Some Questions from a Newbie.

[bunoire14]

Hey Guys, this isnt so much a technical issue as much as a fact finding post.

Allow me to set the scene...

I am part of a family business that currently runs 3 companies, from 2 separate office locations and 2 separate warehousing locations. We recently invested in our own dedicated web server, and are in the process of moving over our websites to the server and providing our own hosting. Once we got the server I started looking at other things it could be used for and came across the idea of running our telephone lines through it so achieve 2 things... firstly, free calls between office locations as there are many of them.... secondly a more professional approach to handling calls within the business.

So far I have installed the 3CX Free edition and have managed to get my home computer and office computer on seperate extensions, and dialing each other with the softphone etc no probs. The software seems very straight forward and very easy to setup and use. I'm in the process of sourcing a SIP Trunk to enable "external" incoming and outgoing calls, rather than just the "Internal".

Here are my questions:

1. Does the free edition allow the use of "external" calls over a SIP service or would i be required to purchase a licensed version to achieve this? The "Lite" version probably is within the company budget, but I'm not sure id fully utilise all the features it has.

2. I notice the Lite version and the free version state they hare able to handle 4 simultaneous calls, does this include the extension to extension "internal calls" or only referring to the SIP/VOIP "external calls"? for example, If I had 4 calls from customers coming in and being handled, could a call from an internal extension then still be made to another internal extension?

Hopefully this makes sense, apologies if I haven't used the correct terminology, like I say this is all new to me.... but I'm very impressed.

Best Regards,

Oliver

 

[discovery1]

Here are my questions:

1. Does the free edition allow the use of "external" calls over a SIP service or would i be required to purchase a licensed version to achieve this? The "Lite" version probably is within the company budget, but I'm not sure id fully utilise all the features it has.

2. I notice the Lite version and the free version state they hare able to handle 4 simultaneous calls, does this include the extension to extension "internal calls" or only referring to the SIP/VOIP "external calls"? for example, If I had 4 calls from customers coming in and being handled, could a call from an internal extension then still be made to another internal extension?

Hopefully this makes sense, apologies if I haven't used the correct terminology, like I say this is all new to me.... but I'm very impressed.

Best Regards,

Oliver

Hi Oliver

In answer to your questions

1. Yes

2. Simultaneous calls are endpoint to endpoint, so internal to internal extensions are counted as a call

 

[galal202]

Hey Guys, this isnt so much a technical issue as much as a fact finding post.

Allow me to set the scene...

I am part of a family business that currently runs 3 companies, from 2 separate office locations and 2 separate warehousing locations. We recently invested in our own dedicated web server, and are in the process of moving over our websites to the server and providing our own hosting. Once we got the server I started looking at other things it could be used for and came across the idea of running our telephone lines through it so achieve 2 things... firstly, free calls between office locations as there are many of them.... secondly a more professional approach to handling calls within the business.

So far I have installed the 3CX Free edition and have managed to get my home computer and office computer on seperate extensions, and dialing each other with the softphone etc no probs. The software seems very straight forward and very easy to setup and use. I'm in the process of sourcing a SIP Trunk to enable "external" incoming and outgoing calls, rather than just the "Internal".

Here are my questions:

1. Does the free edition allow the use of "external" calls over a SIP service or would i be required to purchase a licensed version to achieve this? The "Lite" version probably is within the company budget, but I'm not sure id fully utilise all the features it has.

2. I notice the Lite version and the free version state they hare able to handle 4 simultaneous calls, does this include the extension to extension "internal calls" or only referring to the SIP/VOIP "external calls"? for example, If I had 4 calls from customers coming in and being handled, could a call from an internal extension then still be made to another internal extension?

Hopefully this makes sense, apologies if I haven't used the correct terminology, like I say this is all new to me.... but I'm very impressed.

Best Regards,

Oliver

Hello and welcome,
the answer for first question yes
second question: all calls are counted

 

[mhanson]

Looks like the two prior posters are spot on.

I know the price can seem intimidating, but in the grand scheme of telephony it is very cheap. You have to look at this as an investment. With 5 offices, you could just buy a Small Business or Pro version and have all 5 offices in one server. Seems like a good deal to me.

 

[ciscotech2007]

Every end-2-end call counts as 1 license.

3CX is a very cost effective solution... go look out there... and you will see.

VoIP providers like Broadvox and CallCentric work very well with 3CX and offer FREE calls between sites when calling externally between offices (that is if both 3CX servers have an account with the same provider)