SIP phone recommendation for Asterisk

Asterisk Asterisk Support
1

Hi,

we think about switching our internal PBX over to Asterisk. I am pretty sure Asterisk is able to do everything we want but I am still looking for acceptable SIP phones. They should be easy to work with, must support things like

  • putting users on hold
  • conference calls
  • switch on/off call redirection
  • transfer calls
  • etc.

together with Asterisk. Do you have any recommendations for good SIP IP phones?

Regards,
JP

2

On which platform?

I’ve used SIPPS on Windows and although it seems slow and clunky at times it is very feature rich and seems to do the job.

On Linux I’ve tried several clients with limited success in each. SFLPhone was pretty but quite limited though I suspect it will mature fairly quickly having spoken to the devs a fair bit.

I’ve also used the beta releases of GnomeMeeting NG (Next Generation) and it seems fairly comprehensive. It can support mulitple accounts, but only supports 1 line per account at the moment and doesn’t do managed transfers (probably because it only supports 1 line!!!) It will do straight transfers tho’, and hold etc. It seems fairly stable too.

Hope that helps, tho’ I’m a bit of a noob myself!

Col

3

Sorry: I was referring to real phones and not soft-phones… :smile: I like the Cisco phones (at least from look&feel) but have no idea how well these work together with Asterisk.

4

D’oh, that was pretty obvious now I re-read it!! I was just in my little “I use a softphone” world there!!

We have used Grandstream Budge Tone 100. These are very cheap but they do work fine with *. They aren’t exactly feature rich but they do do transfers and hold etc. We got ours on eBay. One of them did bust but the guy sent us a replacement and it’s worked fine since we got it.

Not much help I know but if you are on a budget then they will be magnatutes cheaper than the Cisco ones.

Col.

5

if you are in euope use the SNOM 320 phones.

6

Many people, including me, have great luck with Polycom IP 301, 501, and 601 phones.

7

We use Cisco 7960 with a SIP firmware and they work great

8

We use Cisco phones which work great after getting them setup. With the SIP software image, they are very powerful. We primarily use 7960/7940 models; however, these are usually overkill for the normal cube and a 7912 or 7905 would work.

The biggest trick with the Cisco phones is setting the first one up. This requires a couple steps:

  1. Get your hands on a copy of the SIP software. I would recommending reading this page at voip-info.org. For a business, it would probably be a good idea to get some type of official software access from Cisco. For those at home, you can scour eBay for other options (legality unknown).
  2. After getting a copy of the necessary files, get one or two Cisco phones for testing. The hardest part is getting the right setup of files in place on the TFTP server. Once you have it down, it’s easy to add more phones. Again, voip-info.org can be your friend. I would recommend spending some time on the site to read what’s out there.
  3. Make sure you understand what the phones should be doing. For example, what files it gets and when. The Cisco documentation is very helpful.

Lastly, when purchasing any IP phone, I would recommend paying careful attention to where it is going to get power from. When commercial power fails, you still need to be able to dial 911. Most phones, Cisco models included, are capable of getting power from the ethernet cable (PoE). If you get power from the switch, it’s a lot easier to impliment battery backups. A note of caution for the Cisco phones, not all of them support the 802.3af standard. My understanding is that the newer models which include a “G” in the model number support standard PoE. Just make sure to think of how users can use the phones in emergencies regardless of what phone you use.

Anyone please feel free to correct me if I’ve misspoke or ask questions.

9

I’ve had our Asterisk server in for 6 months now, we run snom 190s as the primary deskphone in a business environment that makes and takes c. 5K calls per month inbound and outbound thru * to PSTN via an ISDN30 card and channel.

Very happy with the snoms, work well with * and seem to be reliable, have regular s/w upgrades and good support from the developer community. Couple of issues i have is that they keypad is starting to wear a little on one user’s phone (must be sweaty fingers!) and they are quite easy to knock off hook

HTH
g

10

I’ve had some experience implementing and using the Sipura 841, the Grandstream Bugetone, and the Polycom 501. (In addition to a couple of softphones. ) By far, the best performing phone from a usability and sound quality standpoint has been the Polycom 501.

Unfortunately, it has also been the most problematic to install. But once alive, it is really great. The sound quality- speakerphone especially- is fantastic. Guess which phone I use…

Good Luck!