What Do You Really Need For Voip?

[BluePlanet]

I have been following a couple of threads which raise some confusion about what is really needed to a do a VOIP system and it is unclear what one needs to have to do regular lines together with VOIP.

 

HMP is a VOIP system, but according to a thread it is really supposed to be using another system to actually make the VOIP calls. Asterik was mentioned. This is a open source LINUX based PBX system. You can plug SIP phones right into the ethernet and using the PC based PBX have all the features of a traditional PBX and then some. Asterik seems to do many of the same things as Voice Guide.

 

What is NOT at all clear is how you then connect Asterik and the PC to the telephone system, or if it is only VOIP. Will Asterik talk over ethernet to a PC running Voice Guide and Dialogic boards? That would be ideal if you could have the best of both worlds and at a very reasonable price.

 

I have seen an Asterik board mentioned that can do 2048 channels of VOIP, though you'd need a DS3.

 

What if you only need 2, 4, or 8 channels of VOIP?

 

Now, what if I just wanted to do a small number of VOIP channels over broadband cable. Is there any reason I could not plug a Linksys PAP2, or adapters from magicJack or Vonage into my analog port Dialogic boards running Voice Guide? I would run the VOIP software itself on a separate box that the USB connectors would go into. You can get motherboards with 8 USB 2.0 connections on them.

 

Is there any reason you could not just run an Asterik box connected to one or more Linksys PAP2 devices and one or more broadband connections and have another box running HPM that talks to it and provides the full fledged IVR system?

 

 

[SupportTeam]

Setting up a VoIP system for inbound calls is a lot simpler then setting one up for outbound calls.

 

Do you want to setup a system that only accepts inbound calls, or one that can make outbound calls?

 

Please note that doing multi-line VoIP over your average Cable/ADSL is not a good idea, because this setup does not guarantee bandwidth and timely packet delivery. Multiline (4 or more lines) VoIP systems are at this time still best ran over a controlled (local/internal enterprise) network.

[BluePlanet]

Inbound is the most important and immediate application.

 

I would like to do outbound too. For instance, someone calls my IVR system, listens to an advertiser's message and then presses a key to be connected to that vendor, with another outbound VOIP call.

 

Frankly, I want to get a basic system up and running as cheap as possible without paying for telephone lines so I can get the advertisers signed up, and then move to offices and get regular telephone lines/T1-PRI installed.

 

I see I can get line cards for Asterisk. Can I connect an Asterisk PBX system just by plugging those cards phone cables into my Dialogic/Win/VG system? Like the best of both worlds.

 

 

 

[SupportTeam]

Is there any reason I could not plug a Linksys PAP2, or adapters from magicJack or Vonage into my analog port Dialogic boards running Voice Guide?

This is the easiest way right now to take advantage of VoIP, and what we recommend users do if they do not want to get into VoIP protocol level debugging. It means that you are still using a physical Dialogic card, and from VoiceGuide/Dialogic's point of view the lines plugged into it are just normal analog lines.

 

Some adaptors do not plug into the USB port, but attach directly to (Ethernet) network. Using these will mean that you do not need another computer.

[SupportTeam]

Inbound is the most important and immediate application.

That's fairly straightforward. Just install HMP and VoiceGuide and setup the registration/authentication section of Config.xml and you should be able to receive inbound calls straight away.

[JustATech]

Please note that doing multi-line VoIP over your average Cable/ADSL is not a good idea, because this setup does not guarantee bandwidth and timely packet delivery. Multiline (4 or more lines) VoIP systems are at this time still best ran over a controlled (local/internal enterprise) network

 

Very true--we have been able to run our business voip on cable but had to upgrade to highest bandwidth--which was still alot less than going to a T-1.

[SupportTeam]

Very true--we have been able to run our business voip on cable but had to upgrade to highest bandwidth--which was still alot less than going to a T-1.

Did you set it up in such as way as to have a guarantee from your internet provider that they will always guarantee enough bandwidth over their netwok to reach your VoIP provider and they will never drop any of the VoIP (SIP and RTP) packets? Getting a VoIP type connection to your VoIP provider (your Telco) working at the performance and reliability levels that you get from a voice T1/E1 requires that you basically setup a guaranteed bandwidth VPN connection between yourself and the VoIP provider that can handle the traffic volume.