anyone using ip phones in a business place?

[davemchine]

I have a pbx at our main location but we also have a remote office that will soon be staffed with three people. I'm wondering if I could hook up a few analog ports from the pbx to some type of box that would allow me to put ip phones at the remote office? That would keep those three people essentially on the same phone system, able to transfer calls etc.

Thoughts?

Dave

[space-time]

we do. However, I am not sure how they did it. I also get voice mails as a WAV file in outlook. That being said, I am not sure what hardware is involved, all I know is that it is IP based and I can reach the headquarters (in a different location) just dialing an extension.

so yes, it can be done, however something tells me that you do not want analog ports as you suggest, see if you can get an IP connection to the other office.

[cbelt3]

We're looking at it enterprise wide, but it is beaucoup dollars and major mojo expertise.

[Bubba3K]

http://www.asterisk.org/

There are lots of spinoffs worth looking at too. asterisknow, trixbox etc.

-Bubba3K

[MGS_forgot_password]

Yeah, they make these SIP converter boxes that will do exactly what you are talking about.

[ztirffritz]

Dave-

I've set up a HelpDesk phone system that my company uses. We have staff using it over our WAN in Columbia SC, Athol MA, Chicago IL, Tacoma WA, and Yakima WA. Oh, I almost forgot we also have someone in Monterrey Mexico using it. It is Trixbox running FreePBX 2.0. We bought $20 USB headsets and use free softphones from Counterpath (http://xten.com/) The have Windows, OS X, and Linux softphones available. I'd be happy to give you a tour if you'd like.


A very simple desktop machine would probably be more than sufficient for 3 users. If you want to use analog POTS lines though you'll need to get some hardware in the form of FXO/FXS cards from Digium or some other suppliers. That will cost about $400-$600 depending on what you want to do. If you can get a 1.5 DSL or Cable connection that would probably work fine and cost much less.

[ztirffritz]

I just noticed that you wanted to tie them to your existing PBX. It can be done, but that adds a another big layer of complexity. They won't be an extension on your network, but you should be able to bridge calls to them using a system speed-dial setting or something like that. If your existing PBX has any VoIP capabilities, that would be ideal.

[davemchine]

Turns out my pbx doesn't have voip built in but I can buy a card. So the phone guys are coming to visit and give me a quote. Thanks for all the info! I may take you up on that offer of a tour.

Dave