Q About getting VOIP phone...

[JPinMaryland]

I am having a hard time getting consumer comparisons on the various internet phones out there. They are called VOIP phones, internet phones, or ATA devices as far as I can figure this..

I am looking at Vitelity as the provider based on recommendation somewhere, maybe on this site. Any suggestions in this regard would also be welcome but the pressing issue at the moment is finding the equipment.

here's my basic requirement: I am a one man operation or more correctly, we only need one phone/one answering person at this time. However, I want to have several entities operating off this one phone. So the idea is that the phone will ring differently when someone pushes a different menu number.

Ie. the phone answers: "Hello push 1 for sales, 2 for services, 3 for OTB, 4 for troubleshooting, etc." I.e. there is one person answering this phone who will be answering for different entities, I gues the phone will ring differently for each entity.

Can you recommend a product? I prefer the low end of price spectrum.

THanks for all your help. jp

[tupper]

Asterisk is popular and very robust PBX software, and it is free and opensource. I think it works on Windows, Mac and *nix.

If you just want voip with a phone number that can be called and that you can use to call other telephones, it's hard to beat Skype or Magicjack (and a few others) for the price.

I have Skype, and I can call other phones, but nobody can call me, because I haven't bought a phone number. So, I don't know anything about Skype message/ringing options.

[JPinMaryland]

I guess I am just going to call Skype at this pt. Magic jack seems to have had some problems for people I know locally. I am getting conflicting information from Vitelity; yesterday the girl said I didnt need a PBX system if all I want to do is have it ring differently for different entities; you could simply set it up to ring differently and same person picks up the phone there's no extensions . then the technical people said I need PBX and/or auto attendant now..So I am confused..

so the ATA device is just to attach a regular ordinary phone to make it VOIP?

Also if I did the thing with Asterisk I would have to have a dedicated computer to serve that system. Could I use the wireless laptop to do that? It's a dell inspiron.

[raybo]

don't know about using for a company but I have had MagicJack for a year or more now and have no complaints. $19.95 a year ain't bad either. Voice quality is fine, maybe a little time delay involved, depending on your internet speed probably, but overall, it works fine for us.

[JPinMaryland]

instead of just ringing differently, can this service be used to create separate voice mail boxes? Say the VOIP service plus the hardware unit would be say Linksys PAP2 which is an ATA device I guess. Can we create separate mailboxes with that set up?

[JustRalph]

Look into Google Voice

[JustRalph]

Google Voice may get better even..........

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/217711/google_buys_saynow_social_voice_platform.html

[bigmack]

Google V ain't gonna do what he wants. Truth be told, I still don't get the buzz about GVoice but I do get that JP Maryland rolls back every few months with another computer related q.

The closest thing you'll find to your fancy is RingCentral. Unlimited extensions, and each extension can be routed to any live number/voice mail you wish. It's not priced like a bag of candy @ Walmart but you're asking much for a whole little.

[JustRalph]

The filters for Google Voice are pretty decent........and applicable to the discussion........maybe not full enough featured for what he wants....but still a great tool

"What's cool about Google Voice (since it was GrandCentral), is that you can set up custom behaviors based on who's calling. For example, my close friends' calls can get forwarded directly to my cell phone. My co-workers' calls can get forwarded to my cell phone only during business hours. Unknown callers can go straight to voicemail, or I can get the option to "screen" them--that is, listen in on their voicemail as they leave it and decide on the spot if I want to pick it up.

Now, the new Google Voice brings voice-to-text transcription to the table. When folks do leave voicemail at your Google Voice number, GOOG will transcribe their words and email or SMS you the text of the message. The transcriptions aren't perfect (it calls me "Tina" below), but they're close enough to get the gist. You can also listen to the recording if you're not sure you got the whole message. Here's what a couple of transcriptions look like in my inbox. (Google Voice colors words it's not so sure of gray, words it is black.)"

[bigmack]

"What's cool about Google Voice (since it was GrandCentral), is that you can set up custom behaviors based on who's calling. For example, my close friends' calls can get forwarded directly to my cell phone. My co-workers' calls can get forwarded to my cell phone only during business hours. Unknown callers can go straight to voicemail, or I can get the option to "screen" them--that is, listen in on their voicemail as they leave it and decide on the spot if I want to pick it up.
Doesn't come close to addressing what he's looking fer.

However, I want to have several entities operating off this one phone. So the idea is that the phone will ring differently when someone pushes a different menu number.

Ie. the phone answers: "Hello push 1 for sales, 2 for services, 3 for OTB, 4 for troubleshooting, etc." I.e. there is one person answering this phone who will be answering for different entities, I gues the phone will ring differently for each entity.

Those are extensions. Whole nuther ballgame.