atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums VOIP Phones & IP PBX VoIP & Cloud Phones, Hosted PBX, General IP Phones Star2Star

I saw an older thread ( HERE ) about it... but only a couple of posts. Just wanted to resurrect the subject and see if anyone else had any other opinions about them.

Star2Star website

Good, bad, indifferent?

Thanks!

Had a client that had an old Avaya Partner the new VP just had to have Star2Star it was going to save him money, time etc......lasted 6 days out the door it went - JUNK.

Avaya IP Office now in and for 3 months not a problem even with just SIP trunks.

Okay, well that's 1 in the "cons" column... anyone for the "pros" yet? Very curious about them, since I've heard them mentioned multiple times in the last few weeks in day-to-day talk.

Cant speak for the end-user interface or customer service but they are located in the same colocation floor as me about 20-feet away from my cabinet.

I know their SIP architecture and bandwidth peering are done correctly. Guy named Kristian Kielhoffner set most of it up. He's a huge SIP fanatic and has gone through great lengths to ensure that the call path from the customer to the PSTN is correct.

As far as the one end-user having a bad issue it's hard to determine why. Since star-2-star is dealer based, it's likely it could have been a fumbled install on many points. I've seen some Avaya IPO's that couldn't dial out correctly but I am sure it wasn't Avaya's fault.

We took out one about a year ago. It was a small install, about 8 phones if I remember correctly. the customer put up with their service for 3 months or so and then replaced it with a DX-120 from us. Other than that we do not have any direct involvement with them. Some of the other dealers in the area are reps for them, Kumba makes some very valid points. I can imagine that as with any VOIP service it is not something that can just be slapped in by someone without IP knowledge.

Steve

Cool, thanks for the info everyone! Keep it coming too!

It sounds like the installation and not the product seems to be the issue. Is it pretty much "just another" VoIP product at this point then?

Most VoIP issues are related to the install. Bad cabling will screw up any digital set, no matter how good it may be. Still, there is more that can go wrong with VoIP. And, again, it could have just been bad service.

So, from what I can gather... it IS completely hosted, but can have on site processing hardware as well. Is anyone aware of how they do this... especially in reference to their "StarBackup"

FROM THEIR SITE :
Wouldn't that be ridiculously expensive to have all that back-up vs having a typical POTS/PRI set-up?

Just brain storming and voicing ideas, since this is a new world (hosted VoIP), for me.

When it's done right and set-up that is all organized through a database. So while it does a lot it only takes simple record entries to control it. It's kind of like the process of how your car starts is extremely complex but once it's set-up you just put your key in the ignition and turn it. Same theory. All of it is automated. I do something similar with my colo/hosted environment.

It isn't hosted. There is a box on site that handles call processing, setup etc. The vm, conference bridge, admin interface and of course SIP trunks are handled at the data center.