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If you are interested in how to compare and choose a VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) system, go to the VoIP for Dummies page.

If you would like us to perform that analysis for your, contact us and we will use our proprietary matrix to determine which providers and which plans satisfy your desired requirements.

Each provider of VoIP service will give you detailed instructions for connecting their system. You should follow those instructions. This page gives you some idea what is involved before you purchase a VoIP service. Although this information is generally correct, there may be variations for some VoIP services.

Basic Small Office VoIP Connection SetUp Info

Although most VoIP phones are IP phones that plug into a LAN, some VoIP services, especially those for residential use, allow you to use the same phone as you have used for POTS (Plain Old Telephone service), but instead of being connected to the phone line coming into your home or business, it's connected to a small box typically called a Digital Terminal Adapter (dta). As with normal phone service, several phones may be connected to the line from the dta so that the phone number can be answered from different locations.

Each IP phone and dta plugs into an ethernet port on a router connected to your LAN or internet connection. Even if you do not have an available router port, IP phones and dtas supplied by VoIP providers typically contain two ethernet ports. To connect an IP phone or dta with two ethernet ports, you simply unplug the ethernet cable that currently plugs into your PC, plug this cable into one of these two ethernet ports, and then run an ethernet cable between the other ethernet port and the PC ethernet port.

The setup in the previous paragraph works fine for many. However, if there is a lot of data traffic on your network, VoIP voice quality could suffer unless additional steps are taken. Data traffic includes video streaming, Email being sent or received, web surfing and ftping files. Again, understand that many use VoIP service with good quality while one or more PCs on the network are being used to surf the web or send and receive Email. However, there are cases especially in an office with many PCs where the VoIP service will suffer unless it is given prioriity over the data traffic. An inexpensive, legacy way of giving priority to centain classes of traffic is QoS - Quality of Service. To use QoS, you may need a more expensive router than you currently use. If your VoIP vendor provides a list of recommended routers, it's best to purchase one on that list because normally they recommend routers on which their service has been successfully tested.

Many small businesses use VoIP service without purchasing a special router. However, if there are a lot of devices on your network working at the same time, or if any one device often transmits and receives large files, you probably need QoS or something better. Large files could be video files, Email attachments, large megabyte web pages or ftp transmission files. There is only so much capacity on your network. At times when most of the capacity is used by other data, VoIP service will suffer.

Another consideration for many routers is that typically your router is set for DHCP which means IP addresses are assigned to PCs and dtas dynamically. Many networks and router default settings are such that the router assigns an IP address for a specified period of time called the lease time. The default typically is something like 99 days. For a PC, this is no big deal. A new lease can be obtained by rebooting the PC, for example. Well, IP phones and dtas are not rebooted often and may not be designed to handle these IP changes without a reboot. The time will come when the IP phone or dta and/or the router will have to be rebooted unless the router is set so that there is no lease expiration. Contact your router manufacturer for info on how to do this.

More Advanced VoIP Info - QoS, MPLS, SDN WAN

If you have a large number of VoIP phones in your organization or if you want to be assured of consistent high quality voice service, you need to take steps to prevent your voice transmissions from being adversely affected not only in your LAN but also as the packets traverse the internet. A legacy approach to assuring the priority of voice packets has been by using a MPLS network. More recently, SD-WAN services are being offered by numerous providers that are very efficient at providing a cost effective approach to maintaining high voice quality. In many organizations, MPLS networks are being replaced by SD-WAN.

At Persimmon Connections, you are offered the BEST plans in the industry for your personal and/or business needs. You may go directly to a calculator for:

* SMB VoIP services..
* Medium size Corporate and Enterprise VoIP options

For more "VoIP for Dummies" info for residential and small business users, see VoIP Explained.

Shop and Compare VoIP Services Many organizations require certain features in their phone system. At Persimmon Connections, we have a proprietary matrix that allos us to easily see which UCaaS providers provide those features. Using this matrix, we can give you the best options to satisfy your organization's desires in a phone system. Contact us and we can look up those options after a discussion of your requirements and desires

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