VOIP for an office - PBX question

frost

Hi all,
I'm a software developer and IT consultant with some VOIP and networking experience but have never touched a PBX. So I'm here to see if I might get some direction for a client of mine who I think will need one.

They have VOIP but need to change provider because the existing provider is pulling out and taking away their PBX (I have no details of what they were using).

Currently the office has about 10-12 phone instruments, all Grandstreams (I think they're SIP phones), and have the usual office capabilities like calls coming into reception and ability to transfer to an extension, ability to pickup a call from another extension, direct inward numbers, faxing over VOIP, voicemail etc.

The client wants to port about 5 of their numbers, retain the functionality mentioned above and use the Grandstream phones rather than buying new ones.

My current thought is that they would subscribe to a Blueface business plan and then get *lots of hand waving here* to handle the PBX functionality.

I have heard of Asterix and the Linksys SPA 9000, but that's the depth of my PBX "knowledge".

Thanks for any suggestions/pointers!

emul

Suggest you talk to CT3 Europe www.ct3europe.com and get them their own PBX!! CT3 have a complete range of PBX's from entry level to high end dependant on requirements.

Grandstreams will be fine. Are the doing FOIP or fax machine with ATA?

I am affiliated with CT3 (I too am a consultant and work with CT3)

Good luck

Eoin

frost

Emul,
Thanks for that. Yes, it looks like they'll be getting their own PBX all right.

I've since spoken to a techie at Blueface and he suggested I go with the Linksys SPA 9000 -- they have quite a lot of customers using it and can advise on configuration if I run into problems. This seems to me to be the best solution for them: relatively inexpensive, and known by their VOIP provider. I've been reading the manual tonight and I think I can manage it, with help from Google and Blueface.

frost

emul wrote: »

Are the doing FOIP or fax machine with ATA?

Sorry, missed that question.

Erm, I recall a discussion with their VOIP provider:

me: We'll need fax capability, but I believe fax can't go over VOIP?
he: Used to be true but now you can.

They set it up and it worked, client happy, so I never followed up to figure out what they did. I spend my time chasing up things that aren't working, so a working fax over VOIP was under the radar for me. Will have a look at the setup when I'm next there.

Now that I'm thinking of this, I recall they have a credit card machine that needs an analogue line. At my request they had installed a single analogue line "just in case", and this was used for the CC machine.

DublinDilbert

frost wrote: »

At my request they had installed a single analogue line "just in case", and this was used for the CC machine.

I would guess that the credit card machine would work quite well over VOIP, as they usually have a really slow modem in them, typically less than a couple of thousand bps. They do this as they don't need the b/w (hence use a cheap modem module), also the negotiation time is much quicker too....

RangeR

I only mention this as I work in the company named above [as per my signature], so don't take it as advertising...

Yes, we provide a wide range of PBX's. Small, mid range and large [ish]. Depending on your requirements, it can be cheap or expensive. But our systems are windows based and VERY easy to use and admin.

Fax over VoIP is EXTREMELY problematic. It is very hit and miss and in our testing we get nowhere near even 70% success rate.


If you have an analogue line for the CC machine, you can put the fax on that line too. It's highly unlikely [in a company the size you mentioned] that the CC machine and FAX will be used at the same time. Just use a splitter on the line.

The analogue line can also be fed through our PBX's, with the VoIP trunks.

DublinDilbert

On the Fax front you could also get blue face to give you a "virtual fax" number for faxes, so incoming faxes get converted to PDF and emailed on, it can also be used to send out going faxes. You could set up a separate email account for incoming faxes and forward it on to a few people in the company.

frost

well i just heard that the VOIP/BB supplier that was pulling out, isn't pulling out!
don't know yet whether my clients will stay with him or jump anyway...