[SOLVED] Help with home office VOIP setup

[bohemianguitarguy]

I'm hoping someone might be able to help with what I might need to setup a VOIP in my home office. I currently use AT&T and have my internet access and two phone lines through their service. I believe the lines are digital because if the AT&T modem goes out for any reason (storm, etc.) and the internet goes down, so do my phone lines.

I have a Polycom Soundpoint Pro SE-225 phone. The phone has two rj-11 jacks (one for tel and one for data). In my office, I have the rj-11 jack coming in from the wall and the ethernet rj-45 coming in from the wall. I've typically just had the phone line plugged into the tel input on the phone and the ethernet rj-45 plugged into my workstation. As far as I'm aware, I'm not using VOIP. Is it possible to configure VOIP with my office thru the ethernet connection? I have a static IP that is provided from AT&T as part of the service. If both of the inputs in the phone are rj-11 then how would the ethernet rj-45 connect to the phone? Sorry for the novice questions here. I've read multiple articles and watched videos on YouTube trying to figure this out and I still am not sure if it is possible to setup with either the phone I have or if I need some type of adapter that can connect the Ethernet connection into the data line on the phone tel input.

Anyone have any recommendations or can point me to a resource on the setup process?

 

[kanewolf]

I'm hoping someone might be able to help with what I might need to setup a VOIP in my home office. I currently use AT&T and have my internet access and two phone lines through their service. I believe the lines are digital because if the AT&T modem goes out for any reason (storm, etc.) and the internet goes down, so do my phone lines.

I have a Polycom Soundpoint Pro SE-225 phone. The phone has two rj-11 jacks (one for tel and one for data). In my office, I have the rj-11 jack coming in from the wall and the ethernet rj-45 coming in from the wall. I've typically just had the phone line plugged into the tel input on the phone and the ethernet rj-45 plugged into my workstation. As far as I'm aware, I'm not using VOIP. Is it possible to configure VOIP with my office thru the ethernet connection? I have a static IP that is provided from AT&T as part of the service. If both of the inputs in the phone are rj-11 then how would the ethernet rj-45 connect to the phone? Sorry for the novice questions here. I've read multiple articles and watched videos on YouTube trying to figure this out and I still am not sure if it is possible to setup with either the phone I have or if I need some type of adapter that can connect the Ethernet connection into the data line on the phone tel input.

Anyone have any recommendations or can point me to a resource on the setup process?

OOMA makes a standalone phone adapter. Ethernet from your network in and two phone jacks out. I use OOMA for my home phone.

 

[bill001g]

If the phone has rj11 ports it is likely a dumb analog phone. You need some kind of box to do the VoIP function. Att is using the router to do this but it is likely something other than actual VoIP.

You have to be a bit careful when you talk VoIP. The first problem is it must talk to some server that has actual phone lines. There are companies that sell this service but it many times tends to be cheaper to use low cost cell plans. Now you could hook it to a internal business VoIP PBX type device.

The huge problem with VoIP is security. You really don't want to send it over the internet unencrypted and if you do encrypted then it will not pass through many firewalls and routers. Many devices need to be able to snoop on the ports VoIP is using to dynamically allow the traffic but if it is encrypted these devices can't snoop it.

For a business PBX application you can just run a VPN and then run unencrypted VoIP since it is on the internal business lan at that point.

 

[USAFRet]

For home use, I second the Ooma recommendation.