VoIP

Hi all,

I am in the process of moving my business back home and closing this office. The phone system, while good, was purchased 12 years ago and I don't need 12 line capability (I only use 4).

I don't want to go to the expense of reinstalling this old system and want the capability and flexibility now available with VoIP, but also a little nervous since the business is entirely phone work.

I have broadband thru RoadRunner which has proved quite stable, but unsure how the quality will be with 4 lines using Vonage.

Anyone have any suggestions or recommendations as far as the best 4 line wireless phones to look at, there does not seem to be a lot available.

Any ideas greatly appreciated.

Reply to
Don Harvey
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You might check with a CLEC, or competitive phone company in your area. They sometimes bundle a T1 with several voice channels and internet, which is a much more stable operation than VoIP on cable.

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Reply to
dold

I can't imagine anyone selling an actual T1 circuit for anywhere close to the cost of what your typical broadband connection would cost.

Do some speed tests and monitor your latency by pinging some sites around the internet, do they vary with time of day or day of week? After doing a bit of reading it appears that a vonage calls takes up about

55.2kpbs per call so that times four = 220.8kpbs. Can and does your internet connection maintaine that upload speed? (mine is 435kpbs) Don't forget about having a little extra doing other things online while these calls might be taking place. The key to voip is low latency with enough bandwidth to allow for all packets to be sent out in a timely fashion. Once that voice packet is generated and transmitted it is gone forever. I have nothing against Vonage but don't forget to look into other providers just as a comparison. Find out what Codec they use and how much bandwidth each call takes and compair that to your upload speeds.

Adair

Reply to
Adair Winter

Thanks for the advice. I will compare the other providers as well. I got one line from Vonage to test it out. So far it has been very stable, but not a good test when 4 lines are hooked up and the usage is heavier.

Reply to
Don Harvey

Sure, but this is a business use. Broadband from an entertainment company and/or Vonage are a combination that could have him down for days.

Reply to
George

George, that is what worries me the most. Since I am close to retirement age, I am downsizing the business to have a little more time. So the idea is to almost create a virtual office since this all phone work (transportation brokerage) and with a laptop and phone can be operated anywhere. I love the flexibility of VoIP in that the modem can be plugged anywhere there is a broadband connection and rerouting calls is a breeze when compared to a land line.

It may not work as I hope, but going to give it a try - keeping a land line and also have a couple of cell phones should keep me out of serious problems if this does not work very well.

Sure, but this is a business use. Broadband from an entertainment company and/or Vonage are a combination that could have him down for days.

Reply to
Don Harvey

You get what you pay for. I don't think Vonage is suitable for business.

The TFire with four lines and 1.2MB bi-directional internet cost less than four voice lines, plus four dialup modem lines.

It isn't VoIP, which I think is the important part, for business.

No experience?

I have 7762 down, 512 up, and Callvantage VoIP stinks. Callvantage says they need 90KbpS per phone call.

Running a speed test while on a phone call showed ~4500 down, but didn't seem to affect the crappy audio at all.

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runs a small codec to one of the Brix servers, to simulate a phone call for testing and rating.

Today, my outbound score is "3.2", lower on the chart than "As bad as a crummy cell phone call". But I'm running the test on an 802.11b WiFi. Sometimes it is 4.2, which is "like calling next door", but it's not. The detailed analysis is no packets lost, but way too many packets discarded. The VoIP adapter statistics show no problems. The inbound score is 4.3, which ought to be excellent, but the actual voice calls are still bad.

Reply to
dold

I also use a Cisco IP Communicator softphone. That is a better product than Callvantage, but not as good as POTS lines. The softphone is really the cool way to be for portability. A Bluetooth headset, or USB wired headset, and your office is anywhere, including via 3G cellular cards on Cingular. I have walked out of a coffee shop when it got too loud, carrying my laptop, while talking on the Ciscophone.

I wonder if the softphone from Callvantage or Vonage is better than the terminal adapters.

Have you looked into a T-Mobile Wifi Phone? That would work via T-Mobile UMA if WiFi is available, like at home, and via cellular when Wifi is not available.

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Reply to
dold

Thanks Clarence,

Good info and things to consider. I have Roadrunner which test show 6640 down and 492 up. I guess use will be the only way to really know if this will work.

Reply to
Don Harvey

Reply to
Don Harvey

I'd have to look up the link, but I recall testing was done with the optimum codec compression and they figured a a 1.5 Mbps T1 was good for only twenty simultaneous VoIP calls.

Reply to
nevtxjustin

Have a blast with VoIP, then. 4.4 is the maximum possible, using that codec currently employed. You can see on the "view details" page. Right now, on a wired connection, I get 4.4 from them to me, but I have 3.7 from me to them because of "discards", no dropped packets. I don't know what that means. I only know that what I hear on Callvantage is annoying, with pops, clicks, and dropped digits in phone numbers.

People comment on the poor quality. One friend asked if I had forwarded the home phone to my cellphone. I don't even think that it's my link. I had a voicemail the other day with a common, recognizable audio dropout, when played as a wav file from email (Callvantage allows you to forward all voicemail to email accounts). The dropout was there, replayed several times, on audio that never came to my house.

That was the day that I decided calling Callvantage customer service any more about the audio was pointless. Each call is 20-30 minutes on hold before talking to anyone (I watch the timer on my phone). The first time, they said it was my cable carrier, based on testyourvoip. The second time, testyourvoip was over 4, so they said they would send a replacement adapter, which I was ready to insist that they send to me, or I would quit. I called the cableco. They looked at signal levels, changed out an old style grounding block for a new style, and that was that. dslreports.com/stest?flash=1 shows 6845/534, so cable thinks they are good. I have no stake in Callvantage, I can go back to POTS. The third call was to ask why I hadn't received my replacement adapter, and they said they couldn't see that one had been ordered, so they set my up for another. I didn't get that one, and I didn't call back. Back to POTS for me.

Reply to
dold

A T-1 can carry 24 POTS channels. I would expect compression to do a much better job than that for VoIP. But I don't think it's the raw bandwidth that's the killer. I think it is latency, jitter, and dropouts, which are listed on the testyourvoip detailed screen.

Reply to
dold

True, T1 will handle 24 voice grade toll quality calls without any compression. But the test they did came up with 20 VoIP calls per a T1. I really don't recall teh details of the tests thought.

Reply to
nevtxjustin

Depends on the codec being used. G711 and G729 being examples. I would use G729 over any Wan connection and use G711 on my local connections.

Partly

Yes those issues also need to be addressed.

Reply to
Dana

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