anybody here know VOIP and PBX stuff?

[svandamme]

So i landed myself a new job, small company, reasonable commute

sometimes i get to work from home, which is nice on bad traffic days, or on days i need to do something close to home over lunch or whatever

i got the full on internet connection at home, everything i need to do my job
and i simply transfer my desk phone @ work to my Berry

Realistically, the only thing i can't do, is transfer calls, but i need that often enough for it to be annoying, and work from home only when i really have no other option

Enter Voip

i tried to get some idea about what is out there, but frankly , it's quite complex
lot's of terminology i know nothing about, especially at the telefony end of the business


Does anybody know, of a simple, low cost solution

Where i simply patch "a box" to my desk phone connection at work
Which then just let's my desk phone work as normal

But allows me to connect to it , from home with VOIP
and then have all functionality such as transferring calls, conference calls , basically the regular functionality of the siemens pbx @ work?

alternatively, a box that patches in, and then i use voip @ home as well as at work (although i prefer my full phone at work)


that would be the basic solution , simply based on the patched phone
for 1line, 1 user

there are 2-3 others at work, that might benefit from this
a setup with a box in the server room, that does the same for more then one user would be interesting as well, but i fear that costs might grow quite fast that way...

anybody?

graphical explanation of what i would like to do, basically just showing off my l33t skillz with mspaint

[KFC911]

Stign, I'm no guru on this stuff, but we've implemented VOIP (Cisco solution) where I work, and I've got a question for you. When you're at home, are you always "connected" to work via a VPN connection, etc.? If so, you might want to investigate a "softphone" for your laptop that would allow it to "emulate" you VOIP work phone (with full functionality I think). I can get more info if you're interested.

ps: I just reread your post...is your work phone VOIP, if not, disregard my suggestion.

[svandamme]

the softphone part is no problem
neither is the vpn part, if required, i'll tunnel my way into the network

my work phone now is regular telco, if it were voip, i'de just get a second one, and connect over ip from home

the problem interlinking the voip part, with the existing pbx telco part

you have the Cisco solution at work, which i imagine is big $$$, and takes care of the linkup to the pbx...

i know plenty about computer networks, but this telco business is new to me,
a lot of big names have products for it, but the prices are big as well

i'm in a startup company, so budget is a bit tight, we can't just fork over 3 grand just so we can occasionally work from home

technically, i don't see why it wouldn't be possible for somebody to design such a small box that emulates a real phone connected to the pbx, and then acts as a voip bridge...
but i fear the big names don't make this, because they rather sell expensive hardware ...

[KFC911]

Originally Posted by svandamme

the softphone part is no problem
neither is the vpn part, if required, i'll tunnel my way into the network
my work phone now is regular telco, if it were voip, i'de just get a second one, and connect over ip from home

the problem interlinking the voip part, with the existing pbx telco part

you have the Cisco solution at work, which i imagine is big $$$, and takes care of the linkup to the pbx...

...

Got it...on my reread, I picked up on that part, sorry, I can't help (as usual )!

[Paul_Heery]

You can do what you want to do. But, it is not going to be easy or inexpensive. If you are going to do it, you may as well plan on upgrading the entire phone system. I just went through something similar when we transitioned from our old PBX to a new IP phone system and the two needed to co-exist during the change over.

First, you will need an IP PBX. If you need something low cost, and you are a do-it-yourselfer, take a look at the Open-Source Asterisk. Once you get that up and running and you still need to integrate it with the Siemens PBX, you are going to need an analog (or digital if the Siemens supports it) FXS/FXO gateway to connect the IP PBX to the Siemens. Then, through some configuration work on both boxes, you will be able to have them interoperate seamlessly.

Then, you are going to be facing another problem when you are at home. In your office, you should be able to prioritize the VOIP traffic through QoS. However, when you are working from home through a VPN tunnel, you will not have QoS across the Internet.

If you want some used IP PBX equipment, let me know. I have a room full of equipment that I ripped out when I took this job. It works, but it just did not meet our corporate requirements.

[svandamme]

somebody in the company already mucked about with Asterix
but never linked it up with the main phone system

QoS is no concern, we can switch different protocol's over different internet link-ups



so i guess all i need to find , is that fxs/fxo gateway ( now i know the name of the thing , which helps a lot)

are those thingymagics expensive?

[svandamme]

right, now i found it
just need to figure out if the Siemens pbx has analog or digital ports

and then get one of those 4 port Digium interface cards ( found analog for 260 euro, digital 460, both doable pricewise)
slap that in the Asterix box

put the asterix on a switch,
repatch the desk socket to that switch

and then replace the desk phones with voip phones

should be doable , well under a grand

it helps to have somebody mention a couple of terms, to know where and what to look for

Thanks Paul

[Paul_Heery]

Originally Posted by svandamme

so i guess all i need to find , is that fxs/fxo gateway ( now i know the name of the thing , which helps a lot)

are those thingymagics expensive?

It depends on the number of simultaneous sessions between the old PBX and the IP PBX. I like to use Audio Codes gateways. They offer survivebility in the event that a CallP goes out. For our smaller remote locations I buy a device that has 4 FXS and 4 FXO ports for about $800 USD.

[Paul_Heery]

I found this pic on the net. I had to use someone else's artwork since I can't draw as well as you.



The device on the left that is labeled "Partner II Switch" would be your Siemens PBX. The device on the right is an Asterisk box.

The "Tie Lines" that connect them would be either analog or digital depending on what your Siemens PBX supports and has available. I doubt that you have an extra digital line available, but who knows. You do need to check to see if you have available analog lines. Actually, configuring the analog connection is much easier. But, you will need to do some work on your dial plan.

What is not shown in the picture is the gateway. However, that could be located in the IP PBX. The "Tie Lines" need to connect somewhere to get on your Ethernet network.

[svandamme]

Originally Posted by Paul_Heery

I found this pic on the net. I had to use someone else's artwork since I can't draw as well as you.

lol, few people can


I'll have a look at the Siemens tomorrow
then it's really a matter of getting the right hardware ordered

problem is that the old geek looked into this, but it's on permanent hold
it's not moving along somewhere along the line , approval, testing, dunno myself...

but if need be, i'll setup my own asterix box and expense maybe a 1 port card, just to get myself up and running

it's not really a technical problem anymore, if you catch my drift
at least it's not anymore now you explained it a bit, and i know where to look...

[Paul_Heery]

If you are a small company, I would probably recommend that you not waste time integrating the Siemens PBX with an IP PBX. Go right to an IP PBX. The cost and complexity will be significantly lower.

[HardDrive]

+1 on Paul's answer.

Why invest in a gateway product? If its a small implementation, a VOIP solution can be pretty cheap, and much more flexible going forward.

[svandamme]

not possible, we're in a business centre, it's not our PBX to begin with

[svandamme]

Only just managed to check out the PBX, it's a Siemens Hipath 3500
both analog and digital subscriber ports available, more free analog ports left ,
and if you say analog is easier to configure, i guess that's just a lucky coincidence


I'm looking at the
TDM404BF Card:
4 FXO Ports
240.00EUR

TDM404EF Card:
4 FXO Ports & Echo Cancellation
400.63EUR

Is the echo cancellation a big deal? is it worth the extra money, very noticable improvement or not?

[stealthn]

Stijn,

Yes many ways to accomplish what you want. How many phones/lines do you need? This is the breaker. We use and resell an excellent Linksys VoIP solution (as well as Cisco) but for a small business the LinkSys Business class system (not consumer grade) is excellent, but it's for 16 users/lines or less.

It is based on Asterix and we use a Voicemail system - 32 voicemail boxes - 4 FXO ports, a PBX system with 2 FXS ports, supports 4 lines either analog telco, ITSP, or a combination (that's what we do) and several 2 - 6 line phones with dual ethernet ports (one to PC and one to phone with PoE) all for under $1k.

PBX has paging, call park, auto attendant, and can be setup to do almost anything a major vendor (such as Cisco) can do. Really a remarkable system and you don't need to be a VoIP guru to set it up.

If you want more info PM me your email address and I can send you a PDF.

[svandamme]

Hi Bob,

4 lines should do for now, we don't mind the setup, allready have Asterix running
so i'll just get the digium card, and get the Asterix hooked up to the PBS... it's a learning experience too

[svandamme]

looks nice Wayne, but i just looked at the prices.. bit steep

E-1000U-RLM EXTender 1000, Definity 1000, Analog Remote 1 Port
Quote It »
Ships
Same Day $857.70
$1195.00
E-1000U-RNM EXTender 1000, Extender1000, Nortel 1000, Analog Remote - 1 Port
Quote It »
Ships
Same Day $857.70
$1195.00
E-1000U-SNM EXTender 1000, Extender1000, Nortel 1000, Analog Switch Unit
Quote It »
Ships
Same Day $857.70
$1195.00
E-1000U-CLM EXTender 1000, Definity 1000, Analog Switch Card - 1 Port
Quote It »
Ships
Same Day $584.80
$749.0


for that money i can get Digium cards, slap it in the Asterix, and set up 8 users instead of just 1...

I'm sure it's easier to setup, but it's just not worth that kind of money to us, i'll never get my boss to pay for it, we're a start up company, we don't have money to burn on just about anything and need choose what we want to spend money on...

[svandamme]

lil update, held off buying hardware, because of the cost, and not knowing what result's i would get...

by accident found a cheapo clone digium card, single fxo for something like 20 euro's

just got it, detected as a digium card. whacked it in an old machine, asteriks now on top...

and i have voip via a regular landline, no pbx

need to clear an analog port on the siemens
and then i'll see how that works out..

worst case, i can forward calls from the hunt queue to voip
and then not have the option to reroute them back to the others

that would be similar functionality to what we do not "forward desk phone to cellphone"

but it would be cheaper then cellphone forwarding...

this Asteriks thing is actually quite fun

It might be viable to simply break free from the siemens pbx all together , at a very low price

sound quality is not to bad, even with the clone card that has no hardware echo cancellation... and to think that at my previous job, we had migrated to an Avaya setup, that was beaucoup $$$ and sounded waaaaay worse