Sip phones / VOIP Phones types

A VOIP phone system requires the use of SIP phones / VOIP phones. SIP phones come in several versions/types:

SIP / VOIP Soft phones - software based SIP phone

A software based SIP phone is a program which makes use of your computer's microphone and speakers, or an attached headset to allow you to make or receive calls. Examples of SIP phones are SJPhone from SJlabs (http://www.sjlabs.com), Xten (http://www.xten.net) or 3CX VOIP Phone for Windows.

3CX VoIP phone

USB VOIP phones
A USB phone plugs into the USB port of a computer and with the use of a SIP/ VOIP soft phone software behaves just like a phone. Essentially its not more then a microphone with a speaker, however because they appear like a normal phone they are more intuitive to use for a user.

A USB phone

Hardware SIP Phone
A hardware based SIP phone looks like and behaves just like a normal ‘phone’. However it is connected directly to the data network. These phones have an integrated mini hub, so that they can share the network connection with the computer. That way you do not need an additional network point for the phone. Examples of hardware SIP phones are Cisco, Linksys, Aastra, Snom and Grandstream.

A hardware SIP phone

Use analog phone via an ATA adapter
If you want to use your current phone with the VOIP phone system, you can use an ATA adapter. An ATA adapter allows you to plug in the Ethernet network jack into the adapter and then plug the phone into the adapter. That way your old phone will appear to the VOIP phone system software as a regular SIP phone.

An ATA adapter which allows an analog phone to connected to a VOIP system

VoIP phones are very inexpensive to buy and can bought online via one of the many VOIP product online shops. 3CX VoIP Phone System for Windows supports all popular VoIP phones and most models can be automatically provisioned too. You can download the Free edition here.

More information about VoIP phones and VoIP in general can be found in our SIP / VoIP Video tutorials, 'Voip Nuggets'. VoIP Nuggets are short youtube technical training tutorials about VoIP. Click here for the latest list of VoIP Nuggets.

IP PBX, SIP & VOIP common questions