SUGGESTIONS IP Phone Recommendations

[JasonH]

Can someone recommend a low cost SIP or IAX2 phone that can do off-hook auto dial? We want to place a phone in our reception area that will auto-dial our operator group when it is picked up. Don't really need any other features.

Thanks in advance.

I have the Grandstream BT-200 phone, and it can do exactly that. It's cheap ($60). I actually really like it, aside from the pretty basic display.

 

[therock112]

Polycoms 2 thumbs up !!

best audio quality, zero touch configuration possible out of the box.

with firmware 3.3 changes can be applied WITHOUT rebooting the phones.

reboots are so much faster with fw 3.3

possibility of integrating it with an existing LDAP server if you want to harvest phone numbers from active directory and create a corporate phone directory on the fly : use open source project http://adldap.sourceforge.net/

 

[ErikU]

How can I get the 3.3 software? It's not available on the web site, and I'm not an authorized reseller so I don't have access to PRC.

 

[xbusinessxcorex]

How can I get the 3.3 software? It's not available on the web site, and I'm not an authorized reseller so I don't have access to PRC.

I'm on 3.2.something and honestly i cant stand Polycom, I think the company is very pretentious with their "support" policies.

However the phones sound noticeably better than Aastra phone, The Aastra phones are a breeze to configure and overall pretty reliable, the People at Aastra are awesome and helpful. Its just that the newer Aastra phones feel cheap, the 480i and that generation of phones from them felt like they were of quality, however the 57i felt like a Grandstream or cheaper actually.

I felt the need to say something i have a hard time believing anyone who says anything positive about Polycom other than Construction "feel" and Sound Quality, The phones are obnoxious to set up, once you have good configs hold on to them because it will take an absurdly long time to get the phones set up correctly.

 

[Tekmon]

I new and green as grass to this SIP bit head stuff. Fun to read and learn. I'm going to get the 57i as Iv'e read everything about them and what ever WardMundy says i'll do. Aint twitter but i'm following. LOl

 

[paulnye]

Anyone used Yealink IP phones?

I have sampled and tested Cisco SPA504G, 7940, Polcom 331, 550, Aastra 9143i, Yealink T20, T28.
The Aastra had the cheap plastic look and feel, with flimsey rubber buttons, and the LCD was poor.
I really became fond of Yealink. They were easy to provision, changes dont need a reboot, and LCD was nice. Im ready to call it my favorite except nobody has said anything good or bad about them.

 

[utsmostdumbest]

Wifi Desktop Phone

Aside from the Nortel 1535 wifi, are there any other recommended wifi desktop phones? I realize it wouldn't be ideal in a business setting, but for a home setup seems like a good idea.

 

[JRayfield]

Has anyone used the newer Grandstream GXP2110?

I'm in need of phones that can replace a key system and the GXP2110 has the most buttons on it that I've seen, without adding a sidecar, which I need for this particular application.


John Rayfield, Jr.

 

[andywright]

I really became fond of Yealink. They were easy to provision, changes dont need a reboot, and LCD was nice. Im ready to call it my favorite except nobody has said anything good or bad about them.

I'll chime in here on the Yealinks..... I've just installed a system with 15 extensions - T26's (one with the LCD sidecar extension for the receptionist).

I find the call quality (using g722) very good - especially the speakerphone part which is way better than the last lot of 57i's I installed (they seem to distort badly).

The users love them, especially with the 10 BLF keys down the side. The EXP39 LCD sidecar works well for the receptionist, the only minor downside being that the Endpoint Manager doesn't fully support it.

The T26 and T28 also support VPN (built-in OpenVPN client) which is nice for external users.

All in all, very happy with them.

Andy.

 

[MrBostn]

Hi Andy have you used OpenVPN on the Yealinks? If so, any thoughts?

Thanks
Scott

I'll chime in here on the Yealinks..... I've just installed a system with 15 extensions - T26's (one with the LCD sidecar extension for the receptionist).

I find the call quality (using g722) very good - especially the speakerphone part which is way better than the last lot of 57i's I installed (they seem to distort badly).

The users love them, especially with the 10 BLF keys down the side. The EXP39 LCD sidecar works well for the receptionist, the only minor downside being that the Endpoint Manager doesn't fully support it.

The T26 and T28 also support VPN (built-in OpenVPN client) which is nice for external users.

All in all, very happy with them.

Andy.

 

[ou812]

Mr Bostn
I have installed 3 systems with Yealink phones with about 150 sets in total, 15 of them T38 colour phones, and yes I to like them very much. I did try to set up a T28 with openvpn which is not an easy task it worked at first but after a software update it bricked the phone, I have not had a chance to send it back yet to see if the supplier will refresh the firmware.

andywright.
was there any thing special needed on the asterisk server to get it to play promts in the g722 codec.

Gary.

 

[andywright]

Mr Bostn

andywright.
was there any thing special needed on the asterisk server to get it to play promts in the g722 codec.

Gary.

Not really any problems. Being in the UK I use a separately purchased GB prompt pack and have to be careful when doing an update_source as by default it'll drop gsm prompts back unless you fiddle with the install. I avoid that by just using symbolic links to point back to my prompts after the update has finished. Apart from that it all works fine.

Bad news about the bricked phone

 

[MrBostn]

Thanks for the info. That doesn't make me feel warm and fuzzy. I think the "killer app" (in my mind) are phones that can "successfully" run OpenVPN. This will stop all the sillyness about opening ports/putting piaf outside firewall, etc.

The Snom 370, 820, 821, 870 models "claim" to run OpenVPN, but it appears nobody uses any of them with OpenVPN. I was hoping the Yealinks would run OpenVPN

Right now I'm not in a position to buy phones to test. Hence my questions.

Thanks again,
Scott

Mr Bostn
I have installed 3 systems with Yealink phones with about 150 sets in total, 15 of them T38 colour phones, and yes I to like them very much. I did try to set up a T28 with openvpn which is not an easy task it worked at first but after a software update it bricked the phone, I have not had a chance to send it back yet to see if the supplier will refresh the firmware.


Gary.

 

[jmcman]

I'd like to continue this discussion...

Where I currently do most of my work, we have a mix of everything (Yealink, Grandstream, Linksys, soft phones, Android phones, Bria on iPhones...). I'm looking to get some OK phones for putting in areas that are not fit for something beautiful (it just needs to work). I've been looking at the Grandstream GS-GXP1405 and GXP1100 for those areas. Budget is a huge concern, but I try to get the best equipment I can within my constraints. How are these two? Looks like for a few more bucks, the GXP1405 is a good choice. Are there any other competitors in the same price range?

I'll chime in on the Yealink SIP-T22P. I have setup a few of these between a couple of different systems and I really like this phone. It's been reliable and the call quality is always good. In fact, this is my desk phone right now by choice.

 

[compuguy1088]

Currently I have my workplace setup with Cisco 7940/7960's. They are pretty inexpensive phones that i've gotten from fleabay for $15-30 a piece. They are decent phones, but I'm looking at other options from other manufacturers (since the newer Cisco phones are very finicky with Asterisk). Any suggestions?

 

[Brian Simmons]

I think the Polycom VVX series is an excellent basic phone - especially if you use POE. You can get the VVX300 with 6 SIP lines and HD audio for about $110. For the average office worker, it is a very nice phone that isn't super expensive.

 

[miguel]

Grandstream any!! The best and most reliable

 

[rjaiswal]

I like the cisco spa series. The only problem I've encountered is getting the assigned button for a speed dial not to blink yellow.

 

[compuguy1088]

I like the cisco spa series. The only problem I've encountered is getting the assigned button for a speed dial not to blink yellow.

I got a SPA303 at home. Its a decent phone, but the big downside is that you can specifically set it to look at a particular t*f*t*p server. They only support getting a t*f*t*p address through a dhcp option.

 

[miguel]

cant seem to configure outbound calls on a snom m9 anyone here has idea how to setup this phone so I can rely on it?

Best regards.