Choosing the right VoIP phone

We have a four-person consulting practice. We are separated by 40 miles between three cities and all work out of our homes. We have reasonably fast DSL and one has Verizon FiOS. It has been highly recommended to us to consider a virtual PBX relationship with RingCentral and eliminate our current land lines and fax line. The new service would be purely VoIP based. Assuming we want a phone in each home office, what full-feature desk phone do you recommend we obtain? The vendors appear to be Cisco, Siemens and 3Com. With a virtual switch do we go for analog or digital desk phones? On eBay it appears the phones are typically part of a site based phone system. It appears we may have a "soft phone" option on our laptops thru the DSL. Headsets and freedom to move around are desirable qualities we would like to include.
-- Kirk A. King

The first thing I'd do is ask RingCentral (or whoever you pick for VoIP services) what hardware they support and are most comfortable with. See if you have the option of buying it from them as you should be able to have them pre-configure the phones before shipping them to you. If you can't buy the phones from them, see where you can get it at a good price and have local support for the hardware - in case you run into an issue that your VoIP provider can't resolve. The choice between digital and analog will depend in part on the hardwarre your provider can support.

I like the idea of having a "soft phone" option for your laptops. This can help keep you connected while travelling without having to drag the phone with you. When using a "soft phone" with a laptop, you will want to have a good headset. A $10 headset can be used in an emergency but it will sound pretty bad and maybe not as good as a tin can and a string. I have used headsets from both Plantronics and Heil Sound. Bob Heil, the owner of Heil Sound, is a broadcast engineer with 40 years of experience in providing good sound for many applications. Both provide good quality headsets that are compact and easy to take with you.

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We have a four-person consulting practice. We are separated by 40 miles between three cities and all work out of our homes. We have reasonably fast DSL and one has Verizon FiOS. It has been highly recommended to us to consider a virtual PBX relationship with RingCentral and eliminate our current land lines and fax line. The new service would be purely VoIP based. Assuming we want a phone in each home office, what full-feature desk phone do you recommend we obtain? The vendors appear to be Cisco, Siemens and 3Com. With a virtual switch do we go for analog or digital desk phones? On eBay it appears the phones are typically part of a site based phone system. It appears we may have a "soft phone" option on our laptops thru the DSL. Headsets and freedom to move around are desirable qualities we would like to include.
-- Kirk A. King

The first thing I'd do is ask RingCentral (or whoever you pick for VoIP services) what hardware they support and are most comfortable with. See if you have the option of buying it from them as you should be able to have them pre-configure the phones before shipping them to you. If you can't buy the phones from them, see where you can get it at a good price and have local support for the hardware - in case you run into an issue that your VoIP provider can't resolve. The choice between digital and analog will depend in part on the hardwarre your provider can support.

I like the idea of having a "soft phone" option for your laptops. This can help keep you connected while travelling without having to drag the phone with you. When using a "soft phone" with a laptop, you will want to have a good headset. A $10 headset can be used in an emergency but it will sound pretty bad and maybe not as good as a tin can and a string. I have used headsets from both Plantronics and Heil Sound. Bob Heil, the owner of Heil Sound, is a broadcast engineer with 40 years of experience in providing good sound for many applications. Both provide good quality headsets that are compact and easy to take with you.

You will want to check the DSL/cable modem connections to make sure you have what you are paying for. Depending on the upload/download speeds you currently have, it might be worth a few extra dollars to go up a step so that you have plenty of bandwidth so you can use the phone and be on the Internet at the same time. This is another good thing to ask your VoIP provider: What configuration changes should be made to the firewall so as to give you the best possible voice quality with your phones and setup.

Be careful when buying VoIP phones from eBay. You will want to make sure they have the right firmware installed. Most likely this will be SIP, but it could be a different firmware load. Again, ask your provider before buying the wrong device. If you can buy new, this will make it easier to get support from the vendor who made the phone. This will be an additional yearly cost, but one that will be well worth it. If the phone is used, you may not be able to purchase support from the phone from the company who made it.

Read more about small business networking in Network World's Small Business Networking section.