Richard's Blog » Phone Systems
There has been a lot of talk about Voice Over IP (VOIP) phone systems in the past few years. A VOIP system basically allows you to make calls across a computer network (like the Internet) instead of using landlines provided by Telecom or other telecommunications companies. The cost of calls on a VOIP system can be far lower than those made through a landline provider. Obviously this is very attractive to business.
Here at CLAD Services we have a VOIP system that is based on an excellent Open Source project named trixbox. Trixbox is a Linux distribution that brings together a number of Open Source projects to create a complete PABX system that runs on a computer and, being Open Source, it is available free of charge! Anybody can download Trixbox as a CD image, burn it to CD and then install it on a computer.
Setup can be tricky for people not familiar with VOIP concepts - but Trixbox setup is one of the jobs CLAD Services can do for you.
Once the system is setup you need to add phones to it. With VOIP system you can either use a hardware VOIP phone or simply plug a headset into your computer and use a piece of software. At CLAD Services we use a mix of both. Both Lisa and I work away from the office frequently and we are able to use our computers to connect to the phone system remotely and make calls, pick up voice mail, talk to the staff etc. I'll go into this in more detail in a later post.
Once Trixbox and your phones are set up you can then start making calls across the Internet. However, it can be difficult for people to call you. One way around this is to use a VOIP provider. The VOIP provider will give you an account along with a number that other people can call from other VOIP systems. If you wish to make calls to existing Telecom (or other) landlines, you will definitely need an account with a VOIP provider as many providers also supply the connection between the VOIP system and landline system. We use Venture VOIP for this service.
As most of our clients do not use VOIP we also have two Telecom landlines coming into our office. These are fully integrated into our PABX through the use of a Linksys SPA400. Any incoming calls on these lines are picked up by the PABX and handled like any other call. The SPA400 can handle upto 4 lines so we have room for expansion. Having the landlines also keeps us functioning when power is out for an extended period. As VOIP systems rely on computers and other powered devices, they go down when the power goes off.
Trixbox also provides a full voicemail system for all extensions. You can either pick up voicemail through your phone or have it e-mailed directly to your e-mail inbox and listen to it on your computer. Other features include inbound routing, followme, queues, ring conditions, time conditions, conference calling, music on hold, full call logging and more.
Our entire phone system consists of
It runs on our internal network and spans two sites. We also can connect to it from the outside while travelling. It is a very flexible and reliable system.
The major costs were the three hardware phones and the SPA400. These totalled less than $1000.00. An equivalent commercially produced PABX and VOIP system would cost many, many thousands.
If you are looking at installing a PABX to handle multiple internal phones and external lines, contact us at CLAD Services to discuss the possibilities.
No one has commented on this page yet.
RSS feed for comments on this page | RSS feed for all comments