cisco for home use

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HouseFan55627

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#42539 6-Oct-2009 15:06

Hello all!

well i been trying to figure things out and been having a hard time. i LOVE the Cisco 7940g IP phone they made...i seen SOO many people use it. Now i would want to use it in my home office/bedroom but have no idea where to start, like how or what do i even need

but i also like SPA921 Cisco phone, and it seems much easier.

i have verizon dsl and phone from verizon, so i have no idea where to start to even use a cisco phone in my home. any help i would like on how to do this

thanks,

Jordan Morley

Kyanar

4089 posts

Uber Geek

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#261722 6-Oct-2009 15:15

Well, these are IP phones, so you will need some sort of phone system. It could just be a SIP server (you might be able to get away with hosted, but either way Asterisk could do this cheaply). You also need to purchase the phone technology license from Cisco - I don't know how expensive this would be.

The only real implementation of these things I've seen has been a full scale rollout with IADs and server equipment - obviously way overkilll for home office.

HouseFan55627

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#261723 6-Oct-2009 15:17

do you think an IP phone is to much for home office and i maybe should go with a phone system like the at&t 1040? i been researching and IP phone set ups seem to be a pain in the a$$

let me know your opinion thanks

hads

392 posts

Ultimate Geek

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#261726 6-Oct-2009 15:23

Of course you can use an IP Phone at home. Many/most people do this without a local SIP server, just registering back to their VoIP provider.

Cisco aren't a great choice though, for starters you have to pay for the firmware so basically you're buying a paperweight until you pay for a license. Secondly their SIP firmware still has odd issues with various server implementations so you might run in to trouble anyway.

nicegear.co.nz - VoIP, DVB and other Linux compatible hardware

HouseFan55627

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#261729 6-Oct-2009 15:34

what VOIP phone is the best to use? what about AVAYA,

like vonage is VOIP but there "box" does not Support IP phones, so im lost on what i should do

hads

392 posts

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#261739 6-Oct-2009 15:57

Well I'm guessing this box is an ATA which expects an analog phone. So you probably have three options;

1. Use an analog phone.
2. Inquire if they support a VoIP phone
3. Find another provider who does.

nicegear.co.nz - VoIP, DVB and other Linux compatible hardware

kiwiscoota

237 posts

Master Geek

#262274 7-Oct-2009 22:37

Avaya are designed as a full phone systems and not really appropriate for home use.

Personally I would look at IP phones such as Snom, Thompson, Aastra or even Grandstream (stay away from their Budgetone series).

Snom make a cordless VOIP phone which allows up to three phones running off their base station, the configuration being phone 1 (phone with base station), phone 2 (phone only), phone 3 (phone only).

You would also need to arrange a VOIP service with any of your local VOIP providers. I started as a rank amateur with VOIP and found it reasonable easy to configure my phones to work with my VOIP provider, helped of course by detailed "support instructions" on their web site.

hads

392 posts

Ultimate Geek

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#262301 8-Oct-2009 08:15

Actually, the snom m3 supports up to 8 phones off the one base station, with 3 simultaneous calls.

nicegear.co.nz - VoIP, DVB and other Linux compatible hardware

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kiwiscoota

237 posts

Master Geek

#262313 8-Oct-2009 09:14

hads: Actually, the snom m3 supports up to 8 phones off the one base station, with 3 simultaneous calls.

Thanks for the correction, it does also show the danger of me relying on my memory of what I'd read about the Snom m3 on your web-site http://nicegear.co.nz/ip-phones/

I must have got confused between the number of simultaneous calls and the number of phones supported off the base station

JimBrack

51 posts

Master Geek

#263138 10-Oct-2009 19:42

Hi I'm running 2 x Cisco 7912 ip phones, picked four up on trade-me for less than $100.00, the seller said that 2 were not working, but after a bit of googling, I was able to update the firmware to sip on all 4, joined them up to 2Talk and have not had a problem. (I sold 2 7912's for $100 each)

richms

28215 posts

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Lifetime subscriber

#263182 10-Oct-2009 21:56

I picekd up some more ciscos off trademe that were just flashing the light on power on, eventually found a copy of the file that it was requesting from the tftp server via bittorrent (actually, may have been a forum and rapidshare) and that got them back into life.

I must say that the 7911 is a pig compared to the 7912. Slower menus, less logical menus, and a lot more work to configure...

Richard rich.ms

HouseFan55627

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#263222 11-Oct-2009 07:48

hi guys

well i am in America, Pittsburgh PA, so...i would need a local provider....i see this not in the US...LOL my bad :), any help for the American?