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Knowledge Base Products and services

Aastra 6753i Transfer

Step By step instructions for call transfer when using the Aastra 6753i with firmware 3.x.x and above.

Phone Idle screen.

Once a call is answered their number will show and an icon of a ‘off hook phone’ will also show

To transfer the call press your ‘Transfer key’. Another ‘line’ will show numbered 2 with a ‘ > ’ next to it.

Enter the number you want to dial and press ‘>‘ dial if the call isn’t immediately dialed.

To ‘Blind’ transfer the call press the Transfer Button again or put the Handset down. NOTE if you do this you will not be able to get the call back.

After pressing dial the Phone Icon will show ‘ringing’

To get the call back while it is ringing press the ‘ < ‘ button shown on the display next to ‘Cancel’. Then L1 in this example will flash and ‘call held’ will show on the display as below, you need to get the call back by pressing the Flashing Line Key.

If the call goes to Voicemail or the caller answers the display will show the ‘off hook’ icon against 2

If the Caller wants the call then Press the ‘Transfer key’ the Red ‘Hangup key’ or put the handset down and the call will be transferred to them. Do not press the ‘>‘ Drop button.

If they don’t want the call or it goes to voicemail and you want to get the caller back, Press the ‘ > ‘ Drop Button and that call will be dropped and as before ‘call held’ will show on the screen and you press the L1 button to get the caller Back

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Blog Knowledge Base

Planning for a Successful VoIP deployment

Before you deploy voice-over-IP or a Hosted PBX service in your office there are a few considerations you must first address.  Switching from traditional telephone service to voice-over-IP (VoIP) requires sufficient bandwidth, a proper switch and router, and a good battery backup solution to protect you from power failures.

The key voice-over-IP requirements discussed in this article are:

Bandwidth – Determining how much bandwidth you will need for voice-over-IP in your office is your first step.

The Router – Choosing a low quality or under performing router is a costly mistake which will degrade your call quality.

Quality of Service – You must decide whether voice traffic will be separated from regular internet users or if it will share the same network.

VoIP Equipment – There are many digital office phones, soft phones, headsets and telephone adapters on the market to choose from.

Power Failures – Voice over IP does not work when the power goes out so you should install a battery backup system and possibly a Power-over-Ethernet switch if your budget permits it.

How much bandwidth do I need?
Voice over IP needs a certain amount of bandwidth in order to keep your conversations clear and free of disruptions.  Bandwidth is the amount of information which your internet connection can send and receive in a certain period of time.  Your first step should be to use an online speed test to find out what your maximum upload stream and download stream is.  We suggest you do this test using a fixed connection to the internet rather than using your wifi (wireless) connection to get accurate results.  Try to use numerous tests during different times of the day to get a good average of what you can expect from your internet connection.  Bandwidth is normally measured in kbps or kilobits per second.
You will need to have a high speed (broadband) connection to use voice-over-IP.  A typical DSL connection will be rated at 600 kbps for the upload stream and 5000 kbps on the download stream.  You will notice that your upload stream is almost always smaller than your download stream which becomes your limiting factor for using VoIP service.
Your next step is to determine how many people in your office are likely going to be using the phone at the same time.  For instance, having ten people on the phone will require ten times as much bandwidth as having one person on the phone.  Below is a chart which will help you calculate how many people can be on the phone at one time:
Ask your voice-over-IP service provider what audio codecs they offer as there is a trade off between audio quality and bandwidth usage…

Full Quality Audio (G711 Codec)\- Uses 87 kbps for each concurrent phone call (NEB)
Compressed Audio (G729 Codec)\- Uses 33 kbps for each concurrent phone call (NEB)

So the calculation for a typical DSL connection would be:

DSL connection:600 kbps upload / 5000 kbps download
Gives us (Full Quality):600 kbps / 87 kbps = 6 concurrent calls
Gives us (Compressed Quality):600 kbps / 33 kbps = 18 concurrent calls

Notice we used the upload bandwidth in our calculation as this is the limiting factor for voice-over-IP.  You also don’t want to push your connection to the limit as most cable and DSL connections do not have guarantees in terms of how much bandwidth they will deliver.  If you Internet connection drops in bandwidth at some point during the day you don’t want your call quality to be affected.  Other factors affecting voice-over-IP are the latency of your connection and how much packet loss there is on it.

Choosing a router
A router is the device that connects all your computers and network equipment to your Internet connection.  It is an often overlooked piece of the puzzle that can have a major impact on the success or failure of your voice-over-IP implementation.  There are many routers on the market, some are very cheap (less than $40) and others can cost you thousands of dollars.  There is nothing worse than putting a poor quality or underpowered router in your office which could cause an otherwise good VoIP installation to go bad.
Your router needs to be powerful enough to handle the number of phones you will have in your office and should also work flawlessly with voice-over-IP equipment.  A good place to start when deciding on your router is to speak with your voice-over-IP service provider. We also recommend checking to make sure that your router is compatible with voice-over-IP services.
The following is a list items which will help you to determine whether your router is right for voice-over-IP:
How many voice-over-IP phones will you be connecting to the router? The more phones you will be connecting, the more powerful the router needs to be. Don’t use a £40 router to run an office with 10 IP Telephones.
Will your voice-over-IP phones have their own dedicated Internet connection? If not, a router with a quality of service (QoS) setting to prioritize voice traffic over regular traffic is an absolute must. Without QoS you will encounter poor quality telephone calls regularly.
What other functions will the router need to perform? You might need your router to handle VPN connections, allow wifi (wireless) connections or perform other tasks.
Make sure you can bridge your router to your modem. Routers that are not bridged can cause problems with voice-over-IP installations.
Never use more than one router or nat gateway on the network at a time as this will cause problems for IP Telephones when they attempt to do NAT.
Make sure your router is compatible.
It is always best to get a recommendation from your voice-over-IP service provider as some routers are known to perform very poorly with VoIP phones.

Quality of service
Call quality is a function of your network and the public internet. Some delays and network congestion cannot be avoided due to information traveling over the public internet while other types can be avoided. Good network design is critical to a stable and reliable voice-over-IP implementation.
Quality of service (QoS) refers to the ability for your router to prioritize voice traffic (VoIP) differently than regular internet traffic on your network or the separation of voice traffic.  Voice over ip is a real-time protocol which means that if information is lost or delayed it will result in a noticeable drop in call quality or a complete loss of it. Symptoms of network congestion include garbled audio, dropped calls and echo.   When setting up voice-over-IP in your office there are three possible ways handle voice traffic. Some customers report perfectly good results without any quality of service (especially in a small 1-2 person office) and others report worse results with quality of service enabled on their router as some routers do a poor job of implementing this. Generally speaking however the best way to deliver reliable voice-over-IP service is through a dedicated internet connection that is only used by the voice-over-IP equipment rather than sharing the internet with computers. Below are the different methods of doing quality of service:

No QoS – Voice traffic and regular internet traffic in your office are sharing the same internet connection.  No prioritization of voice traffic over regular traffic is being performed and thus there is the high potential that voice quality could be degraded if there is insufficient bandwidth for both voice and regular traffic. Some customers experience very few problems using this method while others report a high frequency of poor quality calls, dropped calls and garbled voices. It all depends on how much network congestion your office has. Most internet connections are more likely to be upload bound which generally results in people not being able to hear you, because all of your upload bandwidth is being consumed by something on your network.

Router enabled QoS – Voice traffic and regular internet traffic in your office are sharing the same internet connection, but your router is able to distinguish between voice traffic and regular internet traffic and give the voice traffic a higher priority.  The problem with this method is that routers can only prioritize upload bandwidth which means your voice will be clear but the router cannot ensure that download bandwidth will be prioritized. If employees on your network are downloading often this will cause a noticeable drop in call quality but this method is better than no quality of service. Some internet providers can prioritize the download bandwidth using TOS or COS methods from their end which will create an end to end quality of service solution. Most customers find that even prioritising upload bandwidth for voice-over-IP offers a dramatic improvement in call quality because most internet connections are limited by their upload bandwidth and have lots of download bandwidth free.

Separated Traffic – Voice traffic and regular internet traffic are separated onto two different internet connections and networks. This is especially critical for larger offices with 5 or more employees.  Voice traffic is carried on one internet connection and data from computers is carried on the other connection. In this case no prioritization is required by your router because voice traffic has its own dedicated internet connection.  This is the best way to ensure clear voice communications and the method we generally recommend customers whenever possible.

The method you decide on largely depends on how much bandwidth you have, what you are using your internet connection for besides voice-over-IP and the level of call quality desired.  Many offices report perfectly good results without using any QoS, while others find that it makes a major difference in the quality of their calls.

Choosing VoIP phones and equipment
Before deploying voice-over-IP in your office you will need to decide how each employee will be connected to your voice-over-IP provider.  There are many choices on the market today.
Digital IP Telephones – These types of phones look just like regular multi-line business telephones except that they connect directly to your internet connection using a network cable.
Soft Phones – A soft phone is a software program running on your computer that looks and feels just like a real telephone.  This requires you to purchase a USB headset which connects to your desktop or laptop so you can make and receive calls.
Wifi Phones – A wifi phone looks and feels very much like a regular cell phone except that it connects to your wireless router in the office.
Analog Telephone Adapters (ATA) – An ATA is a small box which connects to your router and allows you to plug in regular analog telephones so they can work with voice-over-IP.  ATAs are generally low cost alternatives to digital office phones and are easy to take with you when you travel.
Battery backup and Power-over-Ethernet
With voice-over-IP and most office telephone systems you must consider what happens when the power goes out.  For some offices this can be a regular occurrence and for others it might happen with a very low frequency.  Once of the things you will need to decide is whether or not you will install a battery backup system.
Here are a few important terms your should know:
Power over Ethernet (PoE) – Is a technology that allows VoIP over ip telephones to be powered using regular network cables rather than power adapters which plug into the wall.  This has the advantage that you can power all the phones in your office from a single source and makes installing a battery backup unit much easier.
Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) – Is a device that powers your equipment when you lose power at the office.  The system has a built in battery which keeps your network devices operational when the power goes out.
The easiest way to protect your phone system from a power outage is to power all the phones using a Power-over-Ethernet switch that would normally be connected in the back room where your router and cable/DSL modem is located.  This has the advantage that all your phones are drawing power from a single source which you can backup using an uninterruptible power supply (UPS).  All you need to do is plug in your PoE switch, router, and DSL/cable modem into a sufficiently powerful UPS device so that when the power goes out all your phones remain up and running.

Categories
Case Studies

Multi-Site Multi-Country Asterisk network

UPDATE

We have recently added the 5th system to the customers international VoIP network. This system was for their Polish office and is linked to their Tokyo, Sydney, Singapore and London office systems.

Globe

For this site a Sangoma FREEPBX 60 system was chosen for ease of remote deployment and reliability.    The Tokyo & Sydney offices already has a Xorcom XR2000 systems whilst the London and Singapore offices have a Openvox  Asterisk solutions.  .

xe2000-xe3000

For the New International offices FreePBX systems were chosen as they provide a full turnkey system that can be sent out to the office plugged in. The systems initially obtain their IP address by DHCP and once a port is forwarded through the firewall to this address a fixed IP address is assigned and the customer firewall updated. Access to The GUI is by a SSH tunnel so that other than a random port for SSH and a port for IAX2 no other ports need to be opened on the customer firewall. Endpoint manager makes the deployment of handsets on the remote systems a simple and reliable process.

All systems have been linked by IAX2 trunks and the dial-plan configured so that desk to desk calls can be made between all offices and outgoing calls break out of the closest geographic system, for example a user in Sydney making a call to a UK number will have the call originate from the London system and the same goes for Tokyo, Singapore and Polish users calling UK or international numbers.

The network of systems is key to the support of the customers 24×7 support service. This is controlled by a dial-plan that is complicated by the fact that Japan does not have “Daylight saving” so even though the calls land on the UK system we had to configure the dial-plan to take into account local time in Tokyo and not base routing solely on UK time.  This has proved reliable and very successful.

All systems on the network are monitored 24×7 by our Nagios monitoring platform, Not only monitoring Asterisk but also monitoring the status of the international IAX2 trunks.

 

Categories
Blog

A new patent troll.

SIP Trunking

In the last few weeks a large sleeping troll has come out of hibernation and seems set on disrupting the whole voip market.

Quote

“BT is engaged in licensing an extensive range of standards related patents that address the key features of SIP Trunking providers and VOIP operators providers.

BT’s Patents address a wide range of fundamental capabilities now in widespread deployment, such as:

  • Setting up a call
  • Breaking out to other networks
  • Managing resources efficiently
  • Registering terminal to a network
  • Cost effective call completion
  • Monitoring and alerting of IP call quality”

Well that pretty much covers all of the workings of a SIP network. A full list of the patents is here  .

But its not Just BT, AT&T also have claims over SIP as well see here for a list.

It seems that some of the major patent holders see more money in the licencing of the now ubiquitous SIP protocol than maybe supplying it to customer. Which is a shame as the only ones who will make any money will be the Lawyers in the end.

More to follow on this I’m sure….

Categories
Services

VoIP Design and Sales

At Cyber-cottage.co.uk we provide support,design and installation services. We have over 25 years of experience of the telecommunications industry and have the depth of knowledge to assist you in all aspects of telecommunications needs.

We have been working with VoIP systems since 1999, and VoIP networks from the Mid 1990s everything from small offices of 15 extensions to large multi-site networks with bespoke platforms. Our primary deployments are now based on the Asterisk open source platform from Digium.

Solutions have included:-

  • High capacity conference servers.
  • High availability redundant servers for emergency services dispatch.
  • Click2Call solutions
  • Call Centres
  • Office PABX systems

Asterisk is a complete telecommunications platform. From caller ID to multi-site networks, anything your telephone system can do, Asterisk can do better and maybe cheaper.

It includes a whole host of telephony features such as CTI, Voicemail, call conferencing and CRM integration.

We have tailored our Asterisk solution to behave like a normal PBX, with call barring, day and night service, call re-routing, DND, voice mail for all users and new features can be added easily at any time.

With Asterisk we can replace your PBX or complement an existing PBX by adding more functionality at a competitive price.

Recent systems have included a large hosted callback platform for a Major UK Car Parking company allowing drivers to make calls to the office at no charge to themselves.A system for a “online” Solicitors group to allow the tracking of calls and work-flow. We have recently deployed a system for TableBook.me to allow them to take table reservations for restaurants.

Recently customers have included Mendip Outdoor Pursuits, Purple CarParks, NorthCott Global Solutions and Qwtanet. These have been a mixture of onsite systems, hosted systems and solutions based on Asterisk running in a VMware environment.

Call or email us to discuss your requirements.

Categories
Case Studies

Restaurant Booking Solution.

We have been working with a client on a Hosted restaurant booking solution, providing the CTI and call tracking systems. This was complicated by the simple fact that the booking system was a closed system by another supplier.

The system works by the restaurant diverting their line to a DDI number we provide that sends the call to the system with the destination matching a defined number for that restaurant when the call enters the system the relevant settings are looked up in a database and audio message file, IVR options and CallerID name are set and the call is passed to the IVR. The caller then chooses their preferred option, The call can be depending of the time of day be passed to the call centre for a booking to be taken on the restaurants behalf or the call is passed to the restaurant where in many a Hosted Gigaset Dect handset is provided for them to take the booking or call the call centre for free.

The system has changed and evolved over time and by using Asterisk has meant that we can accommodate most requests for changes, Most recently we updated the statistics package to Asternic Pro

Asternic stats
Pro stats

Statistics. This has allowed much more detailed reports to be created for queues and agents.

The calls are delivered to the platform over a EFM circuit from Gradwell.net providing quality and reliability combined with increased capacity over the original ISDN30 circuit.

For disaster recovery we provide a backup system in a data-centre that is kept in sync with the office system so in the case of power outage or system failure calls can be diverted to this system and calls take on mobile phones. Switching to back-up system is completed by the single click of a button on a web-page that instigates the diversion of the lines and starts the backup system automatically.

Currently we are migrating the database services off to a separate VMware server with 3 VMs, one for each of the core web or mysql servers. This will allow the service to scale as there are now over 1 million records per datatbase and it is showing no sign of slowing.

Categories
Case Studies

Xorcom Solution for Kensington Office

An existing client was moving offices from Carnaby St London to Kensington, Since the original system was installed the usage had changed with the majority of staff now being based in South Africa where we also have remotely installed an Asterisk solution previously.

For the new kensington office it was decided to use a Xorcom IPBX as this single box solution would make management easier and as ISDN2 Lines were required the overall cost would be lower than using a dedicated server and ISDN2 gateway.

xr2000-analog-250

The system was preconfigured and tested in our Lab and then taken to site and installed in one day. The clean interface allows for easy addition of handsets using the endpoint manager.

Since the company make a large volume of international calls it was decided to use Gradwell for outgoing calls as this means a great saving over BT for call charges. They also had a EFM circuit installed for both Voice and office internet usage.

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Design Installation Services Support Technical

Gradwell Approved Professional

A Gradwell Approved Professional (GAP) has a core set of knowledge required to succeed with the Gradwell product set and systems. To become a Gradwell Approved Professional partners must pass an examination and show an in depth knowledge of Gradwell Products and Voip Support.

This means you can be confident that they can:

  • Achieve consistent roll outs of reliable business telephony services.
  • Confidently resolve end user technical issues within an acceptable time frame.

To signup to Gradwell services with us CLICK HERE

Categories
Case Studies

Asterisk install in a campus style school

In late 2005 We we approached to replace an aging Panasonic system for a British Public School.
The driving force for moving to voip was that the site was spread over a wide area and different buildings and to provide telephones to the remote buildings would prove too expensive.
The system was replaced with a central Asterisk server with nearly 80 extensions. The core LAN was upgraded to Netgear Layer 3 switches with Powerdsine POE midspans.
The remote buildings added extra complexity as one was on the other side of a public road.

To overcome this, this building was connected to the main site via a “Point to Point” Wifi link. The other building was closer and could be connected via a Fibre Link between the it and the main building.

Campus Site

The system was configured to use account codes in public areas, These handsets can only make emergency or internal calls unless a validated account code is entered.
The handsets used were a mix of Aastra 480i and 9133i because of build quality, reliability and BLF support.

The system has now been in place for over 2 and a half years now and in that time the only faults have been either ISDN failing or cable faults. This is a great demonstration of the reliabilty of Asterisk and Aastra handsets and voip in general.

UPDATE

We have since writing this post updated the system on new hardware as part of a refresh. They are now running on a newer version of Asterisk and have more buildings connected to the network.

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Products

Handsets,Gateways and Cards

We supply VoIP Hardware, Phone Systems, IP Phones & VoIP Equipment from all Major Manufacturers.

Aastra Polycom Snom
Digium Openvox Patton
Grandstream Vegastream Redfone
Citel Linksys  We also supply

YeaLink

Gigaset

Please contact us with

your requirements


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