Almost ready to jump into the PBIAF pool for my dental office

[YoungOrtho]

I am about ready to jump hip-deep into the PBIAF pool, but I have some questions before committing to the time and hardware costs. I have an orthodontic office and am currently using a Panasonic phone system, which works well but is lacking in some features that I require and is overly complex to implement the features it does possess. But before I move over to PBIAF I have a few general questions as well as some specific questions on the functionality it provides:

1. DID’s - If the company I use for my DID’s goes out of business what happens to my phone number(s)? Would I lose them?

2. Analog failover – I currently have 4 POTS lines. In the interest of cost savings I would like to get rid of 3 of those lines, keep my main (published) line, and then add 3-4 more VOIP lines. My thinking on this is that if the internet goes down I would still be able to place/receive calls on that one POTS line. Is that correct? What is the recommended strategy to keep your phone system running if your internet connection dies?

3. Hunting - If the POTS line is busy, can you have Asterisk hunt to the VOIP lines?

4. DHCP - I’ve read that the Asterisk box must be running DHCP, but I’ve also read that is no longer the case. I am running in a windows server environment so I need my windows server to run DHCP. Does the Asterisk box have to be a DHCP server? If so, would that mean I am required to run it on a separate subnet?

5. Network – Is it recommended to have the phone system on a separate subnet so that VOIP traffic and phones are segmented from the main data subnet? If so, how? VLAN or DMZ? I currently have Untangle as my edge firewall.

6. Click to call - I see that it is possible (with some phones) to use click to call from the browser or Outlook. Is there a program that will allow click to call from *any* Windows program? We call and confirm all appointments and it would be a huge timesaver to be able to hover over a phone number in our practice management software and click the number to place the call.

Thanks!
Dave

 

[jroper]

1. DID’s - If the company I use for my DID’s goes out of business what happens to my phone number(s)? Would I lose them?

Chose a well known and reputable supplier, or don't port your numbers, pay the extra, and use divert on busy. You should not lose your numbers entirely, but it will cause you an admin headache if the VoIP company does go down.

2. Analog failover – I currently have 4 POTS lines. In the interest of cost savings I would like to get rid of 3 of those lines, keep my main (published) line, and then add 3-4 more VOIP lines. My thinking on this is that if the internet goes down I would still be able to place/receive calls on that one POTS line. Is that correct? What is the recommended strategy to keep your phone system running if your internet connection dies?

Theoretically yes, however, there is a nasty little asterisk bug that if you lose connection to a SIP provider, your phones can go offline as well. Consider an IAX provider.

3. Hunting - If the POTS line is busy, can you have Asterisk hunt to the VOIP lines?

Speak to your POTs line provider for divert on busy.

4. DHCP - I’ve read that the Asterisk box must be running DHCP, but I’ve also read that is no longer the case. I am running in a windows server environment so I need my windows server to run DHCP. Does the Asterisk box have to be a DHCP server? If so, would that mean I am required to run it on a separate subnet?

The PBX should be on a fixed IP address, so the phones know where to find the PBX. I tend to put the phones on Fixed IPs as well, as I do not like to be reliant on existing systems, because if they go wrong, its the phone system that gets the blame, as that is where the symptoms that something has gone wrong is usually on the phones

5. Network – Is it recommended to have the phone system on a separate subnet so that VOIP traffic and phones are segmented from the main data subnet? If so, how? VLAN or DMZ? I currently have Untangle as my edge firewall.

Putting the phones on their own switch and using their own dedicated broadband should be sufficient in your environment.

6. Click to call - I see that it is possible (with some phones) to use click to call from the browser or Outlook. Is there a program that will allow click to call from *any* Windows program? We call and confirm all appointments and it would be a huge timesaver to be able to hover over a phone number in our practice management software and click the number to place the call.

It's possible, but expect some custom programming to be done.

Joe

 

[MyKroFt]

3. Hunting - If the POTS line is busy, can you have Asterisk hunt to the VOIP lines?

Our local telco calls this forward on busy, not call forward. If you DID's are local to you, you will not incur any additional cost like LD etc other than the forward service fee they will charge you.

You will also want to get rid of call waiting etc on the pots line. I would also advertise this as your fax line also, faxing is much more reliable on a pots line then voip line.

If your using a separate fax machine for outbound, I recommend, wall jack > fax machine > PBXIAF box - using the extension jack on the fax machine.
This way while using the fax machine for outbound, the pots line is busy, asterisk can not grab it because the fax machine disables the extension jack while faxing, and with forward on busy, the calls will get sent to your voip lines.
Another benefit, let the phone box accept the fax and email - that way you are not printing every fax unless you have to.
One last thing, make sure your voip providor will let you set caller id, that way you advertise your main line, no matter what the phone number of the DID line is.

Did4forsale will let you use up to 8 channels (8 in / 4 in and 4 out / 8 out - whatever total combination at the time) if your bandwidth will support it.

 

[dghundt]

I can't add more than the gurus before me, but I probably have a similar office environment to yours. We have a small medical practice and have enjoyed asterisk since the old days of A@H.

We have 2 identical Dell SC440's (one for hot swap), 9 sip phones, a couple ATA's for our wireless phones, 4 pots lines mostly dedicated to incoming calls only. Would love to have fax to email, but due to HIPPA, our fax machine has its own pots line.

1. DID’s - If the company I use for my DID’s goes out of business what happens to my phone number(s)? Would I lose them?

I love voip but we need our incoming calls to work. So we stick with pots lines. Always keep at least your published number with pots.

2. Analog failover – I currently have 4 POTS lines. In the interest of cost savings I would like to get rid of 3 of those lines, keep my main (published) line, and then add 3-4 more VOIP lines. My thinking on this is that if the internet goes down I would still be able to place/receive calls on that one POTS line. Is that correct? What is the recommended strategy to keep your phone system running if your internet connection dies?

Per above, I'd hate to depend on one line when the internet dies or my did voip provider goes belly up. As Joe mentioned, stick with ALL IAX2 voip providers or you WILL LOSE all internal sip phones during internet outage. That means you can't even call out from your sip phone to your pots line or answer any calls! If you need sip voip providers, there are some awkward workarounds that are not worth the hassle.

3. Hunting - If the POTS line is busy, can you have Asterisk hunt to the VOIP lines?

Your pots provider can redirect to your voip phone number on busy. Then your voip provider can put all your dids in a hunt group. Asterisk can hunt for extensions once the calls come in via a trunk.

4. DHCP - I’ve read that the Asterisk box must be running DHCP, but I’ve also read that is no longer the case. I am running in a windows server environment so I need my windows server to run DHCP. Does the Asterisk box have to be a DHCP server? If so, would that mean I am required to run it on a separate subnet?

We set Asterisk for static ip address with net config. Works fine in our Windows peer to peer network.

5. Network – Is it recommended to have the phone system on a separate subnet so that VOIP traffic and phones are segmented from the main data subnet? If so, how? VLAN or DMZ? I currently have Untangle as my edge firewall.

Our office uses an EMR and practice management system over the network along with all scanners and printers connected via LAN, but we do not use a lot of WAN bandwidth so none of these steps have been necessary for us. I do connect the pbx directly to our router instead of daisy chaining into switches. We have not needed to use QOS either.

Makes sure to buy two identical boxes and set them both up. That way when your one box dies, you can swap it out. Or, just buy some really long telephone cords. Enjoy. You'll never go back!

 

[MyKroFt]

I can't add more than the gurus before me, but I probably have a similar office environment to yours. We have a small medical practice and have enjoyed asterisk since the old days of A@H.

We have 2 identical Dell SC440's (one for hot swap), 9 sip phones, a couple ATA's for our wireless phones, 4 pots lines mostly dedicated to incoming calls only, and several pay as you go voip providers for the ability to call out whenever we need to (avoids extra dedicated phone lines). Would love to have fax to email, but due to HIPPA, our fax machine has its own pots line.

Have you ever thought of running a local only mail server, where your email client (from whoever is in charge of the inbound faxes) connects to for fax to email. This way the email never leaves the phone box, and only will be retrieved by appropriate ppls (instead of it sitting on the fax for someone else to read etc) to keep HIPPA compliant?

I am not sure how strict they are about faxes, but I know here I used to get ppls medical records all the time because one company keept switching 2 digits on the last four XXXX and we got it instead. Granted I called who was sending it, never read them, and then destroyed them. But they keep coming. Now I just programed the box to black hole their caller id from their fax line so I never get them again.

Let me know if my idea passes HIPPA regs - I am curious....

Thanks
Myk

 

[dghundt]

Email directly to my server is a good idea and I thought about playing with this in my spare time . On the surface, seems like it would satisfy HIPPA but I'd have to read up on it first to be sure.

 

[YoungOrtho]

Thanks guys! I ordered a couple of Aastra 57i's and will be setting up a system at home to get familiar with how everything works. Once I feel comfortable with the setup I will install at my office.

My biggest concern at this point is how my staff will react to a new system. As anyone running a small business knows, staffs fear change. Anything "new" is automatically assumed to be "bad" until proven otherwise. Looking at how the Aastra handles putting calls on hold (parking), I know that this will be an issue for them.

-Dave

 

[wardmundy]

If you download the Aastra scripts, call parking on the Aastra 57i's works just like the old key telephones. To answer the call on hold (i.e. parked call), the user just presses the Parking Lot button and finds the desired call by CallerID or Parking Lot #.

 

[MyKroFt]

Email directly to my server is a good idea and I thought about playing with this in my spare time . On the surface, seems like it would satisfy HIPPA but I'd have to read up on it first to be sure.

I would think this would satisfy HIPPA because the information is never leaving your building. The box could send out the other emails via the inet for whatever components you have installed, just medial faxes to local phone box sendmail where they sit until a local email client retrieves them.

Another idea also to maybe help - is if your medical faxes come from 1 to 3 different fax numbers all the time - you could create inbound routes for those specific DIDs and send them to the HIPPA local only email account, then other faxes can be sent to the generic non medial info email account if you would like them separated.

 

[YoungOrtho]

I had a couple of questions regarding the suggestion to use an IAX2 provider.

1. I would assume that I can still use SIP phones, correct?
2. Would I have to do anything special other than specifying the correct IAX2 info when setting up the trunk connection?

 

[jehowe]

I had a couple of questions regarding the suggestion to use an IAX2 provider.

1. I would assume that I can still use SIP phones, correct?
2. Would I have to do anything special other than specifying the correct IAX2 info when setting up the trunk connection?

You can absolutely use SIP phones and use IAX providers. Setting up a provider using IAX is very similar to setting one up using a SIP trunk. You won't have any problems.

 

[w1ve]

Look at voip.ms as your IAX supplier..

I use them for IAX trunking... In 8 months, it's been rock solid, other than for some stupid reason, misconfigured the pbx or rebooted...

Call quality is excellent.

http://voip.ms

Just wondering:

I use my pbx in a home-office situation, and am pure voip. I am using a hosted PIAF pbx. (Getting 2mS ping time to voip.ms POP) Failover goes to cell phone(s). I wonder if anyone out there uses a hosted pbx where inbound calls are mission critical? Obviously, you cannot have local POTS into a hosted PBX unless the hosting site is local. My provider is DSL at the moment. I can count the number of minutes my DSL/ internet connection to pbx has been down on one hand.

For someone that does not want to maintain an on-site pbx, perhaps dual internet connections via, say, cable + DSL, would be very reliable?

Gerry