Starting Off
First off, you need a nice computer. It doesn’t have to be high end or brand new, but it does need to have a decent Ethernet Network card capable of accessing broadband internet access. The computer needs to be able to process the data coming through or you’re going to be dealing with choppy, battered phone calls. This doesn’t apply to most people, but if for some reason you’re still running that computer you bought in 1995 with its Pentium I Processor, it might be time for an upgrade.
Phone Options
There are over two hundred options currently on the market for IP phones. They range in quality, style overall effectiveness as well as cost and can be nearly anything you want from a phone if you’re willing to pay the price. Let’s take a look at some of the top options out there to make sure you have something that will cover everything you need but not cost you all that money you just saved by switching to VOIP.
At only $20, this is a great phone option for those looking for something simple to plug into your computer. It works in tandem with Skype wonderfully to offer a full featured calling experience. You don’t get much from this USB phone though. There are no lights or indicators to tell you the basic information of your call. But, then again, you’re attached to your computer while calling where everything is already displayed, so does it matter all that much? The phone comes with dedicated Skype buttons and interface and all you have to do is install a driver and it’s ready to use. For ease of use at least, this one gets high marks. Call quality itself is top notch, with highly dedicated streaming audio, the equivalent of a 112 Kb/s encoded MP3.
Snom 360 IP Phone
Like many other midrange SIP phone options, this one has a lot of great features for home users and lacks a lot of important features for business users. It’s hard to find a perfect medium, something that has plagued phone purchasers for years. It’s in the middle range of price, around $100 and is about on par with any of the Linksys or D-Link mid-range phones. Offered independently of VoIP services, these phones are often designed to offer a small bit of freedom from the USB tethers of cheaper phones.
Buttons are small and the interface is slightly confusing, though it is mostly self-explanatory for those familiar with desktop phones. However, with some at home VoIP services, you might start to notice small issues and bugs with this and other less dedicated phones. This one in particular has been known to have issues with programming the buttons. Others such as the Linksys experience call quality problems. In general though, these mid range phones and the Snom itself work fairly well for anyone with a home office or a desire for a nicer phone. It’s businesses and tech-savvy people who should watch out those for this one.
Cisco 7961G IP Phone
When you begin to look at phones with all of the features you come to expect from high end electronics, you’ll find that Cisco makes some of the best, as they long have. Their 7900 series of IP phones, while priced slightly above $200 is probably the best option available for anyone looking to add a phone to their work desk or at home office. As a phone, it offers the same standard LCD display that you expect from a desktop phone and it works together with the necessary protocols to offer a full featured calling experience that you might not even realize is VoIP.
Speakerphone options and clarity levels have been touted repeatedly as some of the best available, specifically because of the high bandwidth dedication of these phones. The only draw backs on these phones are that they some models are limited to not headset options and often, in the case of power loss, a lot of memory is lost, including contact and speed dial numbers.
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