Posted on 09/10/2012 12:42:47 PM PDT by texas_mrs
I am trying to connect 3 VoIP phones for our office and the 'help' line tells me I need a 'switch' to connect to our router (because all the ports are full). When I asked her how the other 2 phones will be connected to the internet, she says they have to be physically plugged into the switch as well. This will leave a mess of phone lines running along the floor! Surely there's a better way?
Normally, you would have a phone guy come out and run the ethernet cables inside your walls to jacks, just like phone jacks, to prevent the maze of cables everywhere. If you’re handy, though, you could do it yourself with not much trouble. Just sawzall the right size hole in the drywall, fish the cable through, and connect the wire to a data jack. That way you can keep your switch and routers all in a closet somewhere, and not have to deal with the mess.
you can get wifi voip phones.. but they tend to be SPENDY.
Otherwise, welcome to my world. My job is to run and hide all that wire.
we just emptied 30 boxes of cat5e wire in to a big box store. about 20 boxes of that wire (or 20,000 feet) was for voip phones.
What you need is a switch with out router and wire to the phones.
I am not a Network Engineer; I’m an Electrical Engineer.
My understanding is that a “Switch” has limited intelligence, thus will assign an IP name to the devices under it. This differes from a “Hub” which has no “intelligence” - as it’s basically just a bunch of ethernet connections spliced together.
The “Switch” negotiates an IP address from the router. Then, assigns another address to each device it is connected to. Thus, you have a packet that looks somewhat like this:
[routerIPAddress:SwitchIPAddress] data packet [end of packet information]
As you tell the “packet” where it wants to go, address information is appended to the packet. Think of using Inter-Company mail.
You write a letter to Mr. Big, and it goes in a bigger envelope on it’s way to Mr. Big. It goes to the mail room, which says that Mr. Big is in Bldg B, and puts the big envelope in a larger envelope destined for building B. At Building B, the mail room says Mr Big is on the 43rd floor, so it goes in an Envelope to Floor 43. At the Secretary’s desk, she reads that Mr. Big is in Office #1 - so it goes into the box for Office Number 1.
When Mr. Big responds, it goes backwards, retracing each envelope - back to you.
Thus, your phones need to be on the same VOIP switch. That’s somewhat simplified. You can buy a 4 port Switch from Walmart for ~$25. You can also find them at Best Buy - or a plethora of them at Amazon.
I don’t see why that wouldn’t work.
I would suggest using the 802.11n for the wireless interconnect. If you are gonna do this, makes no sense to use the 802.11g - might as well “future-proof” it, if you can. And the new 802.11n bridges are about the same price as the old .11g’s.
I don’t know if I’d recommend using wireless with VOIP. You’re already sharing bandwidth for your phone with the internet connection, which can cause call quality problems. I’d imagine that trying to do that wirelessly and subjecting it to interference would just make things worse.
Could you use three cordless phones with the bases bu the switch.? Would keep you from having to run wires allover.
We got the phones in the mail Friday, already. There are 3 desk phones, a cordless and a modem for our fax.
The “Switch” negotiates an IP address from the router. Then, assigns another address to each device it is connected to. Thus, you have a packet that looks somewhat like this:
[routerIPAddress:SwitchIPAddress] data packet [end of packet information].
Actually, the difference between a hub and a switch is that the hub takes an incoming signal and replicates the signal on all its ports--think of it as a "splitter" of sorts. The switch can do the same thing, only it has the ability to learn the physical addresses of the devices plugged into it, thus enabling one device to "talk" to another without replicating the traffic on all the ports--except when it doesn't know the hardware address of the destination, in which case it floods the signal out all ports exactly as the hub does. In the case presented here either one would do, although a switch would give you less latency. Connecting a switch to the router simply gives you an expanded number of ports to plug into.
Switches do not require IP addresses unless you need to manage them remotely, or if they're operating as "layer-3" switches, in which case they have the ability to act as routers for your network. In this case a router already exists, so that's not necessary.
Why don't you axe the Wee Wee ... that Idiot is an expert on everything ... especially electronic devices!
Yeah, after he denigrated McCain in 2008 for "...not knowing how to use email..." when that was a lie.
All Wee-Wee'd-Up BHO has excelled in one thing in 4 years...consistently telling lies, about everything and anything.
So sick of this clown.
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