Archived from groups: comp.dcom.voice-over-ip (More info?)

Dear all,

I am new to the VoIP bandwagon and am extremely confused by the options
available in the VoIP market. I have a few fundamental questions about
the working and installation of a full fledged VoIP solution.

The Environment:
We are a small-mid sized business with about 100 employees.
We are relocating our office in about a year to a newly constructed
building.
The new building will have a new network infrastructure built from
scratch. Plans are still being discussed and any customizations can be
made.
We would be having a separate server room, a gigabit ethernet backbone,
WiFi connectivity, T3 line and rest of the works.

Requirements:
Every employee should have a IP hard-phone in his/her desk
Soft Phone options should also be present for remote users (hardly 10 -
15 of them)

Questions:

1) How exactly does VoIP work? Do I provide the connection between my
VoIP network and the local exchange? Or, Do I just route the voice
traffic to a VoIP provider through my T3 line and pay somebody to take
care of the connection from IP to PSTN?

2) Who are the most common vendors and what solutions do they offer
which could match my requirements?

3) What would be the cost ( a ballpark figure) ?

4) What hardware would I be required to buy?

5) What level of technical expertise is required from the compay?

Thanks in advance,

J

Archived from groups: comp.dcom.voice-over-ip (More info?)

<jislord@gmail.com> wrote:
> 1) How exactly does VoIP work? Do I provide the connection between my
> VoIP network and the local exchange? Or, Do I just route the voice
> traffic to a VoIP provider through my T3 line and pay somebody to take
> care of the connection from IP to PSTN?

Either one, as you prefer. Or a mix of both.

miguel
--
Hit The Road! Photos from 36 countries on 5 continents: http://travel.u.nu
Latest photos: Queens Day in Amsterdam; the Grand Canyon; Amman, Jordan

Archived from groups: comp.dcom.voice-over-ip (More info?)

In article <1120165940.919049.201210@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>
jislord@gmail.com writes:


>I am new to the VoIP bandwagon and am extremely confused by the options
>available in the VoIP market. I have a few fundamental questions about
>the working and installation of a full fledged VoIP solution.

>The Environment:
>We are a small-mid sized business with about 100 employees.
>We are relocating our office in about a year to a newly constructed
>building.

Excellent time to be considering a VOIP system! Plan on individual VOIP
telephones, depending on vendor, model, features and quality, to cost in
the ballpark of $100 to $500 apiece. Multiply that by 100 phones, assuming
1 for each employee, and you can get some idea where this is headed. The
main controller, again depending on vendor, features and quality, will
command another $5000 to $30,000.

Upstream connectivity to the PSTN is something I don't personally think I
would trust to just anyone. We're talking about your *business* here, so
I'd tend to lean toward one of the majors, i.e., one of the regional Bell
operating companies or MCI or Sprint.

>The new building will have a new network infrastructure built from
>scratch. Plans are still being discussed and any customizations can be
>made.

A perfect time to do VOIP!

>We would be having a separate server room, a gigabit ethernet backbone,
>WiFi connectivity, T3 line and rest of the works.

Plan on establishing at least 2 VLANS and put your phone system on a
separate VLAN with 802.1p/q QOS (Quality Of Service) and priority VLAN
tagging. When choosing your Etherswitches, make sure they provide VLAN
support and Power-Over-Ethernet (POE) to run the phones. All VOIP phones
require power, hence all 4 pairs of the Cat-5/6 Ethernet cable will be
needed.

When cabling, plan on separate cabling for any printers. You can run your
Office PC off the 2-port switch built into the VOIP phone, but they do not
recommend connecting printers (or hubs) to these ports.

>Requirements:
>Every employee should have a IP hard-phone in his/her desk
>Soft Phone options should also be present for remote users (hardly 10 -
>15 of them)

If the employees need "display" phones, i.e., callerID + multiple line
capabilities, multiple line keys, speedcall buttons, etc., then we've
eliminated most of the low-end phones.

>Questions:

>1) How exactly does VoIP work? Do I provide the connection between my
>VoIP network and the local exchange?

Yes, normally - especially if you're concerned about dependability

>Or, Do I just route the voice
>traffic to a VoIP provider through my T3 line and pay somebody to take
>care of the connection from IP to PSTN?

You could do this too, tho I wouldn't - at least not yet. I don't think
this service is yet mature enough to trust my business phones to it.

>2) Who are the most common vendors and what solutions do they offer
>which could match my requirements?

My personal recommendation would be a MITEL SX200_ICP "Premier Bundle".
Great feature set, IMO.

>3) What would be the cost ( a ballpark figure) ?

Probably in the ballpark of $50,000. The phones themselves will be your
single biggest expense. I'd guess a Mitel SX200-ICP Premier equipped with
100 IP user licenses, 100 voice mail licenses would go somewhere in the
ballpark of $18~20,000 plus the phones. Figure $100 apiece for low-end,
non-display (Superset 5207) single line phones, $200 apiece for a display
model (Superset 5215) with 7 line buttons and $300 apiece for their high
end, 14-line model (Superset 5220) (and these are just wild guesses).
You'll want at least the mid-priced phone for its ability to allow
connecting a PC to the back of the phone, thus allowing for only 1
Ethernet cable to each office or workstation.

>4) What hardware would I be required to buy?

Actually nothing. Mitel has leasing plans available that make good
business sense, plus the lease cost is tax-deductible.

>5) What level of technical expertise is required from the compay?

You'll want to go with a major brand with an established nationwide
network of VARs and dealers. This means systems from one of the big 5, in
alphabetical order; AVAYA, CISCO, MITEL, NEC, NORTEL. You certainly can
also purchase a cheapie from any one of a half-dozen other manufacturers,
tho I sure wouldn't if the success of my business depended upon the
reliability/dependability of the phone system.

On a related note I would personally avoid the CISCO phone system, mainly
because I've seen it, used it amd hated it. CISCO's IP phone system (Call
Manager) is based upon a cluster of Microsoft Windows-based servers, with
all of the usual security problems, patches and reboots associated
therewith. System administration (routine adds, moves & changes, even
simple user name changes) are cumbersome. True, Cisco also has a smaller
"Call Manager Express" which they claim will handle "up to" 100 lines, but
with your stated needs you'd be maxed-out on capacity the day you
installed it. Cisco would be a good choice for your DATA network but I
think you'll see best bang for your buck with a MITEL phone system.

Your softphone requirements also would be a good fit for a MITEL system.
Either or both their YA-PRO and/or TELEWORKER systems will address this
need. MITEL also has some WI-FI phones. Just beware that VOIP over WI-FI
can quickly flood the WI-FI bandwidth once you start getting a few calls
in progress. I'd plan my WI-FI system with the intent of having no more
than 6~8 concurrent wireless phone users per access point.

Archived from groups: comp.dcom.voice-over-ip (More info?)

You can also go in for Asterisk IPPBX. It has more features but require
tech skill and support to operate.

appan kh

www.softswitches.net

Archived from groups: comp.dcom.voice-over-ip (More info?)

jislord@gmail.com writes:

>1) How exactly does VoIP work? Do I provide the connection between my
>VoIP network and the local exchange? Or, Do I just route the voice
>traffic to a VoIP provider through my T3 line and pay somebody to take
>care of the connection from IP to PSTN?

I like the latter. From what I've seen it just doesn't make sense to
mess with PSTN interconnects. However I've not found VoIP providers
who support encryption. That means your conversations are naked over
the link to your VoIP provider. (With the amount of US gov't tapping
that happens maybe it doesn't matter.)

>2) Who are the most common vendors and what solutions do they offer
>which could match my requirements?

I usually start here.
http://voip-info.org/tiki-index.ph [...] s+Business

>3) What would be the cost ( a ballpark figure) ?

I've been looking at VoIP providers again recently. I've found prices
in the $0.013/minute range, $0.029-0.039/minute for toll-free incoming.
Lines are $2-5/month.

>4) What hardware would I be required to buy?

You *could* get away with just dropping SIP phones on your network and
having them connect directly to your VoIP provider. You'll probably
want something local though. There are businesses that specialize in
such systems. I run some Asterisk boxes but not for situations like
this.

--kyler

Archived from groups: comp.dcom.voice-over-ip (More info?)

In article <1120165940.919049.201210@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>,
jislord@gmail.com says...
>
> 1) How exactly does VoIP work? Do I provide the connection between my
> VoIP network and the local exchange?

You'll certainly want that. It can be provided by a third party vendor,
or you can bring in suitable PSTN lines (probably a PRI, in your case)
and install your own gateway. Most IP PBX's have this capability.

I would recommend the latter approach, unless you can arrange for a
dedicated IP connection between you and the vendor's gateway. Once your
traffic hits the public Internet, it is at the mercy of network
conditions there, which can lead to voice quality issues. This is rare,
but it's something to think about.

> 2) Who are the most common vendors and what solutions do they offer
> which could match my requirements?

All of the major PBX vendors offer IP functionality now, though they are
extremely proud of it, and charge accordingly. Asterisk is a very viable
option and you should give it serious consideration.

> 3) What would be the cost ( a ballpark figure) ?

Excluding the cost of suitable LAN hardware (more on that below)...

Mainstream VOIP PBX's, licenses, phones, POE switches, etc. will
probably run between $40,000 - $100,000 for that environment.

I don't believe that you can get an IP telephone that's suitable for the
business environment for under $150, but that's a judgement call. Using
that standard, and selecting Asterisk (and a suitable server on which to
run it) you could easily have what you need for under $20,000.


> 4) What hardware would I be required to buy?

No matter which route you go, you'll need LAN hardware that supports
QoS. You'll probably want POE switches that are compatible with the
phones you plan to use, but that's not a necessity, just very nice to
have.

And of course your actual telephony hardware.

> 5) What level of technical expertise is required from the compay?

That depends entirely on the system you decide on. If you roll your own
with Linux and Asterisk, you will definitely need moderate Linux admin
skills and a working knowledge of Asterisk (which doesn't come easily).

On the other hand, there are "canned" versions of Asterisk that install
the entire OS and software from a CD, something any Windows admin can
do. From there, it's merely a matter of learning the functionality of
the vendor's system and admin tools.
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> J
>
>

Archived from groups: comp.dcom.voice-over-ip (More info?)

jislord@gmail.com wrote:

> 2) Who are the most common vendors and what solutions do they offer
> which could match my requirements?

Since others have answered question one, I woul like to add my two
cents into a couple of other items here.

I would strongly look at a Shortel system. They are not the biggest,
but are one of the longest players in the VOIP PBX market and have
basically the easiest to use, easiet to administer, and most
distributed system in the commercial market.

They are almost always chosen (over 85% of the time) for implementation
when they are seriously looked at in your list of products.

The ease of management, and the ease at which your users can use the
advanced features make it the best choice most of the time.

I used to work with it in is version 1 and 2 variations, and have been
with another company that recently implemented it, and I absolutely
love the product. You get a lot of extra reliability and redundancy
without all of the extra expense.

> 3) What would be the cost ( a ballpark figure) ?

Figure approx $1000 per user including implimentation and first year's
maintanance. It seems to average arround there, but can be less or
more depending on requirements.

> 4) What hardware would I be required to buy?

For shoretel, just the phones, a W2K or Win2003 server for voice mail,
and the appropriate quantity of switches. 1 switch can handle up to 24
analog lines, or 120 IP phones, but come in smaller capacities as well.
You don't have to have a switch at each office, but it increases the
reliability should your wan links go down.

> 5) What level of technical expertise is required from the compay?

For this system, very little. It is very easy to set up (can be set up
on a table using a laptop), and all of the administation and
configuration is web based. You will want an expert at getting data
prioritization initially, but you should get that with any VOIP install
just to avoid problems. Once the wan is configured, though, most shops
do all of their system administration, including ACD, Voice Mail, and
adds/moves/changes in-house.

BTW, I have no ties to the company, just a big fan of their product.

Archived from groups: comp.dcom.voice-over-ip (More info?)

Dear Friend,
Hi, my name is Sam and I'm an IT consultant.
I'm convinced that http://www.uninumber.ubifone.com/ is the best solution.
Either you become a Retailer Customer or open your mind and go for an
Agency.

Please do feel FREE to contact me on uninumber@gmail.com for further
questios you may have.

Kind Regards,

Sam

-------------------------------------
jislord@gmail.com wrote:




> Dear all,

> I am new to the VoIP bandwagon and am extremely confused by the options
> available in the VoIP market. I have a few fundamental questions about
> the working and installation of a full fledged VoIP solution.

> The Environment:
> We are a small-mid sized business with about 100 employees.
> We are relocating our office in about a year to a newly constructed
> building.
> The new building will have a new network infrastructure built from
> scratch. Plans are still being discussed and any customizations can be
> made.
> We would be having a separate server room, a gigabit ethernet backbone,
> WiFi connectivity, T3 line and rest of the works.

> Requirements:
> Every employee should have a IP hard-phone in his/her desk
> Soft Phone options should also be present for remote users (hardly 10 -
> 15 of them)

> Questions:

> 1) How exactly does VoIP work? Do I provide the connection between my
> VoIP network and the local exchange? Or, Do I just route the voice
> traffic to a VoIP provider through my T3 line and pay somebody to take
> care of the connection from IP to PSTN?

> 2) Who are the most common vendors and what solutions do they offer
> which could match my requirements?

> 3) What would be the cost ( a ballpark figure) ?

> 4) What hardware would I be required to buy?

> 5) What level of technical expertise is required from the compay?

> Thanks in advance,

> J







##-----------------------------------------------##
Article posted with Cabling-Design.com Newsgroup Archive
http://www.cabling-design.com/forums
no-spam read and post WWW interface to your favorite newsgroup -
comp.dcom.voice-over-ip - 4876 messages and counting!
##-----------------------------------------------##

Archived from groups: comp.dcom.voice-over-ip (More info?)

ubifone <uninumber_at_gmail_dot_com@foo.com> wrote:
> Hi, my name is Spam and I'm an IT consultant.
> I'm convinced that http://www.spamtag.ubifone.com/ is the best solution.
> Either you become a Retailer Customer or open your mind and go for an
> Agency.

Does "open your mind" equate to "lower your personal standards and become a
spammer" in some parlance I'm not familiar with?

miguel
--
Hit The Road! Photos from 36 countries on 5 continents: http://travel.u.nu
Latest photos: Queens Day in Amsterdam; the Grand Canyon; Amman, Jordan

Archived from groups: comp.dcom.voice-over-ip (More info?)

Miguel Cruz wrote:
> ubifone <uninumber_at_gmail_dot_com@foo.com> wrote:
>> Hi, my name is Spam and I'm an IT consultant.
>> I'm convinced that http://www.spamtag.ubifone.com/ is the best
>> solution. Either you become a Retailer Customer or open your mind
>> and go for an Agency.
>
> Does "open your mind" equate to "lower your personal standards and
> become a spammer" in some parlance I'm not familiar with?
>
> miguel

Don't feed the troll..!

Ivor

Archived from groups: comp.dcom.voice-over-ip (More info?)

"Ivor Jones" <ivor@despammed.invalid> writes:
> Miguel Cruz wrote:
>> ubifone <uninumber_at_gmail_dot_com@foo.com> wrote:
>>> Hi, my name is Spam and I'm an IT consultant.
>>> I'm convinced that http://www.spamtag.ubifone.com/ is the best
>>> solution. Either you become a Retailer Customer or open your mind
>>> and go for an Agency.
>>
>> Does "open your mind" equate to "lower your personal standards and
>> become a spammer" in some parlance I'm not familiar with?
>>
>> miguel
>
> Don't feed the troll..!

He might not have realized that folks were on to him.

Why is it every ethically-challenged business thinks they can spam
discussion groups and have people politely wade through the trash?

-wolfgang

Archived from groups: comp.dcom.voice-over-ip (More info?)

I'm a technician that has been installing / servicing Mitel systems
since 86. SX2000 (E stream - 0k, that just impresses me.)

Although you could get a 200ICP for less, I'd recommend the 3300 if
only for the beauty of the administrator interface. IMHO, less of a
learning curve than the 200ICP but has more power.

I frequently work with customers to train them to make their own
changes and would far rather train them on the 3300. The help file
system is excellent. If you'd rather be self maintaining, I'd
recommend the 3300.

Then with Mitel, (either system) you also get the ability to have YA
Pro which is software that can do some amazing things with your desk
phone or can act as a softphone for your PC/laptop.

With an add on product mitel calls the "teleworker" you can take a
deskphone home to run off of your broadband internet. Bear in mind
that the quality of the phone call is dependant on your broadband
provider (no matter what phone system you choose, Avaya, Nortel, Cisco,
etc) we've had some very good luck with it. We have one installation
that has a 3300 with a Teleworker server that has 50+ phones at their
main office and 10 remote offices with 5 to 10 phones each all running
off of the main office PBX through SBC's public internet service.
Works quite well. I believe that it's also quite possible to run
remote phones through the public internet without having to purchase
the teleworker solution. You'd have to do a couple of things to set up
the network and activate the jitter buffer on the phone but if you just
wanted to try a remote phone without the cost, it should work just
fine.

I've also installed Cisco Call Manager and worked on some other
non-Mitel products, but the Mitel 3300 is hands down my favorite.

Dry Aquaman


BTW: I just got to play with the new 5235 phone just this morning.
Great Phone! Be sure to check this one out!


--
dry_aquaman