My first piece for Ars Technica has just been published, looking at how to set up a VoIP system for your home. I’ll write more here about the Vigor BX I played with, but meantime read the piece here: arstechnica.co.uk/gadgets/2016/07/how-to-set-up-voip-at-home.
Published by Nigel
Freelance journalist since 1995, before that editor of Computer Buyer. I've written for many titles, including Personal Computer World, Computer Active, and Register Hardware. I also run the successful Toppy.org.uk site for users of Topfield PVRs.
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Good article. I’m glad that a lot of El Reg’s alumni have found a home at Ars.
A few thoughts on alternatives – not suggesting they are better, just alternatives. Everyone has different priorities for what constitutes “better” ! For disclosure, with my work hat on, we sell and support services from Gradwell.
Rather than “just Asterisk”, there are many appliance type systems that use Asterisk as the engine but put a nice management layer on top. Possibly the best known of these is FreePBX, but that’s mired in a certain amount of controversy as (as I read things) they’ve managed to make something that’s “open” into something that’s “closed and proprietary”.
Then there’s things like PBX in a Flash which seems to be a very capable and easy to set up system.
After that, there are hosted PBX options. While you lose some of the flexibility, with a hosted PBX you get most of the benefits, while someone else takes care of keeping it running.
Yes, indeed, I aimed not to be too proscriptive in the piece, as there are lots of ways to do things, and for a lot of people a hosted option will make life a lot simpler.
In my case, I like tinkering, so prefer to be able to set things up exactly the way I want them. But also, since the front door is an integral part of the phone system, it’s important to have the PBX on the same LAN. Otherwise, I could end up in a situation where the broadband goes down, and so I don’t know when someone’s at the door.
In an office, that sort of thing could be a real pain.