Graves On SOHO VoIP

Originally published at www.smallnetbuilder.com on August 13, 2008

When I was asked several months ago about reviewing a pair of new Polycom desk phones, I simply could not believe my good fortune. It was a little like being asked if I’d like to have a Tesla roadster for a few weeks. But of course my good man! Where do I sign?

Read the rest of this entry »

Originally published July 21, 2008 at www.smallnetbuilder.com

By: Michael Graves

Date: July 21, 2008

From my first exposure to Slim Device’s original SliMP3 back in 2003 I was taken with the idea of streaming music throughout my house. The designers approach to this task I found very interesting. They literally give away an open source media streaming software intended for use on a file server. Then run their business by selling a dedicated hardware device to interface the music stream to a traditional stereo system.

Read the rest of this entry »

My wife is a very patient woman, well much of the time. And I am very grateful, well most of the time. This past Christmas she gifted me a new Plantronics .Audio 480 wired headset. This week is my first business trip since the holidays so I decided to bring it along.

This trip finds me in Toronto. Normally I’d just use my cell phone for everything but international roaming rates are very high. Most typically a week in Canada adds $100-150 to my monthly T-Mobile bill.

Read the rest of this entry »

Originally published June 6, 2008 at www.smallnetbuilder.com

Welcome back! In Part 1, I took you through the thought process that led me to want to add cellular-based access to my home’s VoIP system. I ended up with the following project goals:

• Ensure the ability to make outgoing calls should our DSL fail
• Provide access to 911 service
• Provide access to 411 service
• Provide a low/no cost way to stay in touch when I’m traveling
• Provide a means of making oversea calls from my cell phone without paying cellular carriers oversea long distance rates

In this second and final part, I’ll focus on the little box that makes it all possible.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’ll be upgrading a small herd of IP phones over the holiday break, which had me looking for new Polycom firmware. There once was a time when Polycom directed all end-users to obtain firmware from a reseller. These days the folks at Polycom are a lot more open with respect to firmware for their phones. You can now download most things from their web site directly. They even provide a nice clear matrix display describing which firmware release is most appropriate for each of their products. KUDOS for the move to greater openness.

For the past three years I’ve used Stanacard as the basis for placing overseas calls from my cell phone.This has recently changed as I’ve leveraged our company’s OnSIP account to provide a similar capability to all of our US staff.

Stanacard describes themselves as a “next generation calling card service.” The service is simple enough. Like most calling card services they have a variety of US points-of-presence (POPs) with local numbers. You dial that number, then authenticate using a PIN to get at a second dial-tone, and finally dial the overseas number you want to reach.

Read the rest of this entry »

<RANT> Let’s face it, the soft phone segment of VoIP space is stagnant. There’s been little change in literally years. I’ve spent the past six months looking for a Windows soft phone that was G.722 capable. In the course of my search I’ve tried a number of soft phones. The list is getting lengthy:

• Counterpath’s X-Lite (Free edtion)
• Counterpath’s Eyebeam (Retail edtion)
• Counterpath’s Eyebeam (OEM edtion)
• Ekiga for Windows
• EyePMedia Communicator
• Pulver Communicator
• Freshtel’s Firefly
• Zoiper
• DIAX
• SJ Labs SJPhone
• QuteCOM (Formerly OpenWengoPhone)

Corey Andrews over at VoIP Supply also blogged a great summary of Free SIP Soft Phones a while back.. There are a couple on this list that look promising. I’m about to try both MizuPhone and Mirial.

Read the rest of this entry »

Giving the online retailers a day to get their shops updated it seems like the new Polycom SoundPoint IP450 is going to start out selling for around $220. Given that the IP550 is listed in places for only a little more ($230) I suspect that the actual selling price of the IP450 will eventually drop to around $190-200.

Update: I was reminded that there are versions with and without the power supplies, which is typically about a $20 difference in price. Since the phone supports standard POE many will not want the power supply.

Update II: I just purchased four of these handsets for a new office. I paid $189 without the power supplies, which is $40 more than the IP430s that we had originally thougt to use. With these IP450s, my IP650s and a new IP6000 conference phone my employer will be poised to start seeing the benefits of wideband telephony.