Need advice on getting started

[dharvey]

Hello Everyone,

I am totally new to the world of VoIp. I am in the process of moving my office back home and do not want to move the PBX which is about 15 yrs old. Since there is just my wife and I now, VoIP seems the perfect solution since I now only need 2 lines.

I tested a virtual PBX and purchased 2 Linksys SPA942 phones. Call quality was excellent but the features were limited. So now I have these 2 phones and want to test with a software PBX. Computer network is set up using both Vista and XP Pro and Broadband.

Can anyone provide a few tips to get started such as a good VoIP provider that works well with 3CX. I am more concerned about the quality of the calls than the cost.

Any suggestions greatly appreciated. I am located in Midwest USA.

Don Harvey

 

[dharvey]

Thanks Matt,

I appreciate the info, will take a look at nexvortex. I do a lot of computer work and programming, but VoIP is an entirely different animal. The main problem I had in testing the previous provider was no way to have a station busy lamp and since my wife's office is on the 2nd floor and my office is in the basement, I never knew if she was on a call or not. Only way to solve this I think will be with local software such as 3CX.

Hoping to use these Linksys SPA942 phones since I have already purchased but the Snom phones look pretty good.

Don

 

[landfiets]

BLF Busy Lamp Feature could be a problem with 3CX. i think the developers are busy with that, but maybe Archie knows more about that. Further MWI should work fine with some strange settings, so you will be able to see on your phone when there's a voicemail. You could experience some problems with external extensions. I don't know if you will use it only internal or also different locations. Maybe you can post a clear setup from what you'd like or want. We can give you advise then.

 

[dharvey]

Thanks Edwin,

This will be an internal setup with no external locations. With voicemail will probably only need 2 lines, 3 at most. I have cat5 cable run between the 2nd floor office and the basement office with a 5 port switch attached in the basement office. Using a Linksys 54g wireless 4 port router.

I am trying to avoid running cable but may be forced to do so. The only other option is to use a 4 line phone and either Vonage or POTS. Wireless handsets are not the best if you are on the phone constantly and there are no wireless desksets, only handsets that I know of.

It is becoming harder that I thought to come up with a simple, yet effective solution. I am going to junk my old office pbx which I have used since 1992. It has done an excellent job, but time moves on and I like the new technology of the current phones.

 

[sabalsam]

3CX is our second generation in to the VOIP arena.

For this one I did do it myself. No consultants, but I did follow some pretty universal standards that I use in my consulting business.

PBX should be treated as an isolated application. You want to make sure that you get 5 9 performance out of it, keep it away from end users. I took a real server class machine that was was being retired because the application was being retired and loaded it with a fresh copy of Windows Server 2003. Made sure that it had an ample amount of memory and hard drive space.

Only then did I start to build out the platform. The phones that you wind up using will really define your feature set and complexity of the system.

I am using Cisco 7960s, and I couldn't be happier.

I would also set your system up and play with the various features before I put it into production.

 

[landfiets]

The SPA942 phones you bought are fine, You will have possibillities enough to test and to work with it.
The SPA942's have double LAN so your computer can be plugged into the phone so you don't need an extra CAT line or Switch.
I would say that with 3CX on a server or in a virtual machine enivironment you will work nicely.
When you have a spare computer, install it on there. When you don't have a spare computer, install it on a virtual machine on a ongoing running machine. The whole structure of 3CX is easy to follow as the manual tells you. For specific questions, just ask