Joe Yeung - VOIP - A practical guide for the non-telephone engineer

Copyright 2015 by Joe Yeung. All right reserved.

All product names and services identified throughout this book are trademarks or registered trademarks of respective companies. They are used throughout this book only for the benefit of those companies. No such uses or the use of any trade name, is convey endorsement or other affiliation with the book.

Notice of Rights
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Notice of Liability
The information in this book is distributed on an "As Is" basis, without warranty. While every precaution has b e e n taken in the preparation of this book, neither the author nor the publisher, shall have any liability to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be cause directly or indirectly by the instructions contained in this book or by the software, hardware products or services described in it.

References:-
TeleGeography - (published by WSJ.D 15 January 2015 )
Wikipedia - (wikipedia.org)
Easy Office Phone - (easyofficephone.com)
InteropNet Labs

ISBN 978-1-326-26063-7

This book is not about V oice O ver I nternet P rotocol technology, nor is it about the history of VOIP. It is designed to be a practical guide to the implementation of a telephone system that is based on the VOIP technology. If you like, it is like a workshop guide to installing a VOIP system for a small business enterprise. The guide is written for the reasonably IT (information technology ) literate and not for the specialists. In other words, I hope to take you, as a non telephony specialist, through the processes of implementing a VOIP system that will allow your organisation to benefit from a VOIP system .

Who should read this book?
If you are an owner or manager of a small organisation that is looking to change your telephone system, or maybe you are only interested in whether VOIP is appropriate for your organisation , you will benefit from reading this book. Remember, VOIP is not necessarily a must have for any organisation , it is just a very cost effective and feature rich communication system that most organisations will benefit from having !

I don't know anything about VOIP

For those who need a little bit of history of VOIP and how it works, please refer to the chapter to get a brief background of the technology to help you understand VOIP. Please try to not get too bog ged down with the technology, your interest should be focused on the benefits and pitfalls of VOIP for your organisation . In particular, you need to be able to compare the benefits against its pitfalls and make an informative decision about the business case for VOIP.

I don't know anything about SIP (Session Initiated Protocol)

Once again, reading chapter will give you a basic understanding of the SIP protocol. Hopefully, you will no longer be confused by SKYPE TM and SIP.

I don't know anything about TCP/IP (Transmission Controlled Protocol/ Internet Protocol)

This guide includes all the basic TCP/IP settings you will need to install and configure a VOIP system. Although this guide does not pretend to teach you TCP/IP, you will still benefit from it with the basic understanding of TCP/IP and VOIP.

I am not particularly technical

You are in luck, whilst you need some degree of technical competence in IT, the guide is written to be like the assembly instructions of a flat packed bookcase, you need to follow instructions and have the skills to put it together, but you do not need to know why it should be assembled in a certain way. If you are not comfortable doing it yourself, employ a specialist firm to do it for you. At least by the time you have finished reading this, you will have a good understanding of why, how and what a VOIP system is all about.

Do I have to use the same equipment and services in the guide?

Absolutely not! Although specific equipment and services may have been used as examples (this guide is based on a real and successful installation) , you can choose your own system as long as your equipment is designed to achieve the same tasks. You can do this because most of the components can be configured in a similar way via web interfaces, so as long as you know a bit about TCP/IP, you should be able to configure those equipment correctly. Having said the above, it pays to consider using services and equipment proven to work together rather than trial and error.

What if I don't use the same services or equipment in this guide?

If you want to use your own service providers and different equipment, please make sure your suppliers are specialists in this field. Try not to consider products and services purely on price alone, it is more important to purchase an appropriate product or service that is well supported and reliable in operation.