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Is it true that to do VOIP you need a VPN??

Only if you want to be able to understand the person on the other end.

Yes, it is true.

D

R3.0 allows for a NAT with the correct license.

Both doghart and DrPbx are correct.

NAT Traversal will allow you to have a remote IP terminal without a VPN. While NAT may work, it is less than ideal for a stable, long term connection. NAT is better to use for a demo when you want to take a working IP phone to a prospect's office w/o lugging a bunch of other hardware.

A VPN will shape your traffic and give you a much higher success rate. In both cases, you can't really control the data once it hits the open internet so the quality can't be guaranteed either way.

Unfortunately, hardware based VPN can add significant costs to the one and 2 phone sites if you are using quality network hardware so I understand if you are trying to do it without a VPN. You have to set the correct expectations for the customer or they will be disspointed with the results.

From our experience, out customers that use NAT only have more problems than customers that use VPN and VPN customers have more problems than customers who use point to point services.

You may have some luck using QOS=5 or greater. Many switches support QOS by default.

...but QoS for VoIP over the INTERNET will not work and there are no guarantees for enforcement of the policy