I've got an application that may apply to many with VoIP. I've got two home landlines (one for myself, and one for my wife). I also have a Vonage line for LD and Fax. We are keeping the landlines for the usual reasons, including inability to port, E-911, etc.
Now, what I want to do is have all outbound LD calls go out on the Vonage line automatically. Right now, I have a separate cordless phone for that line, but that's not the optimal answer! :-) \\
I'd like to have the various corded and cordless phones and the three lines hooked to some sort of home PBX where, either by dialing the required '1' (best answer) or perhaps an '8', calls are connected to the Vonage line. Else, they go out the (correct) landline. (I assume each handset could know its 'proper' outbound landline for local traffic if each input phone jack on the PBX can be programmed to use the appropriate outbound line.)
Now, before PAT jumps in with his PBXtra recommendation :-) , I've discussed this with Mike Sandman, and he really doesn't recommend it for this application.
I'll bet a lot of people have Vonage as an extra LD/Fax line, still have landlines, and would like to do this.
Any recommendations/pointers about home PBX info? Thanks!
Lee Sweet Datatel, Inc. Manager of Telephony Services and Information Security How higher education does business Voice: 703.968.4661 Fax: 703.968.4625 Cell: 703.932.9425 snipped-for-privacy@datatel.com
Mike's complaints can be summarized thusly: (1) People cannot be trained to do a proper flashhook, therefore as often as not cutting off the person. (2) People cannot be trained to correctly dial the number they want to reach, and forget the 9 or 8 or whatever at the start of the call. (3) People do not usually have their houses wired in a 'star' configuration (needed for using PBX) although their office may be thus wired. Mike seems to feel a phone with umpty-dozen buttons (for line selection and feature use) is a better deal, even though to install/move such a phone requires many pairs of wires and is quite labor-intensive to install/move/replace. That's Mike's opinion, to which he is certainly entitled. If I have overlooked other complaints by Mike, perhaps you or he will permit me to stand corrected. Oh, and we have talked off and on about 'custom calling features' such as hookflash to three way call, hookflash to answer call waiting, and hookflash to interject other features in the middle of a call, such as forward to voicemail, etc but he does not think all that matters; its just the dreaded hookflash used on PBX transfers, etc which he dislikes so much.
PBXtra works perfectly well in small applications like mine: more than one phone instrument in a large (geographic space) house; a person who is a wee bit handicapped like myself getting to a phone in time to anwer it before the caller disconnects; a situation where there are a bunch of computers, each of them has their own 'extension' and modem, in addition to a phone in my bedroom, my parlor/dining area, the computer room, a phone where Lisa sits to work, etc. The traffic both inbound and outbound is very slow here, so the PBXtra being 'virtually non-blocking' is almost an overkill. The phone in my bedroom (ext. 104) and the one in my parlor (ext. 105) are both wireless headset style phones, with a range of about half a city block, which I guess is also an overkill. I put all my long distance calls via Vonage (dial 8 +) and all my local calls over Prairie Stream (dial 9+) and answer incoming calls from either line by dialing *70 (forced pickup from the 'operator' line). The modem ability (between computers or in/out from wherever to a computer is about 28.8). Not the best, but okay, since I usually use the cable for the computers, not the modems.
Do as you wish, Lee, but Mike Sandman is just one voice in the wilderness here, mine is another voice. PAT]