Suggestions for SOHO setup
Roger:
I having been using various Obi devices for my home phone for a number of years now, but I am looking for advise on how to set up a SOHO with five or so extensions for my church. There are a number of options I have thought about and I am looking for advice from more experienced users.
Option 1: Buy five Obi 1032 and give them each a GV line.
Option 2: Run an Asterisk/FreePBX server with any kind of IP Phones attached to it. I have tested RasPBX and got it working pretty well.
Option 3: I just heard about linking Obi devices, so I could buy a bunch of Obi 202s and use the existing phones, each with a GV line.
Besides advice on the above options, I have two other questions:
1) Any comments on the Asterisk voicemail versus letting GV do the VM for me?
2) Obi seems to have official GV support. To me that seems safer going forward because Asterisk probably uses XMPP to connect to GV and could stop working anytime? Is that true?
SteveInWA:
Quote from: Roger on March 25, 2015, 11:40:26 am
I having been using various Obi devices for my home phone for a number of years now, but I am looking for advise on how to set up a SOHO with five or so extensions for my church. There are a number of options I have thought about and I am looking for advice from more experienced users.
Option 1: Buy five Obi 1032 and give them each a GV line. No, don't do that. GV is not intended for business use (even church business), and to prevent this sort of abuse, you'd need to assign a unique, previously-unused forwarding phone to each GV account. If you want to buy five OBi 1032s, then use your option #2 with any SIP VoIP service provider, not with GV.
Option 2: Run an Asterisk/FreePBX server with any kind of IP Phones attached to it. I have tested RasPBX and got it working pretty well. Using a PBX is a good way to go. Get some SIP trunks and get 'er done.
Option 3: I just heard about linking Obi devices, so I could buy a bunch of Obi 202s and use the existing phones, each with a GV line. Again, you could do that too, using a SIP ITSP's trunks, but a OBi 504 or a PBX would be a cleaner solution, vs. several 202s.
Whatever you choose, think about long-term support. Are you willing to sign up to be the church's telephone repair and management person? The simplest solutions will save your sanity, so your prayers can be about more meaningful things than "Oh Lord, why did I ever sign up for this?!"
Besides advice on the above options, I have two other questions:
1) Any comments on the Asterisk voicemail versus letting GV do the VM for me?
2) Obi seems to have official GV support. To me that seems safer going forward because Asterisk probably uses XMPP to connect to GV and could stop working anytime? Is that true?
LTN1:
Quote from: Roger on March 25, 2015, 11:40:26 am
I having been using various Obi devices for my home phone for a number of years now, but I am looking for advise on how to set up a SOHO with five or so extensions for my church. There are a number of options I have thought about and I am looking for advice from more experienced users.
I would recommend a hybrid FortiVoice PBX system (compatible with both analog and SIP), or, if you are willing to an older generation PBX, the Talkswitch on eBay. Get one with SIP trunks for VoIP like Steve recommends--easier to grow into IP phones but at the same time, the hybrid analog compatibility will allow your church to use current analog phones for now.
I would recommend getting a FortiVoice 70 or Talkswitch 484vs or 488vs. All of these will have up to 4 analog phone lines and 8 analog extensions. The Fortivoice 70 and Talkswitch 488vs will have an additional 8 SIP trunks (basically 8 VoIP lines that you can set up with LocalPhone, CallCentric, etc.). If you want to keep it analog right now and use the OBi devices...stick the lines into the Fortivoice or Talkswitch analog lines and it will be just like sticking a POTS line there--that way, you can save on having to have a regular POTS line.
The Fortivoice 70 is around $1100. A second hand Talkswitch on eBay is going around $300 to $500.
Roger:
I am curious why you would suggest a FortiVoice 70 for $1100 when for that money I could buy all five Obi 1032 and go straight to IP? I am not trying to be smart, I am asking because I just don't know and want to make sure I am no missing something. I have used Obi and I trust their products. If I want to save money I could get a Grandstream GXP2160 for half as much as the Obi 1032. I could create a setup with the RasPBX and 5 Grandstream phones that is 100% IP for under $600 in hardware.
BigJim_McD:
Roger,
As SteveINWA mentions, Google Voice is not intended for business use and I would not recommend GV for use as a telephony system for a church.
If you decide to go with the OBi202's, I suggest that you take a look at voip.ms. https://voip.ms/
Voip.ms has a strong feature sets allowing numerous configuration options, reasonal rates and twenty five DID POPs in twelve major US cities. Also seven DID POPs in Canada and three in Europe.
I have found service on voip.ms to be very dependable and the features fun to play with.
The following is copied from the voip.ms web site.
DID Routing
SIP, IAX, SIP URI
Ring Group
Call Forwarding
Callback
Failover
Voicemail
Digital Receptionist
Calling Queues
Recording
Time Condition
DISA
Free/Unlimited Support Tickets and Live Chat
Clear, no-nonsense, simple to understand billing
All features included by default/available to all accounts
Use your own device, soft phone, Asterisk, PBX or switch
6 seconds billing increment
USA 48 Premium tier-1 @ 1¢ per minute ($0.01)
Canada starting as low as ½ ¢ per minute ($0.0052)
Canada Premium tier-1 @ 1¢ per minute ($0.01)
Free calls between VoIP.ms DID's
Free iNum Origination and Termination
Full SIP Broker support
Keep your number: VoIP.ms offers number portability
Connect as many phones as you wish with sub-accounts
Free calls to Toll-Free numbers (Termination)
Premium Quality Domestic and Toll free DIDs
International DIDs in over 30 countries
High Channel-Capacity DID's from $0.99 per month
Inbound calls from $0.01 / Toll free: $0.019
CNAM, Voicemail, e411, e911, Speed Dial and SIP URI's
True Canadian CNAM Pass-through (In/Out)
Digital Receptionist (IVR), Recordings, Calling Queues
Ring Groups, Callback, Failover destination, Call Forwarding
Detailed CDR also available in xls, csv, sql and xml
A to Z call termination (Worldwide Call Termination)
No volume commitment
Pay as you go pricing scheme
Very competitive rates
Customer support staff available via Live Chat
Free Asterisk Configuration support
Support available in English, French and Spanish
Flexible Dialing Rules
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page