Aastra Technologies bills its VentureIP package as an enterprise-class, peer-to-peer, IP-based phone system that automatically configures itself - no complex setup or centralized server equipment required.

In our Clear Choice test of the VentureIP system, we found that most of these claims were true. There is no central PBX or server, a full spectrum of enterprise telephony features is supported, reliability and call quality are good, and the auto-configuration of the system is impressive. On the downside - at least if you are considering an enterprise deployment - the system now only runs within one IP subnet, and there is no attendant console.

Small to midsize businesses could see cost savings in several ways. First, the typical $1,000 per day for an IP-PBX installation, training and phone-cable testing is avoided. Second, with the plug-and-play and auto-configuration features, specialized administration costs are eliminated. Finally, a 50-station price for this package is less than $400 per user, 20% to 40% less than typical, low-end IP PBXs.

Using Category-5 10/100M bit/sec LAN connections, you attach VentureIP 480i telephones and VentureIP Gateway units to your switched network. You then plug up to four analog central office trunks into each gateway, turn everything on and step back.

In our tests, everything booted up OK, but the phones wouldn't let calls through. We needed to turn off the Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) Snooping feature in our Layer 3 Extreme Summit switch, which was hindering the passage of IP-multicast traffic. The system uses IP-multicast to locate, update and configure itself. Aastra says its auto-configuration process has been successfully tested on Layer 2 switches from D-Link Systems, Linksys, Netgear and SMC.

With IGMP Snooping turned off, the system's auto-configuration worked flawlessly. IP addresses and extension numbers were derived and assigned; the auto-attendant, voice mail and phone directory configured. Users could place and receive local and remote calls, get and retrieve voice mail, and use the full spectrum of telephony features (forward, hold and transfer).

The target installation is 50 stations with up to 200 extensions supported per system. Because more than 90% of PBX installations have 100 or fewer stations, the VentureIP would seem to fit well in this lower-end, phone-system marketplace.