Noobie VoIP question

JohnCleary

Guys,
Installing a 4 phone VoIP system next week, new to me. I've e-mailed Goldfish this question, but thought i'd ask here incase anyone can offer some advice

Many thanks...

You can see from account XXX that a 5 user package was bought. We have purchased 4 phones from you (4 people in office). When configuring the phones, should we enter a different SIP login/password (provided in Goldfish control panel) for each phone, hence each phone would have a different number?

On the Goldfish control panel there is a phone number for each user and also an extension. Is this an internal extension number to call other internal phones?

The configuration that we require:
When someone phones their main number, it will call 'reception', but they want all 4 phones to hunt for the call, but the other 3 will be on 'silent' (no ringtone) but they will see the incoming call.

Mr. G

JohnCleary wrote: »

When configuring the phones, should we enter a different SIP login/password (provided in Goldfish control panel) for each phone, hence each phone would have a different number?

You should configure each phone as it's own Extension. Under the Control Panel, there should be a SIP Server, username and password when you click on each extension. So in a nut shell, each phone should have it's own unique username and password.

Obviously 1000 should be Reception, 1001 for phone 2, etc

JohnCleary wrote: »

On the Goldfish control panel there is a phone number for each user and also an extension. Is this an internal extension number to call other internal phones?

You can call each of the other phones by dialling the internal extension number assigned to the phone (which is registered to Goldfish with the unique Username and Password).

JohnCleary wrote: »

The configuration that we require:
When someone phones their main number, it will call 'reception', but they want all 4 phones to hunt for the call, but the other 3 will be on 'silent' (no ringtone) but they will see the incoming call.

Each phone gets it's own DDI.

I would suggest configuring Number 1 to hunt 1000-1003 as you wish, and Number 2-4 to ring 1001-1003 respectively. At least this gives order to the system to prevent confusion in future and to keep things neat and tidy.

You can mute the other phones by turning their volume to zero, but they will still ring, you just will see it pop up on the phone screen, just no ringtone. This will happen if you ring internally. It might be possible to set different ring patterns based on the Caller IDs 1000-1003 so staff can differentiate on internal and external calls, and so mute external calls, but unmute internal calls.
The other option would be to set a 'Line Display Name' on the main telephone number and change the ringtone setting on the phones to something else.

Some phones allow you to do this - what make/model phones have you got?


Some other advice:
- Once you're all set up and running, CHANGE all your passwords for the IP Phones.
- If possible, put them on a seperate VLAN.
- Most importantly: Set up QoS at your router to ensure the phones always get priority over internet traffic to prevent breakdowns in conversations. If you need help with this, please feel free to ask with the model router you have .
- Set up a dial plan on each phone so it rings straight away rather then having to press the # or 'Send' button.
- It's easy to set up everything, but plan it even if it sounds tedious and not required.

I'd recommend installing the phones on the weekend or in the evening when all the staff are gone home. If it's an existing business with a working telephone system, I'd recommend installing the phones and have everything working perfectly alongside the other phones before the line porting form is sent off. Believe me, you don't want the phones to magically stop working and everything been left in a heap.
If you want to test the system, you can change the Caller ID to your existing telephone number you have (assuming you have the main line you're going to port over). Then set this on each Extension (if you wish), and use Goldfish for outbound calls to make sure everything is working.
Then submit the port
- Give staff a chance. The phones probably have different ways of transferring calls etc. The last thing you want is staff to be pissed off. Sit with them for 2 minutes and explain how to make, receive, hold and transfer calls. I find it useful to print off quick instructions on a small sheet and leave it by the phone with the extensions.
Some phones have quick keys which can also indicate whether a colleague is on the phone, that phone is ringing/on hold or available.
Take things step by step is my advice.

Take it step by step and you'll see why VoIP is such a great technology. The above might scare you but it shouldn't.

Shout if you have any other questions and possibly after everything is up and running, let us know how you got on.

You might find this thread helpful:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=250581

* By the way: I don't work in the VoIP industry, I don't have any affiliation with Goldfish whatsoever.

JohnCleary

Thanks for all the help. I got most things setup today, it was quite easy and Goldfish support is excellent imho, they even called me to check things.

I still need to sort out the "All phones see incoming call but only reception rings" and "when we're done in the evening set the phone so it goes straight to voicemail"

FYI, the router is a Cisco EPC3925 and the phones are Grandstream GXP2130

I need to sort out QoS alright

Mr. G

JohnCleary wrote: »

Thanks for all the help. I got most things setup today, it was quite easy and Goldfish support is excellent imho, they even called me to check things.

I still need to sort out the "All phones see incoming call but only reception rings" and "when we're done in the evening set the phone so it goes straight to voicemail"

FYI, the router is a Cisco EPC3925 and the phones are Grandstream GXP2130

I need to sort out QoS alright

I can't find anything on the EPC3925 for QoS. Have a look through the Admin console to see if there's anything there. I did find QoS for Wireless connectivity, but this is not what you want.

You need to give priority to the IPs of the phones (you can give them static IPs for these). Some routers also support QoS by MAC Address or by port numbers.

To send a call to voicemail after hours you have two options here:
- Set up automatic call routing with Goldfish so at a specific time it will cut to Voicemail
- Or alternatively, you could route the line to ring 1000, 1001, 1002 & 1003 all the time. Then set up a voicemail on 1000 for example and forward calls on the extension 1000 to Voicemail 1000. Try 1000 or *1000 for the voicemail. I'm not sure if this will work but if you have difficulty with it, you could create a "dummy extension" to forward calls to after hours which will work. You'd need to check with Goldfish to find out how to do this.

For the silent ringing you have two options:
1. Turn down the volume ringing to nothing on the phones you do not want to hear. When you call internally, you will not hear them but AFAIK they will still show up on the screen of the phone.
They will not show up however if you have Do Not Disturb enabled.

2. You could configure distinctive rings on the phones so internal calls sound different to external calls. So for calls from 1000, 1001, 1002 & 1003, set it to a ring tone with no ring on it for external. And then a ringtone with a ring tone for internal. This gives you the best of both worlds, but it's up to you how you set it up.

For the distinctive ring, here's what you need to do: (Set the ring tone number to [1]xxx



http://support.clouditsp.com/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/105/2/distinctive-ring---grandstream-gxp213021402160