in the future it may increase to about 7 phones. No special features are needed. Support for hold, transferring, a menu that callers are presented with, phone extensions, and voicemail is all that is needed. Anything else is a plus.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Any resources I should look into? This is kind of new stuff for me, but I have worked with some old D-Link VoIP system before (there were like two boxes that looked like network switches and software installed on a tower server). We have an HP ProLiant DL380 G4 server running Microsoft Windows 2008 R2 x64 as domain controller, file server, private/personal user home drive, anti-virus server, connected to an APC UPS via serial port and has software installed, ...
 
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5 phones, get a hosted VOIP solutions, at that size price and support is a zero win situation.
 
Cerulean said:
that exists? :eek: I want to know more!
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yep, I do hosted PBXs for several small companies... basically I ship programmed phones and I run a lot of Asterisk boxes in VMWare
 
FLECOM said:
yep, I do hosted PBXs for several small companies... basically I ship programmed phones and I run a lot of Asterisk boxes in VMWare
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Do you have a link to your company website? Could you tell me more about how this service works? How do the phones work without a phone server box?

Do you recommend your service or do you have recommendations to other companies?

Costs? :D
 
Cerulean said:
Do you have a link to your company website? Could you tell me more about how this service works? How do the phones work without a phone server box?

Do you recommend your service or do you have recommendations to other companies?

Costs? :D
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the phone server is in the CLOOOUD he just told you that, lol

there are tons of companies doing this cerulean... just do a google for "hosted voip"
 
goodcooper said:
the phone server is in the CLOOOUD he just told you that, lol

there are tons of companies doing this cerulean... just do a google for "hosted voip"
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I'm more interested in technical information, not whitepapers and marketing crap (in general, this is the part I absolutely loathe and hate about every company out there). I want to know how it works. Is the phone configured to connect to an external web-address? Or does a VPN have to be setup between phone server (externally hosted) and the core router of the facility?
 
Cerulean said:
I'm more interested in technical information, not whitepapers and marketing crap (in general, this is the part I absolutely loathe and hate about every company out there). I want to know how it works. Is the phone configured to connect to an external web-address? Or does a VPN have to be setup between phone server (externally hosted) and the core router of the facility?
Click to expand...

you can probably do it either way.... i imagine most are done the former rather than the latter...

look into http://www.2600hz.com/, they'll give you a little better idea about the nuts and bolts of hosted voip...

there are many different ways of doing it using any number of different software packages...
 
Cerulean said:
Do you have a link to your company website? Could you tell me more about how this service works? How do the phones work without a phone server box?

Do you recommend your service or do you have recommendations to other companies?

Costs? :D
Click to expand...

it really depends, I generally charge the client for the phone (with like 10% markup) and then $10~15/month per phone depending on # of phones and expected call volume and how many trunks I expect they will use...

some clients with large call volumes (call centers, political orgs) we make a PBX and ship it with the phones then manage it remotely

if you want PM me but I am not going to advertise my company here :)

for small companies "cloud" or hosted PBXs are really your best bet... once you start exceeding say 20~50 phones (depending on call volume) then you really should look at an internal server

would be happy to answer questions though...
 
FLECOM said:
it really depends, I generally charge the client for the phone (with like 10% markup) and then $10~15/month per phone depending on # of phones and expected call volume and how many trunks I expect they will use...

some clients with large call volumes (call centers, political orgs) we make a PBX and ship it with the phones then manage it remotely

if you want PM me but I am not going to advertise my company here :)

for small companies "cloud" or hosted PBXs are really your best bet... once you start exceeding say 20~50 phones (depending on call volume) then you really should look at an internal server

would be happy to answer questions though...
Click to expand...

Are you using a hand-configured Asterisk or something like PIAF/FreePBX for your customers?
 
Depending on your needs I recommend you to get a hosted "Centrex" solution and decent hardware, Gigaset handsets are very good without breaking the bank. If you get one of the better models you can also connect BT-headsets.
//Danne
 
If you have a gig of RAM free on your server, install Hyper-V and FreePBX distro. 1 GB of RAM will easily support 10 callers. Then find a SIP Provider (We use Broadvox at work, I use AxVoice at home) for your FreePBX. I suggest replacing the analog phone with Yealink VoIP phones. They work great and are inexpensive.

If you want to look into hosted, check your DNS provider. I'm pretty sure GoDaddy is getting to hosted PBX. Our hosted Exchange provider, Intermedia, is doing hosted PBX now. Lots of companies are offering it. Usually you just configure the phone to connect to the cloud server address, no VPN needed.

For as few users as you have, I don't think cloud solutions are going to be the way to go cost wise. I'd recommend adding more RAM to your HP server, installing the Hyper-V role, then breaking some services out into VMs (PBX, Anti-virus). If you have issues with FreePBX there are companies that you can purchase support plans or one-time support calls to help you fix issues.
 
Is the old system analog or digital? It sounds more like digital sets by your descriptions. Analog only PBX would be kind of interesting (modern 1A2?)

I'd look at hosted solutions and then make sure there is some survivability. If the business is okay with losing phones because the ISP went out, then it won't really matter -- but it probably does.

Honestly, for such a small system I would put in an Avaya IP Office with digital sets (or something small and digital, not IP).

IP phones, hosted PBX and so on just sound like they are making for a unneeded mess for both the end user and the administrator in a rather small environment.
 
shade91 said:
Are you using a hand-configured Asterisk or something like PIAF/FreePBX for your customers?
Click to expand...

depends on the situation but usually PBX In A Flash/FreePBX

use mostly Aastra for desk phones... Polycom for conference room phones etc
 
FLECOM said:
depends on the situation but usually PBX In A Flash/FreePBX

use mostly Aastra for desk phones... Polycom for conference room phones etc
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Greetings,

1) When you ask for expected call volume, could you provide me some example responses? The part I don't understand is what 'volume' is measured as (number of calls inbound, number of calls outbound, number of calls inbound+outbound, or daily grand total talk time in minutes)

2) What's a trunk?
 
FLECOM said:
depends on the situation but usually PBX In A Flash/FreePBX

use mostly Aastra for desk phones... Polycom for conference room phones etc
Click to expand...

sounds like shmoozecom

they also use mostly aastra... but they have a lot of freepbx specific software, also they're the company behind the FreePBX Distro...

do you guys use VPN?

i know the yealink phones we have have OpenVPN clients and i've actually set up a couple remote users with it, tends to work pretty well


EDIT: it's the same as a trunk in network switch topology... kind of an aggregation of many sip calls... you could call it a more permanent connection between phone servers... whether it's phone servers you have locally, or between your local phone server and your remote phone server (service providers)

you could say it's a path you expect multiple sip calls to traverse.... (trunks don't have to be SIP either, they can use other protocols)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIP_Trunking

try wikipedia...
 
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