Basically, pretty much all the 2 line cordless systems I've seen come with a built in digital answering system that I'll never use, the main problem with this is that these units don't support VMWI (visual message waiting indicator) with telco supplied voicemail. This is a problem because I'll be setup an Asterisk system in the next month or so to handle my 2 analog and 1 voip phone lines and I want to be able to know by looking at the phones that there are messages waiting rather than having to check manually each time.
In ideal world, I'll link this all together with Mister House and X10 for the connected home of my dreams :-) I just saw "The Stepford Wives" with Nicole Kidman and I was drooling at the home automation stuff... I've been on the lookout for a 2 line, multihandset, cordless, expandable system for a few years now. I already have a couple corded 2 line phone sets, one of which will be replaced by whatever system I get. I've tried a few, most recently, the AT&T E2562 http://snipurl.com/dkqc Which is pretty much perfect except for 2 things 1) The base station/corded phone is not wall mountable (not critical) 2) The unit doesn't have WMWI (visual message waiting indicator) for Telco provided voicemail, the VMWI only works with the units onboard answering system. :-( I've looked at some Vtech systems, most are pretty nice, work well (I have several clients using them) and have most of the features I want, except the availability seems low as Staples (and other local retailers) have stopped carrying the unit I want. The local Vtech factory store also closed a few weeks ago :-( Panasonic has some really nice units, 5.8ghz, but no multiline 5.8ghz units, they also don't seem to have much in the way of multiline units in general. Siemens stuff looks nice but again, local availability is low. From my browsing there seems to be ZILCH in the way of 2 line 5.8ghz units. Actually I just came across one from Panasonic,much to my surprise. Basically I want the following, any suggestions would be much appreciated: - 2.4ghz (or 5.8) DSS/frequency hopping - 2 line - expandable up to at least 3 handsets - speakerphone in each handset - speakerphone should actually work full duplex, most speakerphones I've used don't work well when it's quiet, let alone when there is background noise - if the base is also a corded phone, that'd be cool - call waiting caller id support - VMWI that works with telco supplied voicemail, most of the 2 line systems that have a built in answering machine don't seem to support this - 2.5mm headset jack on all handsets - sturdy belt clip on all handsets - rings tones for each line that are sufficiently different to really distinguish between lines. I had a 2 line panasonic corded phone that had ring tones that were so similar, I was never sure which line I was answering without looking at the lcd display - call logs saved to NVRAM if power goes out, or some kind of battery backup to save the call logs in event of power failure I _think_ that about covers it. -- Harondel J. Sibble Sibble Computer Consulting Creating solutions for the small business and home computer user. [EMAIL PROTECTED] (use pgp keyid 0x3AD5C11D) http://www.pdscc.com (604) 739-3709 (voice/fax) (604) 686-2253 (pager) _______________________________________________ Asterisk-Users mailing list [email protected] http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
