Two phones on one VoIP line?

I have a small office, just my wife and I. I'm interested in switching from standard phone service to a VoIP provider. I want our phone setup to work essentially the same as it does now which is:

  • A call comes in on our single line, and both of our phones ring (one on her desk, one on mine). Either of us can answer the phone.
  • If I answer and the call is for her, I can put the call on hold and she can pick up the call by taking it off of hold on her phone.

My questions:

1) Can I do these with your provided equipment and my phones? Does it depend on my phone's specifications/capabilities?

2) Can I do these if I elect to use softphones and not physical phones? Does it depend on the softphone's specifications/capabilities?

I need to be able to have both phones ring and be able to somehow move a call from one phone to the other.

If it's of any importance, I'm considering BroadVoice VoIP with a Linksys RT31P2-NA router w/ 2 phone ports and the eyeBeam softphone, which is basically the pro version of the X-Lite softphone.

A final question: When using a softphone, does the call get to the computer via the ethernet cable or via a phone cord through the modem port?

Thanks for helping a VoIP newbie.

-- Jeff

Reply to
jeffgreinert
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Your existing phones are on the same analog loop. If you subscribe to a VoIP provider, there will still be an analog loop, but it will be powered by your VoIP TA (terminal adapter), rather than the phone company. Your analog phones will work as before.

Residential ph> I have a small office, just my wife and I. I'm interested in switching

Reply to
Pat Coghlan

I found this paper helpful

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Reply to
Tom Ruehle

Thanks for the great info. Any experience doing this with softphones?

-- Jeff

Reply to
jeffgreinert

Sorry. I have no experience with softphones.

Reply to
Tom Ruehle

Well, thanks again for the great link. It's looking like I'm going to start w/ regular physical phones, and that info is invaluable.

-- Jeff

Reply to
jeffgreinert

Jeff,

What question did you have regarding softphones?

Jonathan

Reply to
Jonathan Roberts

I know it might be a bit much, but if you want menus, music on hold, etc you might want to check out Trixbox.

Also, watch out with broadvoice's unlimited plans - make sure you get the business plans, and make sure you read the fine print!

-n8

J>

Reply to
user

not exactly wwhta you want but is what you need voip and pstn joined for your favorite handset low cost, and use zero added power .. lowst cost to own and opertae

Description

COMBINE-A-LINE ?? IMAGINE

?.1=2

Ever wish you could use your favorite single-line telephone, answering machine, or PC Modem on TWO phone lines??. Automatically?

OR

How about joining your VOIP port and the plain old (PSTN) telephone jack into a single handset?

OR

How about joining TWO VOIP ports into a single handset, answering machine, or PC Modem?

USE a CLT to join a card card acceptor and your single line telephone as well!

OR

see if anybody picks-up, on another line trunk, after you are already in a call??? A visual real-time security feedback feature!

THEN...........................................

Combine-A-Line (CLT) allows two separate calls from two different lines to be directed to your single line telephone equipment or PC. Centralizing and PROTECTING (SURGE PROTECTION INSIDE) your communication equipment for your home office or for the family.

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Reply to
LVMarc

Jeff,

Connecting your existing phones should be no problem, I did it using ViaTalk, see review below. Softphones are a different issues since they are a SIP client like your adapter and I believe there can only be one registered at any point in time. A work around would be to use an Asterisk PBX on your PC and let that register with your phone company and then connect your adapter/regular phones and the softphone through Asterisk.

Thanks,

Thomas

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Reply to
t

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