Two SIP phones and a server

[erroneus]

This is one of those things I have always wanted to do but never got around to doing. Another opportunity to fulfil a need is approaching so here goes:

I want two IP phone sets. I want to run some sort of server in a VM at home. I have unrestricted IP service through a business class cable connection.

I want simple. I want inexpensive. I want to pay once, and only once... no subscriber services.

Suggestions?

[Randy]

Good to see you're still around! We never got a chance to say good-bye... Hopefully, things are going well for you.

Suggestions? I have a few... along with a couple of questions.

Regarding your set-up, how inexpensive are we talking about on the SIP endpoints (phones)? Personally, I've been using Aastra phones for the past two or three years now. Specifically, the Aastra 6757i. While not super inexpensive, it offers a ton of features for under $200. They are easy to configure, reliable, and they look good. You never have to use paper labels, either! A big plus in my book. Just program the key with what you want it to show. Configuration files are easy to read and follow, too.

You didn't mention which VM software you were going to use. You may find running a SIP/Asterisk server in a VM a bit trying. It can be done, but you may have issues with timing/transcoding in the VM. VirtualBox is good for testing, but don't try to use it for anything you want to rely on. VMWare is probably your best bet for running IP telephony in a VM. Not sure about Xen/KVM... but, you could give those a try, too.

Since you mentioned "no subscriber services", how are you going to access the PSTN (or are you?) That could change things drastically.

As far as shopping for endpoints, I've used 888VoipStore for the last couple of years. They've always been very helpful, they're usually the cheapest on pricing, and I get my stuff pretty quick. They carry a lot of different brands and should be able to answer any questions you might have.

Link: http://www.888voipstore.com

Have you decided on what software you're going to run, yet? You've got trixbox, AsteriskNOW, PBX In A Flash, Elastix, or rolling your own setup...

Let us know whenever you're back in town - you're always welcome at the meetings, of course! Heck, I might even buy you lunch at Griff's!

[erroneus]

My intention is to use VMWare server on a HP server with more than reasonable processing power. Failing that, I'll just dedicate a small PC to the task.

As for having no subscriber services, I just want to set up two extensions that can talk to each other. One will be in Japan, one will be here in the U.S.

$200 phones seem out of my range. Been looking at D-link and also Cisco phones... both can be had for under $100 depending on the source. Using this set up to make calls is not my intention... not at the moment at least.

[Randy]

I think I would avoid the D-Link phones just because. I have mixed feelings about D-Link's products given my experience with them. The VMWare server should work just fine for you. If you're running behind a firewall, let me know. I can save you some grief on "one-way audio" and other gotchas.

Pay close attention to the Cisco phones. What model(s) are you looking at? Some of the phones only support SCCP (Skinny) and require a firmware upgrade to have them work with SIP. I don't know how many complaints I've read on various forums about that and even after the upgrade the phones still refused to work. With that said, Cisco does have a line of new phones that appear to support SIP, but I don't know of anyone using them, yet.

The Linksys phones should be OK as they support standard SIP. In fact, the newer Cisco phones have a lot of similarities to the Linksys phones.

Of course, you know I like the Aastras. 888VoipStore has the 6730i for $75 - is that cheap enough? http://www.888voipstore.com/aastra-6730i.html


I would avoid the Grandstreams, if at all possible. The hardware itself is OK, but the firmware is buggy. New firmware fixes 10 problems and creates 15 new ones!

You may want to check out http://www.voip-info.org as there's lots of good (and sometimes outdated) information there...

[Randy]

Daniel,

Did you ever get anywhere with this project?