VoIP - Nothing short of disappointing...

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DaveDog

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#103122 30-May-2012 21:17

Well... My work recently relocated to new premises. We're on a Rural Link Fibre connection.

We signed onto 2talk and purchased an office lot of Cisco SPA501G phones... The setup has been hit and miss, the operation of the system is at best haphazard...

Given the chance... We'd likely have not bothered, bought a PABX and stayed on the copper...

Thoughts?

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#632915 30-May-2012 21:21

What kind of system is it? Asterisk based? And what issues are you seeing? Did a phone systems guy put it in? or an IT guy?

sbiddle

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#632917 30-May-2012 21:23

VoIP as a technology is fantastic. There is nothing at all disappointing about it.

The way VoIP is implemented, the way hardware is configured, and the choice of VoIP provider can all lead to issues.

DonGould

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#632922 30-May-2012 21:31

Thoughts...

2Talk is great once set up properly.

Can you tell us in more detail what your issues are?

What have you done so far to prove out the issues?

Totally agree that a fully functioned copper based PABX, something like Panasonic, can be just rock solid and hassle free if it's installed and set up by someone who knows what they're doing. It should cost you 5 to 10 times as much and the running costs should be 3 to 5 times as much. If you can budget, then many will argue that it's worth the spend.

Features wise, nothing touches 2Talk voip from what I've seen so far. Cost is great.

It does seem to take a bit of time to learn VoIP set up properly and bed stuff down and Cisco hardware can be hit an miss. I've just spent 2 hours setting something up on the new SPA100 hardware that would have taken me 10 minutes on the older SPA2102.

I get that it's frustrating, but long term VoIP is where we're all going like it or not, so your investment now will pay off longer term.

D

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DaveDog

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#632928 30-May-2012 21:37

The system is a half dozen phones connecting directly to 2talk, then set to all ring using their 1number (I think it is called service). We find that the phones occasionally lock up. One phone will not recognise the shared lines. They are very slow at transferring calls. It was all installed by an unlucky IT guy that was dropped in it (to be fair).

Not to mention that the non-ported numbers are non-geo numbers (which just annoys me)

chevrolux

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#632931 30-May-2012 21:45

How many phones have you got? That sounds like a slap it in and hope it will be alright sort of job. This kind of installation is what is giving VoIP a bad name. Seeing as you have the phones I would be putting in an Asterisk server with FreePBX. Get the amount of trunks you actually NEED and not one for each phone - cuts cost even more. But get someone who has some experience with VoIP and Asterisk to set it all up.

skyplonk

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#632940 30-May-2012 22:01

One of my main jobs is design, implementation and support of VoIP (SIP) systems and like sbiddle said VoIP is a fantastic technology and if deployed correctly is a true fixed line replacement service.

The 2 biggest faults I find are over sold solutions where the customers expectations does not meet what they were sold or people that get a system via a "best efforts" internet connection from the cheapest provider they can find cramming as many G729 calls as they can down the connection and then complain when it has issues.

If the system is running over a reliable fat pipe (preferably with a CIR to cover the man number of calls you will need) with good hardware on the end you should be ok.

Remember in most scenarios on a hosted solution signalling and RTP goes back to the proxy/sip server so even inter-office calling goes out and in your IP link. If you start having a lot of subscriptions (button mappings for example) that can be a lot of signalling flying around depending on how things are setup. Maybe an advantage of a onsite IP PBX.

DaveDog

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#632949 30-May-2012 22:13

We've got six phones in total - soon to be seven...

I've started by getting "professionals" to quote to sort it all out... So far, we've had the suggestion of trading all our new VoIP phones in, and going back to the old fashioned copper lot (Fail...), We've had a suggestion of adding a Cisco 320 to the mix... Not sure there... and still waiting on one other suggestion...

I'm the first to admit that these things were set up in haste, and that's obviously the main factor in the outcome... But, I hate to say it - but I do wonder if there is anyone in Hamilton that knows how to sort these things out, make them just work - with no words like should, perhaps, probably in the promise line...

On the flipside... Call clarity... Fantastic!

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hairy1

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#632952 30-May-2012 22:16

I think coffebaron is around Hamilton?

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DonGould

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#632955 30-May-2012 22:25

Don't know much about the 320 yet, was looking at those the other day. There was a thread on here about them. iirc you can't set up external extensions can you? Not sure if that's an issue for you.

I've been messing about with FreePBX as suggested above, it does look like a really sensible suggestion.

Good move to look for someone local. The 'just works' will depend as much on just having a person who really just knows how to set them up properly.

I can set up SPA's to 'just work' now. They get to site and just go without hassles, so this stuff does do it.

D

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Handle9

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#632964 30-May-2012 22:29

VOIP is the same as any other engineered solution. There are 3 possible types of results: fast results, cheap results or good results. You generally only get a maximum of two of these.

DonGould

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#632969 30-May-2012 22:36

Handle9: VOIP is the same as any other engineered solution. There are 3 possible types of results: fast results, cheap results or good results. You generally only get a maximum of two of these.

Totally....

Broadband - fast, cheap, reliable - pick any 2.

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DaveDog

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#632970 30-May-2012 22:36

Handle9: VOIP is the same as any other engineered solution. There are 3 possible types of results: fast results, cheap results or good results. You generally only get a maximum of two of these.

We got one...

freitasm

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#632974 30-May-2012 22:44

There are VoIP deployments with hundreds and thousands of extensions. It's a computer system and as such it needs someone with knowledge and experience to plan, design and deploy it.

If you got an "unlucky IT guy" chances are he screwed up. Sorry, I don't know the guy, but it's most likely.

Get someone who can actually make this work. Depending on where you are talk to CoffeeBaron, Skyplonk, sbiddle and go from there.

DonGould

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#632976 30-May-2012 22:45

DaveDog:
Handle9: VOIP is the same as any other engineered solution. There are 3 possible types of results: fast results, cheap results or good results. You generally only get a maximum of two of these.

We got one...

Bugger... getting 2 normally isn't to hard.

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Zeon

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#632979 30-May-2012 22:55

You need a VOIP PBX. What has been setup for you is in all honesty possibly the most retarded way of setting up a phone system for an office. I have had fantastic and very reliable results with Asterisk on Trixbox and PBX in aa Flash. We currently run around 50 users over 4 sites NZ wide on a single system in Auckland, never skipped a beat in the last 2 years.

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