<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><br><div><div>On Dec 21, 2008, at 8:27 AM, Rob Hillis wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"> <div bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000"> Michael wrote: <blockquote cite="mid:200812220058.11442.michael@networkstuff.co.nz" type="cite"> <pre wrap="">My experience with Grandstream is that are one of the better 'cheap' ones, but
cheap non the less.</pre> </blockquote> <br> I am yet to run into a worse IP phone than the Grandstreams - although having said that, I should say that I've always steered clear of most of the Chinese "no-name" brand phones. They're unstable, temperamental and upgrading the firmware is a crapshoot half the time since you never know what new bugs will be introduced and quite often you can't downgrade the firmware if you don't like the newer firmware.<br> <br> My suggestion would be to look at the Snom 300 (although they are very simplistic phones), the Polycom IP330 (I have a feeling the 320s don't support PoE) or the Linksys phones. I noted an earlier post saying that these phones were overpriced and designed to lock you in to Linksys gear - my experience has been completely different. The SPA-942 is quite cheap and integrates nicely with Asterisk. The SPA-962 is considerably more expensive - but considering the size of the colour LCD screen, they're not that badly priced. (as an aside, the button banks for the SPA-962 are one of the <i>cheapest</i> available!)<br> </div> </blockquote><br></div><div>One person's trash is another's treasure.</div><div><br></div><div>I've used many linksys phones, including the SPA962 and found the sound quality and usage to be simply sub-par. In several set-up's I found the sound quality of a Grandstream 286 ATA to be much better than a SPA962 IP phone. But, I agree in I find the polycom to be amazing phones — and you end up paying for it (although on long term cost of ownership it might not be that bad. I bought a Polycom 601 years ago, use it heavily, and it sounds just as good today as the day I bought it. The SPA962 went on ebay within 3 months of me buying it. I have a few grandstream 286's I like to use for traveling and placing in remote areas of an installation.</div><div><br></div><div>Fred Posner</div><br></body></html>