Does anyone have any experience of using VOIP at work?

[Jenerys]

Yes, why the analogue lines?

I only have 8 lines at the moment and they're v. expensive ISDN lines.

Is there a BIG risk if I ditch and move everything over to VOIP?

 

[TitanSound]

If your infrastructure is up to it why do you have the analogue lines

I'm not arguing that the VOIP software/hardware is up to it, I'm talking about the internet connection its using.

We are not using an internet connection though. It's an internal VOIP system running over the network so the external calls still get carried on NTL:Telewest fibre.

The analogue lines are there if the network goes down. The only reason is (as I already stated) we are a critical service

 

[grit]

We are not using an internet connection though. It's an internal VOIP system running over the network so the external calls still get carried on NTL:Telewest fibre.

The analogue lines are there if the network goes down. The only reason is (as I already stated) we are a critical service

Ah so its an internal system carried over your own fibre, from what I can tell thats quite a different situation to the OP.

At the same time, you obviously dont trust it 100% if your holding on to the analogue lines.

 

[grit]

Is there a BIG risk if I ditch and move everything over to VOIP?

Most definitely IMHO

 

[Kanda]

You shouldn't ever trust anything 100%. That's the whole idea when considering failover/redundancy isn't it?

 

[Jenerys]

TitanSound!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry, you're demoted

 

[grit]

You shouldn't ever trust anything 100%. That's the whole idea when considering failover/redundancy isn't it?

Yeah very true, i was being crass to try and illustrate the point for the OP that its not a like for like replacement.

 

[TitanSound]

TitanSound!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry, you're demoted

*cries*

 

[mincepie]

We have it at work - all seems fine.
Overall quality - I guess it depends on how serious you are - a proper dedicated internet connection for voip, real 'hardware' etc vs some Skype laptop lash up.

---
Could you could consider a second internet connection from another provider/route for redudancy vs POTS/ISDN etc?? More knowledgable people, what would be the downside of this?

 

[Jenerys]

Dammit, can't take the risk. We're working in a global market and do a lot of conference calling with people paying a bit of a premium for our services.

If I need to think about back up, in my little company, I might as well use the back up....and look into VOIP when it's completely stable.

Hmmmm, now who sorts out the VOIP cabling? Is it BT, or are Kingston and others involved in that? Is it something I should be talking to the facilities people in my new building about?

 

[TitanSound]

Dammit, can't take the risk. We're working in a global market and do a lot of conference calling with people paying a bit of a premium for our services.

If I need to think about back up, in my little company, I might as well use the back up....and look into VOIP when it's completely stable.

Hmmmm, now who sorts out the VOIP cabling? Is it BT, or are Kingston and others involved in that? Is it something I should be talking to the facilities people in my new building about?

If you went VOIP all traffic would be carried over the internal network and then connected depending on what outside service you use, fibre phone lines or over an ISP. So cabling would not be an issue, as long as you have network ports for the computers then all is good.

Here we have the Avaya 4610 phones. They have a network card inside of them. The CAT5 cable goes from the network socket into the phone then another CAT5 cable from the phone to the Laptop.

Even when we had our old POTS we still had backup lines running from another PBX and on a different circuit just incase anything went wrong.