Phone Calls Over WiFi
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@scottalanmiller said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
@Dashrender said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
@scottalanmiller said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
@Dashrender said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
@scottalanmiller said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
@Dashrender said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
I just wonder if someone did a blitz campaign if they could move the typical consumer to a new platform?
No way. A private PBX is expensive (when compared to having nothing) and the average consumer, even the average prosumer, even the average IT pro can't manage their own PBX. If it's your thing, it's not a big deal. If this is a one off project, it's a fairly steep learning curve.
Most people don't have home phones today and live on cell phones. So this is very much an elite phone user category product. Has a lot of value, but it isn't for the 99%.
I'm lost - I'm talking about a product for PBX to consumers like O365 is to end users. The consumers would log into a web portal, assign phone numbers to end points, etc. It would all be very point and click.
So NOT what we were talking about above with a private PBX. You jumped to a different product category
Oh - OK I guess I see what you mean - yeah, when providing this to a consumer - a private, privately managed PBX would never fly, way to complex as you said.
Right, but it is the hosted PBX or PBX in general that delivers so many of those features to businesses. So if we skip that part, we skip the benefits (normally) that we are discussing.
I'm not talking about skipping that part - I'm specifically talking about Hosted PBX for consumers.
Cox has started to dabble in it around here. They have a console you can log into and forward numbers, but they don't support things like Zoiper, they are just using old school tech and made it more accessible to consumers.
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@Dashrender said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
Cox has started to dabble in it around here. They have a console you can log into and forward numbers, but they don't support things like Zoiper, they are just using old school tech and made it more accessible to consumers.
No, that's hosted VoIP, not hosted PBX. Don't get all SW mixing the two terms there. One you get a PBX, one you do not. Very different animals. Both are VoIP, both are hosted, only one is there a PBX for you.
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If you get hosted PBX, you have a PBX. If you get a hosted email server, or a hosted server of any kind you get... a server. If you get a hosted email service, you don't get a server.
Does that make sense? One you are getting a product that you could run yourself but hosted. One you are getting a shared system that provides certain functionality.
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@scottalanmiller said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
@Dashrender said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
@scottalanmiller said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
@Dashrender said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
I just wonder if someone did a blitz campaign if they could move the typical consumer to a new platform?
No way. A private PBX is expensive (when compared to having nothing) and the average consumer, even the average prosumer, even the average IT pro can't manage their own PBX. If it's your thing, it's not a big deal. If this is a one off project, it's a fairly steep learning curve.
Most people don't have home phones today and live on cell phones. So this is very much an elite phone user category product. Has a lot of value, but it isn't for the 99%.
I'm lost - I'm talking about a product for PBX to consumers like O365 is to end users. The consumers would log into a web portal, assign phone numbers to end points, etc. It would all be very point and click.
So NOT what we were talking about above with a private PBX. You jumped to a different product category
He does this all of the time.
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@JaredBusch said
And then how in the hell would it make a phone call FFS?
Do you think this is fucking magic?
FFS!
Did you read my original post? Nowhere did I say I would rule out any solutions that involved magic. I"m OK with magic.
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I was thinking about a service such as Google Voice. I know Google Voice can be set up (MAGIC!) to basically do what I am asking about, but I do not know if that process would work outside the US.
I assume you could just turn off your cell data, and it would work, but not being out of the country for a while, I was just wondering.
Has anyone used Google Voice in such a way? Can it be used JUST with WiFI?
I know Skype can also magically make phone calls, but there is a cost to that. (I don't care so much about the cost at this point, just seeing what is out there.) I also don't know if there are non-US issues with Skype.
I can't imagine there would be any issues with either of these since they are over WiFi. But I've learned it's better not to assume.
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No, haven't tested that because I can't get Google Voice here
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@BRRABill said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
I know Skype can also magically make phone calls, but there is a cost to that. (I don't care so much about the cost at this point, just seeing what is out there.) I also don't know if there are non-US issues with Skype.
It's just a paid for service, not very exciting considering you can pay to make calls on your cell phone as it is. Doesn't really buy you much of anything for calling on the PSTN.
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@BRRABill said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
I can't imagine there would be any issues with either of these since they are over WiFi. But I've learned it's better not to assume.
Over the Internet, you mean. From what I can tell, GV is US only. Skype is paid, so works anywhere but isn't very important as it doesn't solve any real issue that a new SIM card would not fix in a more standard way.
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@BRRABill said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
I was thinking about a service such as Google Voice. I know Google Voice can be set up (MAGIC!) to basically do what I am asking about, but I do not know if that process would work outside the US.
I assume you could just turn off your cell data, and it would work, but not being out of the country for a while, I was just wondering.
Has anyone used Google Voice in such a way? Can it be used JUST with WiFI?
I know Skype can also magically make phone calls, but there is a cost to that. (I don't care so much about the cost at this point, just seeing what is out there.) I also don't know if there are non-US issues with Skype.
I can't imagine there would be any issues with either of these since they are over WiFi. But I've learned it's better not to assume.
No, Google Voice routes calls using your cell service. There are options to use it as a SIP trunk but only if you have a PBX in place already.
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Every company I have ever worked for has used an outside company to manage voip. I hope that this would be a valuable learning experience for me. Any books or documentation you guys recommend?
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@wirestyle22 said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
Every company I have ever worked for has used an outside company to manage voip. I hope that this would be a valuable learning experience for me. Any books or documentation you guys recommend?
Do you mean that you are going to manage one internally at the current job? Or you are thinking of building one at home for yourself?
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Running your own PBX for home is an awesome way to build up a lot of experience that carries right over to business.
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@scottalanmiller said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
Running your own PBX for home is an awesome way to build up a lot of experience that carries right over to business.
That is my intent. Sorry for not being more clear ^_^ Any recommendations in regards to hardware for home?
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@wirestyle22 said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
@scottalanmiller said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
Running your own PBX for home is an awesome way to build up a lot of experience that carries right over to business.
That is my intent. Sorry for not being more clear ^_^ Any recommendations in regards to hardware for home?
Ideally you want to run something on a hosting platform. Vultr is really good for this. FreePBX is better than Elastix these days.
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@BRRABill I have this exact setup.
I have a flowroute account connected to the Yealink Phone, but it could easily be a ATA gateway. This would allow you to use a standard phone.
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@coliver said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
@BRRABill said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
I was thinking about a service such as Google Voice. I know Google Voice can be set up (MAGIC!) to basically do what I am asking about, but I do not know if that process would work outside the US.
I assume you could just turn off your cell data, and it would work, but not being out of the country for a while, I was just wondering.
Has anyone used Google Voice in such a way? Can it be used JUST with WiFI?
I know Skype can also magically make phone calls, but there is a cost to that. (I don't care so much about the cost at this point, just seeing what is out there.) I also don't know if there are non-US issues with Skype.
I can't imagine there would be any issues with either of these since they are over WiFi. But I've learned it's better not to assume.
No, Google Voice routes calls using your cell service. There are options to use it as a SIP trunk but only if you have a PBX in place already.
GV does what? Don't you just use the GV app on your phone and it goes over whatever data network you provide it?
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@Dashrender said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
@coliver said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
@BRRABill said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
I was thinking about a service such as Google Voice. I know Google Voice can be set up (MAGIC!) to basically do what I am asking about, but I do not know if that process would work outside the US.
I assume you could just turn off your cell data, and it would work, but not being out of the country for a while, I was just wondering.
Has anyone used Google Voice in such a way? Can it be used JUST with WiFI?
I know Skype can also magically make phone calls, but there is a cost to that. (I don't care so much about the cost at this point, just seeing what is out there.) I also don't know if there are non-US issues with Skype.
I can't imagine there would be any issues with either of these since they are over WiFi. But I've learned it's better not to assume.
No, Google Voice routes calls using your cell service. There are options to use it as a SIP trunk but only if you have a PBX in place already.
GV does what? Don't you just use the GV app on your phone and it goes over whatever data network you provide it?
It can do that also, but that is not the core implementation of GV. GV has always been a forwarding service.
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I am kind of in the same boat as @wirestyle22, looking to eventually find out more about this stuff.
I currently manage most our VOIP service here, but it is a proprietary system (Allworx), and the "sausage making" of the SIP trunks is done by our provider.
@JaredBusch ... @scottalanmiller has also mentioned VOIP.MS to me.
I have not looked into it, but gave it a quick lookover just now.
See, to me, all kidding aside that does indeed seem like magic, AKA, too good to be true.
I mean, it really just that simple and cheap?
