[asterisk-users] 10/100 voip phones and gigabit connection

[Rob Hillis]

On 01/15/10 17:54, randall wrote:
> hi all,
>
> i noticed that a lot of VOIP phones have a double network interface 
> allowing you to use only 1 LAN cable for both the phone and your 
> desktop, a really nice feature that can save a lot of cable, but most 
> are 10/100 connections while i have a gigabit network. Off course there 
> are phones available with a Gigabit connection but these are at least 3 
> to 4 times as expensive.
>
> another option would be to have both desktop and voip phone each a 
> dedicated line ( basically having 2 seperate networks ), already have 
> these in place from the old/current situation but i was hoping to clear 
> some cables.
>
> does anybody know of another solution to this or is my conclusion above 
> simply all the choice there is?
>
>   

You've hit the nail on the head.  A VoIP phone with two network ports is
probably best thought of as a two port switch.  Like any switch, if you
connect a gigabit NIC to a 10/100 switch, you'll end up with a 100
megabit connection.  The only way to get a gigabit connection to your PC
is via a phone that has gigabit ports, or have a separate cable back to
the switch.

Best practice is usually to segregate phone and PC networks anyway - it
helps avoid degradation of VoIP quality when the LAN becomes heavily loaded.