[Asterisk-Users] IP Phone recommendations?

[Kristian Kielhofner]

brian at txshirts.com wrote:
> Ah.... That makes sense.
> Thanks for pointing that out.
> 
> I'm so used to thinking of phone as bricks with a wire and handset and
> some stress relief buttons.  :)
> 
> Your other post about the ATA adapters is dead-on.  Multi-line display
> and friends (address book etc) are invaluable.
> 
> I thought about going soft-phone.  But I'm not sure I trust our windows
> systems that much.  We still have a couple of applications that have us
> hogtied to windows.  Evil UPS OnlineWorldship is one such poorly written
> application.  Ironic that UPS uses Unix on the backend but won't support
> it for clients.  I have about 8 Win9x machines because of that issue.
> 
> I'm eyeing a flight from Exchange/Outlook later this year.
> 
> And our graphics stuff is all Windows/Adobe based.  
> 
> I guess the thing with soft-phones is that I'm not sure how stable the
> machines are.  It's bad enough to lose your phone or your computer, but
> both at once is really spooky.  ;)
> 
> On a bright note, we have gigabit everywhere in the building.  So QOS
> and bandwidth had better not be an issue internally.  :) 
> 
> 
> Brian Greul
> Texas Shirt Company
> www.txshirts.com
> 713-802-0369 / 713-861-6261 (fax)

Brian,

	You really, really want to get SIP phones.  Softphones (Windows, PC 
hardware) just do not have the quality and reliability that dedicated 
hardware SIP phones do.

	If your windows computers go down with the latest worm, you won't even 
be able to call someone to ask for help or answer the phone when 
customers start complaining.  It's really pretty obvious here.

	Also, I am a big Polycom fan.  The three phones that you would look at 
are very rich in features, and range from $115 - $255.  Getting one 
brand really makes things easier, and Cisco sure doesn't offer anything 
for $115.  The 7960 does not have one feature (I know of) that the 
Polycom IP 600 ($255) does not have.  The Polycom's work better for 
paging, intercom, presence, conferencing, and more.  The 7960's seem to 
be running off of brand recognition.  Don't get me wrong, they are 
excellent phones, but I feel that they just don't compete with the 
Polycom offering in features.  Think of it this way: Polycom is like 
Avis - They try harder.

--
Kristian Kielhofner