What is the size of your network? I've had VoIP networks at different employers and with different vendors for over 6 years now, and as others have mentioned, what your vendor says is broadly accurate.
Welcome to the land of converged networks. Part of the value of VoIP is that there is far less need for physical separation. The voice traffic and data traffic will be on different VLANs, but everything else can be combined. *ASB *(Professional Bio <http://about.me/Andrew.S.Baker/bio>) *Harnessing the Advantages of Technology for the SMB market... * On Mon, May 2, 2011 at 9:38 AM, Tom Miller <[email protected]> wrote: > Folks, > > We are planning to retire our current phone system and move to a Mitel VOIP > system. Not having implemented VOIP before, I have some questions for those > of you that have: > > - our vendor claims our current data network can easily handle VOIP traffic > since it's a small amount of traffic (don't know exact amount yet, still > awaiting vendor response). As such, they tell it is possible to use our > current network to accommodate voice and data. I'm not sure if I"m > comfortable with this. I was thinking of a more segregated approach: > different network and voice and data never intersect. > - our vendor claims we can use the existing data jack for the phones, and > plug the desktop PCs/laptops into the phone as a sort of switch. I'm > thinking this would add another level of complexity: phone is broke and by > the way you can't get on the network now. > - the reason the vendor suggests the above is that the current voice drops > (cat5) terminate to phone patch panels (in most cases). Those cables would > need to be cut and re-terminated to switches. > > So I have some concerns about our vendor claims. The dollar figure they > propose does not include network changes, new switches, etc. Looking at the > cost proposal, I am thinking there are quite a few hardware and man-hours > costs missing. > > What do you folks do for VOIP? > > Thanks, > Tom > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ --- To manage subscriptions click here: http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ or send an email to [email protected] with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin
