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VOIP/IP based phone systems?
Q. We currently use Voice Over IP pretty heavily in our office and are in need of a phone system. We could go with a traditional phone system and just plug our VOIP lines into it I guess??
A. I have been thinking a lot lately about looking into some sort of IP based phone system like http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/phones/ps379/ Not sure this does anything more than use WiFi technology to replace the connection between base unit and handset, I will need to research more. I think it would be great to have something that would do some or all of the following. So of these are not very important, I will put an asterisk next to those items. - Wireless handsets using our wireless network * - Ability to plug normal analog and or the cables from the backs of Cisco ATA's for our Voice Over IP lines - Ability to have phone extensions anywhere TCP/IP exist including remote offices via the Internet - Ability to set a preference as to which lines are used for outgoing calls and which for incoming - Normal phone system functions like transfers etc. - Able to preprogram calling card numbers for use on lines that do NOT have free long distance* August has developed a product for our VoIP PBX customers based on the Asterisk PBX system - http://www.asterisk.org - it's usable and can support all of the functionality you've listed above. August is about to move off an old propriatary 3Com NBX 1000 voip phone system to the new one we've developed. A word of warning, it just about takes an Asterisk expert to configure the system, you might need to put a few months into getting every feature you've listed working. There are also companies such as Digium.com that have experts that can do the PBX configuration for you. I'd go this route if I had it to do all over again. You will also need to learn about which VoIP phones exist out there and how to configure them. There are now a couple of promising SIP wireless 802.11 voip phones such as the Cisco you mentioned, or Zyxel's new Prestige 2000W offering - http://www.zyxel.com/product/P2000W.html . For desktop phones, the Cisco 7940/60/80 series is my fav. It's not really worth the headache. You can put Asterisk PBX on a Linux box for $400 plus configuration charges, vs. a used $2K - $10K traditional PBX setup. Going VoIP also means your PBX system won't be obsolete when cooler gadgety phones come out. You can buy different types of phones, and they all speak the same protocol back to the PBX.
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