Merge BT phones and 3CX without VOIP contract?

[Jake Elsley]

Hi,

I currently have a home phone from BT which handles our outside calls and an internal PBX phone system run by 3CX software. Currently we can call externally on our landline phones, and make internal calls (office to office) using the phone client software on the PCs. What I was wondering is if it was at all possible to merge these two so they all ran through just one phone? We don't have a VOIP contract so we can't set up 3CX to handle external calls.

Any help or ideas would be appreciated.

Cheers,

Jake

Setup:

* Server running 3CX - local lan cabling - client computers with the 3XC phone software (internal)
* Phone line in - series circuit connects up phones (internal)

 

[ccomley]

Easy. You need an ATA.

I have a Linksys one, which was quite cheap, but has poor echo-cancellation and I *cannot* get CLI passing through to 3CX properly, and a more expensive but better Patton SN4112. The former I had to wrestle with a bit, and manually configured in the end. The latter, 3CX auto-provisioned it nicely, only one parameter needed tinkering with and that's coz i have an unusual network config.

 

[leejor]

If you "merge" you will have to choose to do it before, or after, 3CX.

Doing it before, would require a Gateway to bring the BT line into 3CX as a trunk. Then, depending on your outbound rules, any set (extension) connected to 3CX could have access to both that line, for outside calls , or any other extension on the PBX. This would also allow the later addition of VoIP trunks, as your needs (and, perhaps prices) changed.

To merge after, would require the use of multi line analogue sets where one key was connected to your current BT line and one was connected to an ATA, as a 3CX extension. You'd have access to both lines from one set, but would probably be more expensive and less flexible.

 

[Jake Elsley]

@CComley when you mentioned an ATA adapter are you referring to this type of item:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Unlocked-PAP2T-NA-SIP-VOIP-Phone-Adapter-2-Ports-RJ-45-Cable-from-London-/320913076956?pt=UK_Computing_MicrophonesPhones_RL&hash=item4ab7e8f2dc

Looking at VOIP gateways online I cannot work out how they would connect to the phone line... There appears to be a two Rj11 for the phones and a lan cable socket for connecting to 3CX.

Thank you for your help,

Jake

 

[ccomley]

Yes-ish. That's an FXS gateway - you need FXO.

FXS would let you plug BT regular (PSTN) phones into 3CX as extensions.

FXO would let you plug a BT *line* into 3CX as a trunk.

Some of the Linksys models have one of each or can work either way, I believe, but you'd need to check the specs.

The Patton I use is a Smartnode 4112J 2xFX0 ports, i.e. you can connect one or two PSTN lines to the 3CX system using it. I can't rember what the Linksys is< I'm afraid, it's buried under a heap of clobber. But as I said, it's not brilliant, and if you can stand the spend, the Patton would do a better job. But whatever you do, remember to get *FXO* unit(s) for connecting LINES to the PBX, not extensions.

 

[Jake Elsley]

Wow this is confusing

So if I purchased an FSO would I then connect the phone line in into the Rj11 ports and then the phones into the ethernet? I'm confused...

The FSO (adapters?) all seem rather expensive... like £200+. Just seems kind of expensive... :|

 

[leejor]

You want a Gateway, or FXO (Foreign Exchange Office) adapter .

For a single phone line, I prefer the Linksys/Cisco SPA-3102. It contains both an FXO and an FXS port. It will allow a PSTN line to work on 3CX and it will support a standard analogue telephone as an extension. It is not always the easiest thing to set up as it offers far more options than the average user would ever need, but it does work well. It is also reasonable priced, if you shop around.

 

[leejor]

o if I purchased an FSO would I then connect the phone line in into the Rj11 ports and then the phones into the ethernet? I'm confused...

If you bought a gateway, you would plug the BT phone line into the FXO port. The Ethernet jack would plug into your LAN, the same one the computer running 3CX was on, they could then "talk" to each other, and you would create a trunk in 3CX.

 

[Jake Elsley]

@Leejor that does sound promising and good

Yes we only run one phone line so that would be suitable, and the device seems pretty cheap compared to the other models I've seen.

Are there any setup guides/websites that could give me a heads up on setting up the gear if I purchase one of them?
Scrubb that, so with what you just said (If you bought a gateway...) do I then need to purchase lan/VOIP phones, just at present we have standard phones with 431a plugs...


Cheers

 

[leejor]

Are there any setup guides/websites that could give me a heads up on setting up the gear if I purchase one of them?

I believe that 3CX will do an auto configuration file for download to the unit (I just do mine manually, which is not difficult). There is a config guide here...http: //www.3cx.com/voip-gateways/linksys-3102/ - NO LONGER AVAILABLE

If you went with the 3102, it would support one standard phone as well. If you wanted to use additional sets, you would have to purchace some ATA (Analogue telephone Adapters) , those are the ones with the FXS (Foreign Exchange Station) sockets. They are generally a bit less expensive than gateways and many accommodate two (or more) phones. Linksys also makes these (lots of other makes as well), the SPA-2102 and the PAP2T are a couple of Linksys models.

Again, shop around. Don't forget that you also get what you pay for ,and some devices that offer a better price, may lack some features that you will come to miss.

 

[Jake Elsley]

Thank you for the link.

"it would support one standard phone as well" - as I would test this with two phones would that mean that this one 3102 unit could handle that (guessing there's 2 phone ports)?

Thank you for all your help - it's really helping.

 

[leejor]

No, the 3102 will only the support the PSTN line and ONE telephone. You could run the 3CX softphone on a computer, for testing purpose,s before springing for an ATA.

 

[Jake Elsley]

Okay I understand. One thing that is worrying me about fully adopting 3CX is there is a lag between two of our PCs when we use the phone client. We run a 100mB ethernet and there's very little network load, but we get about 1 to 2 seconds delay. Is this resolvable before purchasing the equipment?

 

[leejor]

We run a 100mB ethernet and there's very little network load, but we get about 1 to 2 seconds delay. Is this resolvable before purchasing the equipment?

That depends on a number of things. A delay of what? Transferring files,VoIP?

VoIP involves a slight delay as analogue is converted to digital, and back again. it is not generally noticeable unless you are in the same room with the other person and can hear both the phone and the "live" person. It can cause some echo issues on PSTN lines, but most can be sorted out.

You can do some testing (extension to extension) using a number of PC's running the 3CX soft phone programme (use a headset, not the computers speakers), before spending any money.

 

[Jake Elsley]

Well when we use the 3CX phone software on say two PCs in different rooms, using headsets, when person 1 speaks it takes about 1-2 seconds for person 2 to hear what they've just said. This makes the conversation hard as you often start speaking just as what they just said comes through. This is just on a small setup with 3CX server running and the phone software connecting through the LAN to it.

 

[leejor]

Well when we use the 3CX phone software on say two PCs in different rooms, using headsets, when person 1 speaks it takes about 1-2 seconds for person 2 to hear what they've just said. This makes the conversation hard as you often start speaking just as what they just said comes through. This is just on a small setup with 3CX server running and the phone software connecting through the LAN to it.

As I said, a slight delay is pretty normal and won't be noticed as long as you can't hear the live person as well as the conversation over the phone. The delay in your case could be a result of the speed of the computers (or settings) being used. There is also an option (3CX PBX extension setting) for each extension, to force the audio packets to pass through 3CX rather than go directly between devices, you might want to see how that is set.

If it were a network issue, if you were, say, using an old Hub rather than a Switch, i would expect the audio to be distorted (or noisy) with packets were dropped as it attempted to "keep up". Voice packets are time sensitive, if the next ones don't arrive when expected, they get dropped, voice can't afford to wait or re-send as "regular" data can. A certain amount can be tolerated without the callers noticing much, it will just be a slight noise, anything more will cause a breakup of the conversation.

 

[RichardCrabb1]

Hi,
I suspect that the PC running 3CX is running a high cpu load. I can assure you that normally do not get anything like that delay. Also using the 3102 needs the correct setup for the UK so that you get the best clarity available. The right line impedance for example. You can google both tone and impedance settings for the spa-3102. Also - the CLI format.

Richard

 

[spence1]

It pretty unusual to have such a big delay using the 3CX soft clients. I have a implementation running across the internet and I do not have such a big delay. There would really there segments that can contribute to the delay. The sending PC, network and the receiving PC. First thing I would disable the option on the extensions to "send audio" this just add more delay by sending the audio stream the server and this not necessary if your end points are on the same network or not separated by a NAT device. On the PC make sure the CPU initialization is not high or have some process running maybe like antivirus scanning all the time or is some app with high disk I/O any thing that can rob the soft-client of CPU time CPU scheduling is mainly what add delays to softclient on a PC. The network do some weighted pings like ping <ip address of other PC > -t -l 1200 on a wired 100 MB network this should average under 1 ms more than 500 ms some thing is wrong and need to have you network checked out, voice will have a problem. Checked the other PC make sure resources are available to run the soft client.

Actually I do not really recommend soft client in ever situation handset really the way to, because can be so complex all sort of factors could be affecting the performance of your client.