Nutter's help desk: Choosing the right VoIP phone

Network World - We have a four-person consulting practice. We are separated by 40 miles between three cities and all work out of our homes. We have reasonably fast DSL and one has Verizon FiOS. It has been highly recommended to us to consider a virtual PBX relationship with RingCentral and eliminate our current land lines and fax line. The new service would be purely VoIP based. Assuming we want a phone in each home office, what full-feature desk phone do you recommend we obtain? The vendors appear to be Cisco, Siemens and 3Com. With a virtual switch do we go for analog or digital desk phones? On eBay, it appears the phones are typically part of a site-based phone system. It appears we may have a "soft phone" option on our laptops through the DSL. We would also like to have such qualities as headsets and freedom to move around. -- Kirk A. King

The first thing I'd do is ask RingCentral (or whoever you pick for VoIP services) what hardware it supports and is most comfortable with. See if you have the option of buying it from the vendor, since you should be able to have it preconfigure the phones before shipping them to you. If you can't buy the phones from the vendor, see where you can get it at a good price and have local support for the hardware -- in case you run into an issue that your VoIP provider can't resolve. The choice between digital and analog will depend in part on the hardware your provider can support.

I like the idea of having a soft phone option for your laptops. This can help keep you connected while traveling without having to drag the phone with you. When using a soft phone with a laptop, you will want to have a good headset. A $10 headset can be used in an emergency, but it will sound pretty bad and maybe not as good as a tin can and a string. I have used headsets from both Plantronics and Heil Sound. Bob Heil, the owner of Heil Sound, is a broadcast engineer with 40 years of experience in providing good sound for many applications. Both provide good quality headsets that are compact and easy to take with you.

You will want to check the DSL/cable modem connections to make sure you have what you are paying for. Depending on the upload/download speeds you currently have, it might be worth a few extra dollars to go up a step so that you have plenty of bandwidth so you can use the phone and be on the Internet at the same time. This is another good thing to ask your VoIP provider: What configuration changes should be made to the firewall so you can get the best possible voice quality with your phones and setup.

Be careful when buying VoIP phones from eBay, however. You will want to make sure they have the right firmware installed. Most likely this will be SIP, but it could be a different firmware load. Again, ask your provider before buying the wrong device. If you can buy new, this will make it easier to get support from the vendor that made the phone. This will be an additional yearly cost, but one that will be well worth it. If the phone is used, you may not be able to purchase support from the company that made the phone.