Home-VOIP, security system and internet usage; managed or unmanaged switch

[Ken1]

I know just enough to be dangerous so be gentle, I need advice for home use with the plan of having VOIP (Ooma) and a PoE camera surveillance system (ability to view with smart phone) and normal internet usage.

Currently have cable (Time Warner) with a Linksys E2500 router.

(Here comes the dangerous part) I read that having a managed switch would allow the 3 different usages listed above to be separate (VLAN) plus allow VOIP to be prioritized.

Does this make sense or am I drinking to much kool-aid?

Any specific hardware recommendations appreciated.

reagrds,
Ken

 

[diizzy]

Yes and no, VOIP would be prioritized but only within the LAN not on your WAN connection which your router handles (I have no idea if this is possible in a decent way on your Linksys). You would however need a switch for PoE but make sure that it follows 802.3af and/or 802.3at otherwise you'll still need power injectors rendering the switch pointless from a PoE aspect.

That said, PoE-switches gets expensive fast and since you're not mentioning how many ports you need its a bit hard to make any recommendations.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...321&cm_re=zyxel_gs1900-_-33-181-321-_-Product
If 8-ports are enough...

//Danne

 

[KMac]

Personal experience here. Compare fax codecs and performance between ooma and obihai (obihai with various VOIP providers) if fax is still important to you.

No matter what you decide, do NOT port your number to ooma, choose google voice or ringto to port to and forward from there. Porting out of ooma is a nightmare and as a reseller of VOIP services, ooma is not regulated by the FCC, so your porting problems are yours alone.

Other than that, unless you are less than 15 down / 1 up with low latency and not uploading more than that via video or other means at the time of call/fax, you shouldn't have a problem.

 

[diizzy]

Personal experience says that fax over VOIP is a fucking nightmare, get a fax service instead imho.
//Danne

 

[wizdum]

Personal experience says that fax over VOIP is a fucking nightmare, get a fax service instead imho.
//Danne

Fox over VOIP works quite well with an ATA and FlowRoute. It can be pretty bad though, and email-to-fax/fax-to-email services are cheap.

 

[Ken1]

Thank you for the reply's.

In regards to faxing we already use Nextiva, seems to be ok. The security system would use a NVR.

The only thing that can't be changed is the cable (Time Warner) only player in my area.

Willing to spend the money for better equipment i.e. router, switch etc... if it will make a measurable difference.

 

[Ken1]

After doing some research this is what I came up with:

Netgear ProSAFE 16-Port Gigabit Click Switch (GSS116E-100NAS)

NETGEAR Nighthawk AC1900 Dual Band Wi-Fi Gigabit Router (R7000)

Any thoughts?