VOIP companies: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 21:42, 9 February 2013

Time flies!

Contact info

Jim Wright, President and CEO, (877) 888-6279, x101
Tom Zambito, Network Technician, (716) 839-1900

Holy Family Communications
The Station of the Cross Catholic Radio
6325 Sheridan Drive
Williamsville, NY 14221

- Station of the Cross

- (877) 888-6279 -- main office number--via Earthlink

- (877) 511-5483 -- Calling All Catholics (feeds Studio A and Studio B)

- (888) 711-6279 -- Fund drive (with VOIP provider now--PhonePower.com?)

- (716) 839-6117 -- office

- (877) 711-8500 -- FAX

- Orthodent

- (716) 839-1900

- (716) 839-9088 -- FAX

- (800) 837-1552

- EasyRX at Orthodent

- (888) 340-3751

- Local and FAX numbers shared with Orthodent.

Active contacts

These are the top candidates so far. I've moved the list of other VOIP providers off this page.

company	contact	comments
Earth Link Hosted Voice, Hosted IP PBX	Earthlink Business Sales Office Ellicott Square Bldg 295 Main Street Suite 200 Buffalo, NY 14203 EarthLink Business Sales: 1-877-355-1501 Josh Hoyle Account Executive EarthLink Business E: jhoyle@corp.earthlink.com O: 360-524-9231 \| F: 360-737-0518 \| TF: 877-560-7381 3000 Columbia House Blvd., Suite 106 \| Vancouver, WA \| 98661	28 January 2012 What Earthlink does for us now: Local telephone Long Distance Data and internet 18 x EUCL 18 x Local number portability 18 x Telephone Line Local usage On-net local usage 18 x PILD 4 x Toll Free Number 4 x Toll Free Call Pack 1000 Domestic interstate Domestic intrastate Inbound Toll Free (421 calls)
Voip Supply.	80 Pineview Drive Buffalo, NY 14228 1-800-398-8647 Sweet Home and North French Joe Shanahan 866 583 0920 716 250 3873 SKYPE: jshanahan.voipsupply	Many brands. Lots of hardware. 29 January 2013 SIP program just starting They resell CloudSpan service. They would send us an Asterisk-based IP-PBX -- "Elastix". The cost of the appliance varies with configuration and hours of support. $600-$800. It is an "appliance" (hardware/software combination). Cost depends on whether there is a PSTN card in it, level of support, and extended warranty ($50 a year for three years). The Elastix MiniUCS is a fully featured Unified Communication PBX in a small package. Weighing under 2 lbs, the MiniUCS will support about 50 SIP endpoints, up to 32 concurrent calls, and will allow an optional 4 FXO or FXS ports for analog connectivity. An EdgeMonitor (EdgeMonitor?) is also required. About $524 for 10-call device. Can upgrade same device later just with license key. Voicemail Fax-to-email Support for softphones Web Interface Configuration Virtual conference rooms Call recording Least Cost Routing Extension Roaming PBX Interconnection Caller ID CRM Advance Reports Needs high-speed internet connection. Our Time Warner Business class will work. One line in from internet; one line out to "switch." (I call it a server. Same or different?) They usually just deliver hardware. May be able to provide on-site installation and configuration for a price. He will talk with his engineers and get back to me. Called back 6 February 2013 with rewritten quote. 10 SIP trunks (2 x 5). Can add extra trunks one-at-a-time. One trunk per phone call.
Great Lakes IT Services	4955 Chestnut Ridge Road Orchard Park, NY 14127 716-783-3030 Anastasia Hardy (205-978-3405) Michael Fuchs 973-846-4472 -- New York City	Great Lakes IT Services VoIP packages offer solutions to replace or improve your current business phone system with Voice-over-IP. Listed as a partner (VAR?) of Momentum (877.251.5554). Friday 11 January 2013 Michael says they send people onsite. Cloud based. Router onsite for us. Breakout of locations. Seat count. Applications for the seats. Can your network support the bandwidth? May need two T1 lines. Will send engineers to go over the network. Get LOA: Letter of Authorization to allow folks to pull phone records from phone company to get CSR (Customer Service Record). Billing telephone number and any associated phone numbers with that account. ANO Additional Number .... DID Direct. Might have Centrex. Who knows? All the addresses for the locations. Call on Tuesday, 15 January 2013. Still wants LOA. Working Telephone Number (WTN). 800 numbers are phantom numbers. They point to WTNs. Can redirect them nearly instantaneously yourself from configuration software. 6 February Conference call with technician. Charlie. What is the bandwidth speed for Time Warner? - 19 Mbps up and down (?) Network diagram. Deliver services. Someone would have to implement them onsite. Wants to visit with an engineer to do a site survey. Model numbers of the router(s) being used now?
Fonality Communications	John McCormack (877-366-2548 x6730; jmccormack@fonality.com) called me Friday 11 Jan 2013. Headquarters Fonality Inc. (Dallas, TX) 5800 Granite Parkway, Suite 550 Plano TX 75024 1 877 366 2548 Fonality Inc. (Los Angeles, CA) 200 Corporate Pointe, STE 300 Culver City, CA 90230 1 877 366 2548	Fonality has ceased to support Trixbox Community Edition. They want everyone to upgrade to Fonality Pro. Fonality offers purpose-built VoIP business communication and contact center solutions for growing small and mid-sized companies. Fonality's unique software provides an extensive breadth of communication features at a fraction of the cost and complexity of outdated legacy providers. Fonality's unique communications application unifies messaging, email and phone features into one easy-to-use interface. Fonalityâ€™s hybrid hosted solution provides a best of breed approach with the solutionâ€™s hardware residing on the customers premise while the control panel (along with service, maintenance, and configuration) remains in the cloud. Infamous moves, adds, or changes (MACs) can be addressed in a matter of minutes, not days, and without the additional fees associated with 3rd party service. Public Cloud / Hosted On Premise ("Failover to PSTN when VOIP is not available"). Private Cloud Provides a basic IP phone with the contract. 1-877-366-2548
Premcom (a Shortel partner)	Paul Perrello 85 Northpointe Parkway, Suite 1 14228 Buffalo, N.Y. his cell: 716-629-3040 office: 716-691-3752 Fax: 909-693-9423	VAR. Systems integration. Buffalo Medical Group Buffalo Bills Buffalo Sabres Celino and Barnes, Brown and Chiari. BCO (small printing shop). "Rip and replace." Replace the guts of your system. New hardware. Buy or lease. Non-SIP. SIP trunks: no standard protocol. That's the problem with international lines. Recommends traditional PRIs or analogue lines that Time Warner, Earthlink, or fiber input.

System requirements

Keep current handsets (Linsys IP Phones) and the new Asus server.
Keep Asterisk.
Replace Earthlink/Rhino with new VOIP service.
Provide international service (Canada) for all toll-free numbers. PhonePower.com let us down during the last Fund Drive.

- Station of the Cross

- (877) 888-6279 -- main office number--with Earthlink? Time Warner?

- (877) 511-5483 -- Calling All Catholics (feeds Studio A and Studio B)

- (888) 711-6279 -- Fund drive (with VOIP provider now--PhonePower.com?)

- (716) 839-6117 -- office

- (877) 711-8500 -- FAX

- Orthodent

- (716) 839-1900

- (716) 839-9088 -- FAX

- (800) 837-1552

- EasyRX at Orthodent

- (888) 340-3751

- Any other numbers?

- _____________________________

Analog (FXS/FXO) IO to mixers in Studio A and Studio B.
Work with current fund-drive system.
Act as PBX for 9 office phones; phone bank for fund-drives; phone in conference room (?).
Fault tolerant.
Good support.
Documentation: passwords, URLs, IP addresses, documentation needed to make everything work.

For future consideration: consolidating all telephone service to all the affiliates into a VOIP IP-PBX.

Post mortem

Talk with PhonePower.com? What went wrong? Has it been fixed? Can it be fixed?

Present setup

Two different phone service providers: Earthlink (T1, analog) and PhonePower (VOIP).

Two different data line providers: Earthlink (Telos (sp?) lines to Rochester and Boston?) and Time Warner (PhonePower VOIP and all of the transmitters). BRIC-Links connect the station to the towers via the internet.

Who is Airespring? What services does Airespring provide to Oil City and Syracuse?

- ___________________

Eight transmitter locations:

Buffalo, NY
Rochester, NY (AM and FM)
Elmira, NY
Syracuse, NY
Boston, MA (daytime and nighttime antennas)
Oil City, PA

iCatholicRadio is another "transmitter," in terms of calculating bandwidth requirements. It is a unique programming stream.

Internet traffic carried on Time Warner optical line:

iCatholicRadio stream
Live stream for each on-air radio station plus iCatholicRadio.
Full feed from two satellite antennas.

Websites for each station are at Dreamhost.

Q: Is our network providing all of the streams for folks to "Listen Live"? At a minimum, it seems that we must be streaming all of the individual broadcasts from our network. How else could any rebroadcasters pick up the stream? Is it a single stream that is addressed to two locations (antenna and rebroadcaster) or two separate streams, identical in content, but flowing to two different destinations?

- _______________________

Q: How much Time Warner bandwidth are we using at present?

- _______________________

I believe each of the local offices also has a telephone number and, I presume, a telephone bill to go with it. It should be possible to incorporate all of them into the WAN/VOIP system. That might result in some savings.

Station of the Cross and Orthodent handsets

A call to these numbers follows this route to a handset:

Public switched telephone network
Earthlink
T1 line with 24 pairs of analog lines
Rhino T1 Channel Bank FXS/FXO with Data
Trixbox
Virtual private network (VPN) server creates a Wide Area Network (WAN)
Router make & model: _________________________
Ethernet cables and connectors.
Linksys WAN phones.

PolyCom handset in the Conference room

Q: Who owns and runs this?

- ____________________________

CAC

Public switched telephone network
Earthlink
T1 line with 24 pairs of analog lines
Rhino T1 Channel Bank FXS/FXO with Data
Trixbox
Virtual private network (VPN) server creates a Wide Area Network (WAN)
Router (?) make & model: ________________________
The calls are switched by software from digital circuits to a card in a computer that provides analog IO for the Telos box
1. Flash Operator Panel--hosted where?
2. CAC phone server (?)-- analog IO on RJ11 modular connectors (?).
3. Telos: two single-pair lines in; four (?) four-pair lines out
4. Parking extensions: 60, 61, 62, 63. These play the outbound audio from the mixer to calls on hold. Audio output only; no audio input.
5. Studio A: extension 130 and 131. Caller audio input volume controlled by sliders. No effect on audio output to the caller.
6. Studio B: extension 132 and 133. Caller audio input volume controlled by sliders. No effect on audio output to the caller.

Fund Drive

A call to the Fund Drive phone number follows this route to the phone bank (nine workstations in the Outer Darkness as well as some or all (?) of the handsets in the offices):

Public switched telephone network
PhonePower
Time Warner fiber-optic cable (?)
Trixbox
Virtual private network (VPN) server creates a Wide Area Network (WAN)
Router make & model: ___________________
Ethernet cables and connectors.
Some Linksys handsets. Nine workstations in the Outer Darkness running CounterPathâ€™s X-Lite softphone. Extensions: 108, 111 (?), 200..207, 210.

Q: What has to be done to set up and take down the phone bank for each fund drive? Something about "hunting"?

- ________________________

Q: Who is going to set up and take down the phone bank for each fund drive?

- Tom Zambito

Q: How does the phone bank feed a ringing sound into the sound boards in Studio A and Studio B? That may be another feature that has to be rigged by hand for the fund drive. If possible, the extension that is used to feed the sound into the board should be first in line, so that the sound goes on the air before anyone in the fund drive group gets to hear it. The way it works now, people grab the calls so quickly that the ringing sound is not heard on the air as often as there are calls.

- ________________________

EasyRx

Public switched telephone network
PhonePower
Time Warner fiber-optic cable (?)
Trixbox
Virtual private network (VPN) server creates a Wide Area Network (WAN)
Router make & model: ___________________
Ethernet cables and connectors.
?????? _______________________

Earthlink

A analog T1 line (24 pairs) comes into the machine room.

Local telephone
Long Distance
Data and internet
Local usage
On-net local usage
Domestic interstate
Domestic intrastate
Inbound Toll Free (421 calls)
18 x EUCL -- "End User Common Line" charge
18 x Local number portability
18 x Telephone Line
18 x PILD -- Presubscribed Inter-exchange Long Distance charge.
4 x Toll Free Number
4 x Toll Free Call Pack 1000

Time Warner Optical Fiber (TWOF)

Time Warner broadband service is provided by an optical fiber connection in the machine room.

Time Warner Business Class Dedicated Internet Access

10 Mbps guaranteed, but getting 19 Mbps up and down

Optical Dedicated Internet Access is IP over IEEE 802.3 based Full Duplex non-circuit switched services provisioned on dedicated fiber optic facilities from the customer premises to the Time Warner Cable hub-site rate limited at the Ethernet Aggregation switch from 5 Mbps to 1 Gbps.

PhonePower

Does PhonePower have its own line into the machine room? Or is it coming in on Time Warner?

- __________________________

I have heard that we have two "SIP trunks" from PhonePower, but "SIP trunk" is an ambiguous term. The question to figure out is how many active calls the PhonePower service can handle. I suspect the answer is at least 10 SIP connections, but I don't know for sure.

- __________________________

PhonePower is used for the Fund Drive and for EasyRx.

Airespring

Provides some kind of service to Oil City and Syracuse.

Digium Switchvox

The Polycom handset in the conference room has a screen that seems to indicate that it is connected to a Digium Switchvox. This may be an entirely separate system owned and run by BCS.

Voip Supply.

Switchvox is Digium's family of VoIP (Voice Over IP) Phone Systems for small and medium businesses. Switchvox systems are designed to be easy to use, full of helpful features and cost less than a traditional PBX. Compare Switchvox SMB and Switchvox SOHO.

Switchvox SMB is so much more than just an office phone system. Itâ€™s a revolution in business communications, putting you in control of your most important asset in business, your voice. Switchvox is easily managed with the Switchboard, a unique web based, real-time call control panel that gives you the flexibility you need to keep your office connected.

Virtual Private Network (VPN) server

Sonicwall with 4 VPN client licenses. It is not clear whether it is the edge device that sits between the building and the rest of the world. It appears to do some firewalling and some NAT in addition to being a VPN server.

Is the same server running the Spark Chat software? _____
Also carrying the traffic for the antennas? _____
Also connecting the workstations to the accounting software during the fund drive? _____
Also handling VOIP? _____
What kind of bandwidth does it have? Does it bog down? _____

Trixbox

Intel Pentium 4 at 2.8 GHz and somewhere between 768 MB and 1 GB of memory. It is not the same physical hardware as the VPN. It's running Trixbox CE, which is merely a bundle of the following open source software: CentOS, Asterisk, FreePBX, and Flash Operator Panel.

Trixbox CE has been discontinued, so an upgrade to would mean installing each of those separately. There are newer versions of Asterisk and FOP.

Fonality is offering Trixbox Pro. The software can be downloaded from Fonality before it is purchased or activated. I imagine this means that it can be tested within the LAN to see that it works, but that is just a guess.

FreePBX is an easy to use GUI (graphical user interface) that controls and manages Asterisk, the world's most popular open source telephony engine software. FreePBX has been developed and hardened by thousands of volunteers over tens of thousands man hours. FreePBX has been downloaded over 5,000,000 times and estimates over 500,000 active phone systems.

There is a very reasonably priced endpoint manager that works with FreePBX. $25 per server.

Flash Operator Panel (FOP)

IP address: 192.168.3.134

ext	assignment
101..107	Station of the Cross office extensions
108	Fund Drive (inactive?)
109..110	Station of the Cross office extensions
111	Donation line
112	Testimonial (not accessible?)
113	Signal Quality
115..118	CAC Operator 1..4
130..131	Studio A1 and A2
132..133	Studio B1 and B2
140	Tickets
150..153	Orthodent office handsets
154	ODL Gen1 (inactive?)
155..156	ODL Gen2..Gen3
157	ODL Lab (inactive?)
189	ODL PA (broken?)
200..207	Fund1..Fund8
210	Fund10

Queues: - FundRaiser; - wloftickets; - test; - CAC60; - CAC61; - CAC62; - CAC63

Trunks

- Zap 5..22: 18 lines from Earthlink? Or mixture of Earthlink and PhonePower? What we see on this panel may have nothing to do with how the Fund Drive and EasyRx are currently handled.