Phones new location
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@Dashrender said:
Can you provide some examples? [Of VoIP features we might not think of...]
Some ideas, I don't know what features you have currently so some of these might not apply:
- Complex automated prompts
- High availability or otherwise simple failover in case of hardware failure
- No additional hardware to keep or maintain or replace
- Users can transparently move not only between rooms but between sites and even to home or mobile
- You can easily send logs to services like Loggly and keep an eye on things
- You can monitor the phones using the same tools that you use for the rest of your infrastructure
- You can take your phone system offsite or do an offsite failover easily, even if the building burns down
- You can move to SIP trunks, which carry many benefits of their own
- You can do free calling between sites or to homes
- Unlimited conference rooms
- Ring groups, hunt groups, etc.
- Ability to support yourself without needing vendor intervention
- Upgrades are free
- Video phones for free
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@Dashrender said:
We don't have UPSs anywhere except my desk.
No important end user equipment that needs protecting? Do you need all of the phones to keep working if none of the computers do?
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@Dashrender said:
Would I have to put new wall plates on those locations? Obviously I'd have to change the cabling plant from the 66 blocks to patch panels, etc.
They would have to be converted to Ethernet, yes.
This is not the "best" solution, but it may well be the most cost effective.
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@Dashrender said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
Ok, since the Yealink's I was looking at before all came with power bricks, I suppose we could get away from the POE being a requirement, but then we'd have to put in UPSs in the places where phones must work even when there is a power outage.
Yes, UPSs are needed if you need the phones to keep working and everything along the chain is on UPS already. If you have computers on UPSs then you just add the phones to the existing UPS and nothing more is needed. It's always been best practice for all computers to be on UPS (it protects them from damage) so hopefully no new UPSs are needed.
We don't have UPSs anywhere except my desk.
You don't have UPS's at your wiring plant for your switches or your PBX? This is one case where I found PoE very useful, you could put the PoE switch (or injectors) on a UPS in the closet and have them up in the event of a power outage. This way you only need to purchase one UPS and then a PoE switch.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
We don't have UPSs anywhere except my desk.
No important end user equipment that needs protecting? Do you need all of the phones to keep working if none of the computers do?
Protection requiring a UPS, nope.
Not all phones, key phones need to stay working, but our DR Plan specifically says that staff will use their personal cell phones if needed, so keeping the phones on hasn't been a high priority.
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@coliver said:
@Dashrender said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
Ok, since the Yealink's I was looking at before all came with power bricks, I suppose we could get away from the POE being a requirement, but then we'd have to put in UPSs in the places where phones must work even when there is a power outage.
Yes, UPSs are needed if you need the phones to keep working and everything along the chain is on UPS already. If you have computers on UPSs then you just add the phones to the existing UPS and nothing more is needed. It's always been best practice for all computers to be on UPS (it protects them from damage) so hopefully no new UPSs are needed.
We don't have UPSs anywhere except my desk.
You don't have UPS's at your wiring plant for your switches or your PBX? This is one case where I found PoE very useful, you could put the PoE switch (or injectors) on a UPS in the closet and have them up in the event of a power outage. This way you only need to purchase one UPS and then a PoE switch.
Of course I do - I realize I over stated it by saying I had no UPSs anywhere except my desk. For example we USPs in the server room, and the phone/switch closets.
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@Dashrender said:
Not all phones, key phones need to stay working, but our DR Plan specifically says that staff will use their personal cell phones if needed, so keeping the phones on hasn't been a high priority.
So it be a new feature, rather than continuing an existing service level?
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
Not all phones, key phones need to stay working, but our DR Plan specifically says that staff will use their personal cell phones if needed, so keeping the phones on hasn't been a high priority.
So it be a new feature, rather than continuing an existing service level?
Not really - the digital phones we currently stay up as long as the UPSs are alive. The VOIP ones do as well, but they are in the other building where all VOIP are on POE with UPSs.
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@Dashrender said:
Not really - the digital phones we currently stay up as long as the UPSs are alive. The VOIP ones do as well, but they are in the other building where all VOIP are on POE with UPSs.
If they already have VoIP and PoE then you just get to keep that, I assume?
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
Not really - the digital phones we currently stay up as long as the UPSs are alive. The VOIP ones do as well, but they are in the other building where all VOIP are on POE with UPSs.
If they already have VoIP and PoE then you just get to keep that, I assume?
The main location is spread over two building, building one has the old InterTel DIgital system
Building two has the Mitel VOIP system.I could keep the Mitel, ditch the old interTel digital, and replace all digital phones with Mitel VOIP ones, and then deploy Mitel phones at the new office and bring them in via VPN to the main office...
Or I can keep the Mitel and it's VOIP, replace the brain on the InterTel to a VOIP enabled one that happens to support the Digital handsets I have, and still install Mitel phones at the new site connected via VPN.
Or I could ditch everything I have and replace it all with asterisk and all phones with new VOIP phones (though I've read that I can use my current Mitel phones with Asterisk). Still needing the VPN to bring the connections back to the main office.
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Oh, I missed somehow that the Mitel system was VoIP.
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If the Mitel phones are SIP then you should be all set. Last I knew, they used SIP.
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@scottalanmiller said:
If the Mitel phones are SIP then you should be all set. Last I knew, they used SIP.
I asked about that. Mitel uses it's own protocol (if memory serves) but phones support SIP as well.
I asked the vendor about using SIP trunks, and they told me they only support specific vendors, etc. A lock lock type situation.
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@Dashrender said:
I asked the vendor about using SIP trunks, and they told me they only support specific vendors, etc. A lock lock type situation.
Which vendor? If you switch to Asterisk you have no lockins. That alone is a killer feature.
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I don't know, once they said only our specific SIP providers I stopped listening.
It was the same when Cox said they provide it, but they must provide all of the infrastructure as well, and I was like, what's the point? They said it was the only way they could guarantee good service.
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@Dashrender said:
It was the same when Cox said they provide it, but they must provide all of the infrastructure as well, and I was like, what's the point? They said it was the only way they could guarantee good service.
Well you never get any service (email, phones, web hosting, DNS, etc.) from your ISP. So talking to Cox isn't a good place to start. You would want to talk to SIP trunk providers. If you go through Cox not only are you completely beholden to your ISP but you lose key VoIP features like unlimited portability, ISP failover, low cost, vendor independence, etc.
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Someone mentioned they liked Asterisk, any reason to use them over FreePBX? or others?
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@Dashrender said:
Someone mentioned they liked Asterisk, any reason to use them over FreePBX? or others?
FreePBX, Ultimate PBX, Elastix, PIAF and many others are distros of Asterisk. Think of Asterisk like Linux. Everyone "talks" about using Linux but you never, ever just "get" Linux. You get a distro build on Linux like RHEL, Suse, CentOS, Ubuntu, etc. Same here. Think of Asterisk as a PBX kernel but you need a whole distro or else you are stuck building your own and that is a LOT of work. Normally it takes teams of people to pull that off.
So when people say that they use Asterisk, they mean that they use one of the any Asterisk distros.
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Generally FreePBX would be the first choice, Elastix second, these days.
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@scottalanmiller said:
Generally FreePBX would be the first choice, Elastix second, these days.
I'm interested in the new PIAF/Incredible PBX with all the Schmooze stuff removed.. It is on my task list to install it and give it a spin.
