IP desk phones

[pugwash4x4]

does anyone use an IP deskphone at home as a main phone? Thinking about adding a IP phone as the "work" phone but don't know where to start.

basically i just want something that is either Wi-fi connected, or connected via a normal splitter (so i don't have to run ethernet to the router), as well as something that can call divert, call forward but also has an answerphone. Must be able to turn the line off so it doesn't ring when the office is closed, but goes straight to answerphone- handsfree would be helpful.

am i asking too much? where do i start?

What would be really cool is to have 2 lines- a home number and a work number going through one phone and have a different ring for each line- you can do it with mobiles, why not Ip phones?

[rsv gone!]

I have a Skype/BT phone by Netgear.

ISTR when researching it that Siemens had a decent range of IP phones; like this one

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Siemens-Gigaset-A580-Cordl...

[tonyvid]

We have just transferred to Cisco IP phones at work. Oh dear, what a fag it all is with having to log in every morning, the really weird audio quality and the general sluggishness of the whole system. It really seems a answer to a question that wasn't needed.

I can't wait until the network dies as we will lose all the phones as well as the email system...

[DodgeRam Van Man]

pugwash4x4 said:

basically i just want something that is either Wi-fi connected, or connected via a normal splitter (so i don't have to run ethernet to the router), as well as something that can call divert, call forward but also has an answerphone. Must be able to turn the line off so it doesn't ring when the office is closed, but goes straight to answerphone- handsfree would be helpful.

When you say a 'normal splitter' are you referring to a BT style phone line splitter? If so, can't do that with Ethernet! I'm not aware of any desk style voip phones with wifi, although you can get cordless type wifi phones but I don't have any experience of those. A lot of voip phones have an integral switch which essentially give them a pass-through functionality so you can put it inline with a wired ethernet cable going from your router to an existing device.

pugwash4x4 said:

am i asking too much? where do i start?

What would be really cool is to have 2 lines- a home number and a work number going through one phone and have a different ring for each line- you can do it with mobiles, why not Ip phones?

Having multiple lines and different ringtones is pretty much something all decent voip phones will have. We use Snom 360 phones (www.snom.com) at work and they certainly do that.
You will find however that a lot of the functionality you want relies on the PBX that the phone is connected to, for example voicemail functionality will be provided by the pbx, not the phone. Assuming you don't want to run your own voip pbx you'll need to choose a voip provider that will give you a SIP account that your phone will register to, and provide the additional services such as incoming number termination, voicemail etc. I use www.voiptalk.org but there are lots of other providers out there.

Ben

[michaeljclark]

tonyvid said:

We have just transferred to Cisco IP phones at work. Oh dear, what a fag it all is with having to log in every morning, the really weird audio quality and the general sluggishness of the whole system. It really seems a answer to a question that wasn't needed.

I can't wait until the network dies as we will lose all the phones as well as the email system...

Hmm odd

We've got Cisco IP Phones where I am and the genernal thoughs from the staff when they were installed 18 months ago was that they very very good and the call quality excellent, all our offices are gradually being migrated so we can take advantage of "free" calls to them via the exisiting network infrastrucutre

But you are right - if you loose the switch you loose PC's and phones

As an aside we don't do the login/logout on the phones, we wanted to but the powers that be said "no" becuase of Elf and Saftey - I might sit somewhere else and catch someone elses germs or they catch mine

[Kaelic]

tonyvid said:

We have just transferred to Cisco IP phones at work. Oh dear, what a fag it all is with having to log in every morning, the really weird audio quality and the general sluggishness of the whole system. It really seems a answer to a question that wasn't needed.

I can't wait until the network dies as we will lose all the phones as well as the email system...

poor planning by your IT bods then, switched in stacks with plenty of redundant ports should be the way it is done, to depend on a single switch is just asking for trouble :P

[maser_spyder]

+1 for Snoms, I've got an office full of 'em, excellent kit.

[Iain328]

tonyvid said:

We have just transferred to Cisco IP phones at work. Oh dear, what a fag it all is with having to log in every morning, the really weird audio quality and the general sluggishness of the whole system. It really seems a answer to a question that wasn't needed.

I can't wait until the network dies as we will lose all the phones as well as the email system...

There's a familiar tale - technology for the sake of it and then not very well implemented either!

Cheap VOIP calls between offices? You don't need a whole IP system to do that & besides, with the price of PSTN calls you have to have HUGE volumes to make it worthwhile anyway.

VOIP is fine if you have mobile people or lots of homeworkers or lots of hot desking - but for lots & lots of businesses it does nothing that a decent TDM system won't do (except be complicated and expensive to implement & maintain!).

VOIP - beloved of IT contractors everywhere!

Edited by Iain328 on Monday 18th January 20:54

[daveake]

pugwash4x4 said:

does anyone use an IP deskphone at home as a main phone? Thinking about adding a IP phone as the "work" phone but don't know where to start.

Yep, that's what I have. I bought a Draytek ADSL router that has VOIP built-in. It provides 2 phone sockets and I have a DECT base station plugged into one of those, so I can make or receive VOIP calls (using sipgate in my case but you can use any SIP provider). Sipgate provide my office phone number. The router also plugs into the wall phone socket to "pass through" regular phone calls in or out.

[GlenMH]

Don't forget that you may lose your phone line completely during a power cut...

[Man-At-Arms]

GlenMH said:

Don't forget that you may lose your phone line completely during a power cut...

in a workplace, you'll need to have a backup phone that does not rely on 240v power
even if it's for emergencies only
(and mobile phones do not count)