Small Business VOIP Service

I am starting a small business with three employees. I would like to know whether it would be best to have a VOIP system or actually put in phone lines with a phone system. I will be working in the office and at my home at times while the others will be in the office mostly.

your telephone is every bit as important as your front door. You want to make it as easy to access as possible, and you want it work when you need it be there. Nothing worse than a locked front door during business hours.

VOIP is not always the best quality,

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We currently have regular phone service and pay around $700 a month. I am hoping to trim our bill extensively while maintaining dependable service.

If you have some networking technical expertise, you can save substantially by installing your own VoIP ATA (analog telephone adapters) or an IP-PBX.

I like using the Linksys SPA2102-NA 2-line ATA's configured to connect to VoIP carriers like CallCentric.
http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?c=L_Product_C2&childpagename=US%2FLayout&cid=1146582254856&pagename=Linksys%2FCommon%2FVisitorWrapper&lid=5485693890B02

However, the Linksys SPA9000 is an IP-PBX appliance that is licensed for 4 configurable lines and license expandable up to 16 lines.
http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?c=L_Product_C2&childpagename=US%2FLayout&cid=1139414817110&pagename=Linksys%2FCommon%2FVisitorWrapper

You may also want to look into TalkSwitch hybrid and IP-PBX appliances:
http://www.talkswitch.com/us/en/products/phoneSystems/244vs.aspx

Then, there is the option of installing your own IP-PBX server solution using IP-PBX software from 3CX corp:
http://www.3cx.com/

Any of the above solutions are user hardware and software in-house solutions that require some networking expertise on the user side.

Then, it is just a matter of finding a BYOD (bring your own device) VoIP provider like CallCentric, InPhonex, or Les.net. These are VoIP carriers that allow your to supply your own equipment, configure it yourself and connect to their carrier services through your VoIP account. These companies do not require contracts and are strictly pay-as-you-go pre-paid calling VoIP solutions.

If you don't have some technical expertise for setting up your own VoIP systems in-house, then you may want to consider a Hosted VoIP solution by Packet8.

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Generally speaking, satellite Internet is not suitable for VoIP communications.

Why? Because satellites are are so far away from the earth, radio signal propogation delays make voice delays impractical for normal voice conversations. So, duplex conversations (like on normal telephone or cell conversations) are not practical or even possible because of the excessive delays between speaking and hearing. The VoIP callers would need to adopt a "simplex" process of talking to each other (like with 2-way radio, were you take turns talking, one at a time).

VSAT may be ok for publishing your web site, email marketing or customer support, and file transfers, but if you intend to have a VoIP proxy server over satellite, you will be dissapointed in the results. And, your customers will not likely be happy either.

Have you tested any VoIP services with your VSAT connection? You definately need to test the viablity of VoIP over satellite for yourself before going into a business venture that depends on quality connections.

Try testing with low-cost, pay-as-you-go, BYOD (bring your own device) services like CallCentric, Skype, Gizmo5, Yahoo Voice, Efonica, etc.

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I have a small business and my field workers sometimes need to make long distance calls within the US. We have broadband connection with 2 VOIP companies, Vonage and OptimumVoice. Both of these carriers already offer us unlimited long distance within the US.

For my field workers some locations they visit dont have either phones or don’t have long distance service.

Im asking if there is a way they can remotely connect to our office broadband VOIPs service and use the long distance service from there?

Almost like a calling card system but its running off our current broadband VOIP services.

Is this possible??

To best answer your question, I would need to know what communications means do they have with them?

If they don't have access to landlines, then do they have cell phones?
More importantly, do they have access to broadband Internet?
Do they have laptops with access to broadband Internet?

One VoiP service I like using is CallCentric. Here is why:
They have Calling Card gateways that allow you to access their VoIP network from regular phones or cells. All calls through their "local" gateways are only charged at 1.98¢/min. http://www.cqvoip.com They are only pay-as-you-go service and no contracts. So it is cheap to use.

If your guys have broadband access while traveling, then they could carry a VoIP ATA and have plug and play phone service with the ATA. I use the Linksys SPA2102-NA. I self-configured it for CallCentric. It has a built-in router. So, it can directly plug into any broadband Modem and provide phone service to the VoIP service configured into the box.

If your guys carry laptops with broadband access, then CallCentric provides a free downloadable Softphone that runs on a PC. They can make calls direct from a PC with headset w/mic.

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I have a small buisness and over the years have a rigged up hone syetem that is surely costly and inefficient. Want to explore new options: One main line with a greeting message and ability to transfer to a maximum of five office lines. One fax. Need to transfer between lines. I have seen the VOIP lines and they look super. Does anyone have a suggestion for a flexible system that can be managed by a small business owner with moderate computer skills. Thank you!

Index/Avaya systems are the best way to go.

http://www.avaya.com/

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Starting a small business, central London location. We make minimal calls using a fixed landline as we use mobiles most of the time. We have no fixed/BT landline but we have wi-fi broadband. We wish to have a 'normal' landline number to give out to clients. I have heard the names Skype/Vyke & sipgate being used.

How can i get a 020 7 number?

Can you recommend any particular providers?

What is the cheapest option?

Don't forget vonage.

Contact the vender of your choice and ask for sales. All the ones I know of route the phone call, through their own. lines

-tcw

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My name is Don and I've been in a situation that I resolve to change above all other resolutions. I'm 42-years of age, 5'9", 140 pounds, with blond hair and brown eyes. I am musically inclined and play, write, and sing it and listen to Yahoo! Launchcast plus during the day. I'm a small business owner and enjoy what I do. I am science-minded and am well versed in physical science including climate change and climatology as well as alternative (solar) energy. I'm turning knowledge of the latter into a company division by June 2009. I may be knowledgeable, but I am neither a nerd or a geek and love working out as well as wearing tight blue jeans and a black leather jacket. I have and made no friends in 2007 and I resolve to change that in 2008. So if you would like to know a man of wisdom and a man of peace, then I seek you out for friendship! I use Yahoo as my IM and have VOIP headphones to chat as well. Happy New Year!!!

want to be my friend….i am male at 50 + a marine engineer by profession and love sailing on ships…i am keenly interested in the alternative sources of energy i.e. solar or any other….want to do something for the masses that is cheap and reliable……would like to add u as a friend…..my yahoo id is argee2455…..add me in if u like….ciao

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Hello,
How does a small business set up the most affordable pbx system?
Lets say we do not want to set up an actual phone system - such as the one which connects the box in the phone/wire room, and the jacks all go out through that phone box. Rather, how does one set up a phone system which would be connected through the computer, or a phone handset. I believe there are some voip/computer solutions, but i fail to understand how it works.

Could someone please provide detail step by step guide as to how to set up an affortable pbx through the technology of desktop computer/voip, etc? Thanks!

P.S: The functions that are expected from the pbx system, is that when someone wants to make a phone call, they can dial the main number, and then dial the appropriate extension, so that the caller would be routed to the appropriate person.

The best and cheapest would be a IPBX!!

there are several real good Internet PBX out there!!!

I don't know what country you are in???

look for one that give you excelled customer service and you can grow and expand your service as needed!!

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/switches/ps525/products_white_paper09186a00800a918d.shtml

this is the only IPBX I'm familiar with…

http://www.packet8.net/business_services/

its reasonable and there customer service is excelled…

http://www.packet8.net/business_services/

Packet8 Virtual Office is a hosted iPBX communications solution that delivers high quality digital voice services coupled with powerful features for small businesses and call centers alike. With Virtual Office hosted iPBX services, there are no on-site hardware requirements, which means your business benefits from minimal start-up costs, reduced Total Cost of Ownership, flexible service plans and complete scalability.

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Five doctors have formed a partnership and are consulting my team and I for creating a network between the five offices. We will be using existing T1 lines to connect the offices but are not sure on the network and subnet design. Four of the offices are each about 15 miles from the central office, which has an existing LAN in place. Also, the east and west offices have existing LANs.
All five offices have outdated hardware and software, so we will be replacing all of the computers with new systems running Windows XP.
Each office will require ten computers, a printer/scanner/copier, and a fax machine.
We will be using SUSE Linux to run the server. It will also be using Samba in order to work with the XP clients.

We aren’t sure which would be easier: if all of the offices should be on one subnet or if each office should have it’s own subnet.

We also plan on having Voice Over IP for each office.
If it’s all one subnet, then VoIP will be no problem.
But, if we go with multiple subnets, should we get seperate VoIP services for each subnet? or have one VoIP provider on the central server?

I should also mention that the doctors have not given us the job yet. They are “shopping around” for the best deal for them.

any help with this would be much appreciated.

I think your best move would be to offer both alternatives with regard to VoIP. You could get away with having one centralized server, but if the partnership ever changes - particularly if the partner where all the VoIP equipment is located ever leaves - then it will take some serious work to get things going again. If you put a server at each location it will cost more, but changes will be easier to implement. If you offer them both alternatives then you are doing two things: One, you’re giving them a high and low priced alternative which will keep you competitive, and two, you’re letting THEM take an active role in the design decision so they can’t scream at you down the road if they make a bad decision.

As for the question of subnetting, I’m really not sure why this is an issue. Taking the 10.0.0.0/8 block, you could assign an entire /16 to one office and still have lots of room for growth. Even if you go with one VoIP server, it shouldn’t have a problem routing between subnets.

You could also do both. Assign a 10.x.x.x subnet for each office for data and another, say 192.168.x.x (just to keep things very OBVIOUSLY separate) for the VoIP.

Don’t forget to consider jitter. You’ll definitely want to set up class of service.

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I have Vonage, which is VOIP, but we pay for Vonage to have
our business phone numbers (4 of them) and pay about $50 to
$75/month for this and we love it. Plus, we have 1 bellsouth phone landline because we have a security system that requires a landline. I also have a Vonage V-Phone, which is a small USB phone that plugs into any computer with broadband connection. The V-Phone does connect
through our vonage account. I'm trying to figure out what the difference in Vonage and Magic Jack is? For Magic Jack, the video said you pay $40 for the usb device and
your calls are free. When I went to ebay to see prices for Magic Jack, the description says Magic Jack VoIP Free Calls To and From USA. What's the real difference??? The short video I was sent is here: http://www.magicjack.com/site/index.html

I use a MagicJack!!

Vonage you connect thru your modem, and MagicJack you connect thru the USB port, hence the computer gotta be on!!

MJ is not really a true VoIP….like Vonage or Packet8……they go right thru your modem….so the Computer doesn't have to be on "ON"…..MJ goes thru your USB port….so is you turn your computer off…..no phone calls either….!

I have Packet8 as my phone and use the MJ as a second line….for 20 bucks a month its pretty cheap, and the E911 call is free…..they also have nice VM and features….!

you don't have to buy an expensive VoIP phone any cheap analog phone will do…!

MagicJack runs kinda piggy-back Ymax…….most ppl use GrandCentral with MJ….in case you don't get your area-code!!

I also took it with me on vacation last year in Europe…..and used it to call back USA with and US area-code for free!!

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