Small Business Set up Advice needed

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 05, 2006 Posts: 3

Hi,

We are a small, 4 person company with a high call volume (there's at least 3 of us on the phone all the time, plus high incoming volume). We are moving from a space where phones were provided and are now a bit at sea as to how to set up our phone system.

We need one main number, with 4 available lines that role down to each other and then to voicemail (only one voicemail box necessary). We'll need 5 phones (spread between two rooms), and one fax line plus internet for 4 people. We're considering using Vonage but have the following questions/concerns:

1) Will a 768 Kbps DSL internet be enough to support all our Vonage lines plus 5 internet users?

2) What phone system is best? Do we need a phone system with a control unit or will 5 basic 4-line phones be OK? Any reccomendations for makes or models that work best with Vonage?

3) Is Vonage reliable enough for a business 100% reliant on phone access?

All help greatly appreciated!!!!!

Posts: 230 · Posted: Tue Dec 05, 2006 1:14 pm Post subject:

Is the 768Kbps internet for Upload and Download?

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 05, 2006 Posts: 3

Oh sorry.

It's 7.1 Mbps/768 Kbps

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 04, 2006 Posts: 5

You are going to run into the same problems I have if you don't have something good to manage and prioritize your traffic.

You can set up Hunt Groups and have the call roll to a common VM number for your main number, as well as other Call Forwarding options, so that will be quite easy.

I have a wireless Panasonic 4-Line system for my business. I am looking into another system as this office/house configuration really pushes the boundaries of this phone system. RCA has a new wireless solution out there, but it's costly. Wired or wireless, that's your big choice. As far as wireless goes, there are very few systems out there that are true 4 line wireless systems.

As far as the phone + internet, with 4 lines, you will probably want to experiment with the call quality, though I have mine at the highest (90k). With that setting, and all the phones on at once, you will be at half your upstream pipe, so it may seem sluggish at times. Have you looked at another solution?
Perhaps a bigger pipe through business cable, or another provider?
What about a convergent solution with voice and data on one T1?

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 05, 2006 Posts: 3

Thanks for all that. It seems like we're OK with the hunt group and getting 4 line phones, but I can't seem to get a beat on whether this is a truly reliable option. Is cable internet definitely preferable to DSL? What is a T-1? (sorry about the questions, I'm new at this)

We're so excited about the affordablity of this but can't afford for any glitches.......

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 04, 2006 Posts: 5

It all depends on your provider. A T1 is more reliable than other forms of broadband due to the way it is provisioned. Inevitably, you share bandwidth on cable, but if you have a business contract as I do, you can piss and moan more and get things resolved. Plus, I have static IP's and 1MB upload speed, which for us primarily was for phones and VPN usage.
I just recently switched to a new router with QoS built in, and my Voip troubles are far less than they were.
There are pluses and minuses to every configuration you can go with. The bottom line comes down to the providers and the levels of service they are willing to provide you with.