RE: VOIP service

["Paul Gordon" <paul@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Des,

Actually, the answer is kind of both....

I do want to start experimenting with "proper" VOIP for home,
since
Virgin (Nee NTL), don't look like ever getting round to giving me a CLID
service...

In addition, I also need to consider some "small business" type
services
that my company may look into offering as a value added service on top
of some existing small business server solutions...

In both cases, Windows platforms are the norm... - I have a full W2K3
server, and the business platforms are all based on SBS2003R2. Since I
tend to prefer to have the same full-on enterprise class products at
home as I use for work, I'd probably want to have just 1 solution for
both uses... (My home servers are all enterprise version of Windows
server, Exchange server, etc.)

What (I think) I want is your basic VOIP telephony system, that provides
(say) about 6 handsets, (but should be scalable), and a nice GUI
interface running on the Windows server to configure it. I'd rather have
"proper" (i.e. physical, desktop) phones than software phones in
99% of
locations.. - for my laptop, a software phone and the need to wear a
headset would be OK, but everywhere else a real phone would be better
for WAF (and other end-user acceptance).

If there are "little black boxes" that provide a POTS port &
a LAN port
so that any old standard analog POTS phone could be connected to the IP
network that would be great, as then existing phones could be used, &
end-users would be none the wiser.

I'd like to have some fairly standard business-class PBX-type
facilities, such as:

Group pick-up
Internal to internal extension dialling
Night mode (i.e. auto-divert to answering machine at 17:30)
Music on hold
Multiple incoming & outgoing simultaneous calls possible
Auto-divert on busy
DDI to all extensions
Call screening based in CLID with rule-based processing of the call
handling (the screaming monkeys scenario)
Voice mailbox for all extensions
Etc...

Further to that, some clever integration with Outlook (for now) would be
really good, and in the not-too-distant future with Exchange 2007's
voice features would also be invaluable.

In the first instance this would be something I would implement for
myself, (I like to "dogfood" test such things before I consider
offering
a service to anyone else!). However, with the consideration that my
company might then be interested in implementing it in-house, and then
eventually possibly even offering it as a saleable "solution",
there is
obviously funding for, (and actually a requirement for) products that
are reliable, and supportable. It should be standards-based, and from a
provider with a proven model in B2B service and support.

My own personal interest is in the "whiz-bang" features, and
integration
with HA, etc. however, the business aspect of the consideration will be
more concerned with cost-savings...

So a little bit of everything you said then!!!

Cheers.

Paul G.



> -----Original Message-----
> From: ukha_d@xxxxxxx [mailto:ukha_d@xxxxxxx] On Behalf
Of
> Des Gibbons
> Sent: 02 October 2007 20:10
> To: UKHA Group
> Subject: RE: [ukha_d] VOIP service
>
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: ukha_d@xxxxxxx [mailto:ukha_d@xxxxxxx]
> > On Behalf Of Paul Gordon
> >
> > Chaps, I'm giving consideration to getting some
"proper" VOIP
> > service up & running, but I really don't know much about the
> > current state of the "market" (so to speak)... I've
never
> > needed or bothered to use anything more than Skype in the
> > past, - which has served me well enough, but now I feel I'm
> > ready to "move up" to something more serious.
>
> First question, business or personal?
>
> >
> >
> >
> > I'm aware of Asterisk, but I think this runs on *nix doesn't
> > it? - Is there a product(s) - both hardware & software that
> > runs on Windows, - specifically 2003 server? - This is fairly
> > important, since I have a
> > 2003 server with available capacity, and I *really* don't
> > want to install an additional server to run another product on...
>
>
> Do you have a requirement for a PABX? What are you trying to achieve?
> There
> are a _lot_ of options, so defining your requirements will help.
>
> Will this be a replacement for a real line, or do you want cost
savings or
> whiz bang features etc?
>
> Cheers, Des.