Router recommendations for VOIP

[gbrenham]

I have a small office with 6 VOIP phones, 6 hardwired devices, 4 IP security cameras. Currently, I have only the supplied Comcast Business routers and are experiencing very poor phone connectivity. Using Elastix PBX. It's not a speed issue as we have 150 down / 20 up.

I think I need to introduce a router/firewall/switch so that I can either vlan the VOIP phones off the main network and/or use QOS.

I'd like to stay under $500. Any hardware recommendations?

 

[anotherdrew]

Good VoIP is all about consistent data flow rather than speed. A router with QOS will help smooth the upload side (what your customers hear), but won't do much if your employees are hearing choppy conversations (ie data lost or late on it's way to you). If you watch a graph of your download and it's all spiky (bursty) then new hardware will do very little to help.

Ubiquiti routers are all the rage right now. Cisco and Zyxel (not the older USG20) are also big names in the small business router segment. I have read glowing reviews of MikroTik, but never used their stuff. All of these have lots of options and setup is a bit more complicated than your SOHO routers (Netgear, TP-Link, Linksys, ASUS, etc).