Graves On SOHO VoIP

When last we left this story our protagonist had returned the Cisco AP to BUY.COM leaving le maison du Graves without functional wifi for about two weeks. Fortunately I was out of town a lot during that period so it wasn’t much of an inconvenience. If anything it gave me some time to evaluate my options regarding replacement gear.

I’ve noted that whereas I had a lot of problems with 802.11n type wifi APs I’d previously had far fewer issues with 802.11g type hardware. Very recently I was reminded by someone who should know that 802.11a/b/g is more mature hardware than 802.11n. This certainly rings true as my very old Linksys WAP-54G ran for literally years with no problems at all.

How I long for the Linksys of old.

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My recent review of the Polycom SoundPoint IP335 raised an interesting question in some readers minds. Several readers wanted to know about the comparative sizes of the LCD displays across the various SoundPoint models. Since I have the IP335, an IP450 and my trusty IP650 in-house at the moment it was just a matter of time before I could take some photos to illustrate the differences.

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True to their promise Polycom has introduced a new low-end model in the SoundPoint range, the IP335. A sample unit arrived here just before the Christmas holidays and I’ve been using it as my principle desk phone for about a week.

The primary raison d’etre for this new model is extending the reach of their HDVoice offering into the lower-priced, entry level models. Yes, the IP335 is HDVoice capable, supporting the G.722 wideband codec.

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The holidays are a time for family gatherings. There are many facets to this reality. In the week leading up to the holidays I was provisioning a couple of new phones for coworkers, and a sample of the new Polycom SoundPoint IP335 arrived. So it was that there was a little gathering of the Polycom SoundPoint family on my bench; my own favorite the IP650, the IP450 that we generally use within Pixel Power, and the new low-end IP335 model. Big brother, middle sibling and Junior…all HDVoice capable.

As I get some user time on the IP335 I’ll be making some notes and sharing my thoughts. The question I need to answer myself is whether the IP3xx series represents the best value in the range? Or do we keep using the more costly IPx50 models as we add more extensions?

E4 Technologies has created a holiday contest for the VoIP Users Conference. The prize is one of the new Polycom SoundPoint IP335 HDVoice capable desk phones. To enter the contest you must leave a comment on the E4 Blog answering the question, “All I want for Christmas is…” On December 25th one winner will be randomly selected from all respondents.

The nice people over at OnSIP have reviewed the new Polycom SoundPoint IP335. Their reviews are straightforward but well written and address those areas that are likely of concern to OnSIP users. I’m hoping that in a few weeks I’ll get my hands on one of the IP335s to compare it to my IP650. With street prices reported to be in the $120-140 range these are very possibly the most affordable real HDVoice capable desk phones on the market.

It’s been a while since I paid any attention to OnSIP. Since they are my primary ITSP this very fact is probably “a good thing.” It means that we haven’t had any issues. However, they have been making a few changes in their service. These changes bear closer examination.

™ Martha Stewart Omnimedia.

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Over a period of years I’ve used quite a number of these portable USB attached speakerphone devices. A while ago I summarized my experienced with them, but as a couple of new models have recently emerged so I find that they have my attention yet again. These new devices, if I should be lucky enough to try them, will be the focus on some future posts. For the moment I have another observation to share based upon a recent experience.

All of these portable speakerphones I find well suited to individual use. That is, they work well enough for an individual who sitting at their PC and doesn’t like to wear a headset. They’re also sufficiently portable to please a road warrior. One of the nice things about this kind of device is that they often support HDVoice when paired with a suitable soft phone.

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