VOIP Phones

[wood1e2]

Hi, Does anyone have any recommendations for VOIP phones? Ideally I would want to be able to plug is in the router as well as the laptop...obviously not at the same time!! :)

And VOIP phone service?

[cjd]

Hi, Does anyone have any recommendations for VOIP phones? Ideally I would want to be able to plug is in the router as well as the laptop...obviously not at the same time!! :)

And VOIP phone service?

What would you like to know? (You can use a VoIP phone and a laptop at the same time).

[wood1e2]

Looks like you are the only one dealing VOIP as you answered me on another forum :)

[cjd]

Loads of people think they can do VoIP - I only know of a small handful who I'd trust my number with and business with......

[Display Wizard]

We recently had a VOIP phone system installed from BT and it was so bad we had it changed to ISDN phones. I wouldn't recommend it as a main line or if you do have it, make sure you have a very good bandwidth or a separate internet connection for the VOIP system!

[wood1e2]

Thanks for that, although I have to say I wouldn;t trust BT, with any form of technology.

I only need one phone, that will be used very infrequently. So there won't be a mass of phone calling or receiving.

I hope one phone on 8mb will be fine :) Plus it is dirt cheap so worth a punt!!!

[Display Wizard]

Yeah BT aren't the best in the world but our ISDN lines are really good (so far!). I would recommend doing a bandwidth test on your line because the advertised 8mb is very rarely what you actually get.

Give it a go tho!

[wood1e2]

I know i will be happy with 6.... :)

[cjd]

We recently had a VOIP phone system installed from BT and it was so bad we had it changed to ISDN phones.

If it didn't work, it was faulty. there's no reason at all why VoIP doesn't work if set up correctly. It annoys me when companies like BT don't get this stuff right - there's really no excuse for it.

As it is, they've sold you an antique and expensive product that can't do a fraction of the things VoIP can do.

[KM-Tiger]

It's the upload speed that counts, the download is always larger.

Typical ADSL upload is 384 Kbs which is more than enough for one phone.

[leemason]

Go with a good VoIP provider like Voipfone or Gradwell. For best quality use a physical IP telephone handset and not a softphone (that's not to say they're not good but not as good as a physical phone). Choose a decent quality phone by someone line Snom or Aastra. I personally prefer Aastra phones but I know Snom to be very good as well.

[andy@telecomhelpcouk]

[quote=KM-Tiger;1002968]It's the upload speed that counts, the download is always larger.

Unfortunately upload speed is only one factor that affects performance. Voice is a 'real time' application and typically doesn't perform well on the public Internet, so your broadband supplier & VoIP supplier want to be immediate partners in 'the cloud'. Don't tell me, BT handled both and still messed it up!

Quality VoIP lines and kit work better and sound better than older (PSTN) lines - did you know you've been using VoIP for 5+ years over parts of the BT and other Telco networks.

Get some decent advice, there are real savings to be made for SMEs. Hope this helps Andy

[Nic Smith]

Hi all,

I'm looking at using voip for the first time and as my main business line... but I'm a bit worried about trusting it! I'm demoing it at the mo but the quality goes rubbish if I use the internet while making a call, and this evening its been dropping calls - there must be other business users using voip... what are your experiences?

Many thanks,

Nic

[wood1e2]

I have to say I am a very cynical, but had the VOIP phone a week and had no problems.

The two slight complaints, having to buy different packages if I want to call mobiles, having to dial STD if I want to phone someone and not knowing which of the two phone numbers i have that people are ringing, but that maybe just because I have not read the instructions.

Or I need a higher spec phone.

Either way so I am glad to be cancelling my BT rip off phone....good ridance to the company that couldn't run a bath!!!

[cjd]

The two slight complaints, having to buy different packages if I want to call mobiles,

It's normally the other way round, you buy calling credit - like a pre-pay mobile - that allows you to call anything anywhere and/or, if you are a heavy user, you buy a call package that allows you to call landlines only but at a discounted rate. You only need the package if your a heavy user going for the volume discount.

having to dial STDThat's because, like a mobile, your VoIP phone can be anywhere and not attached to your local exchange. However, decent phones can be programmed with your chosen geographic area code so that you can dial without using it.

if I want to phone someone and not knowing which of the two phone numbers i have that people are ringing, but that maybe just because I have not read the instructions. Not following this one, but there's almost always a config to solve these things :-)

[Nic Smith]

thanks wood1e2, sounds like you've taken the plunge! Does anyone have any long term experience with these things? I keep getting the voip sales patter when looking for advice, so I'm hoping there are people here that can help. I'm no web pro, so I don't know if its my computer or bandwidth, but things do go slow sometimes on my pc, and we are connected to virgin media broadband in Bristol if that makes any difference.

Basic question, can I rely on a VOIP system as the number customers use to call my business? Or to be safe, do I need a dedicated business phoneline. Main problem with landline is virgin will only let me have call forwarding OR a proper answer phone, but not both in any one month!

Many thanks...

[Tej]

Just to add my 2 cents.

Called Voipfone on Wednesday.. was talked through... logged on website...purchased a geographic number and a voipfone ( snom 300)
Phone arrived Thursday.. morning.. called voipfone immediately.. support helped me install .. 2 minutes.
Job done

No problems so far.. ok.. early days, but dont anticipate any.
Have to learn what it can do! ( have to work out about answerphone?.. )

However.. service par excellence!
:D

[cjd]

Maybe this will help:

http://www.voipfoneuserforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=741

We use VoIP and only VoIP to run our entire company.

[Nic Smith]

sorry, more info in case it helps someone that knows to help me!

The router I'm connected to is used by 2 other machines, my upload speed is only .5Mbs, whereas download is 5Mbs and ping (?!) was 59ms...

[cjd]

If you follow the instructions here:

http://www.voipfoneuserforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=1693

You can test your line.

[andy@telecomhelpcouk]

For an small business the advantage of VoIP is the flexibility and cheap features (if you need them). You get what you pay for so if you don't have a business quality broadband with enough spare bandwidth (about 100kb per call) you'll have a bad VoIP experience.

We install VoIP phone systems for SMEs and have no real quality problems as long as all elements of the setup are business quality. VoIP is now ubiquitous, when you buy a new phone system in 5 years' time I bet you'll struggle to find a TDM version (ie non VoIP).

Andy

[Nic Smith]

thanks cjd, I know that the operations side of voip will be fine, I know that some lindline calls are indeed carried on voip technology for some of their journey. If I was installed in a modern office with upto date equipment there would be no problems...
My worry is with my end. My pc, my router (I can control these but sometimes they will have a little wobble) and my internet connection, which is totallly out of my hands. This is why I would like some long term feedback of home voip use...

[cjd]

If you do the line test you'll get some idea what your line quality is like.

It doesn't matter what your PC is like if you use a proper VoIP telephone - we don't recommend using a softphone on your PC for business; although many do, including call centres.

If you have lots of users sharing one internet connection, unless you use a QoS device, you'll get poor quality calls - that's unavoidable. In that situation you need two separate DSLs, one for voice and one for internet.

While you're waiting for comments, here's some we made earlier :-)

http://www.voipfone.co.uk/Testimonials.php