sundance-communications.com/forum Forums TDM Business Telephone Systems Panasonic Telephones & Systems Better IP phone options for KX NCP1000???

I have just been included on the tail end of installation of remote extensions for a small office. They have a

Panasonic KX NCP1000. They have about 12 incoming lines and 12 extensions each of which is a (24? 36?) button set

showing all lines and extensions.
Because of mess up by the local telco in getting new IP addresses at the office, installation in employees homes is

stalled for several days. This gives me a chance to swap the whole mess (for remote phones) for something much simpler,

if it is available

5 remote extensions are being set up using a Panasonic IP (?) phone which looks the same as the internal extensions

(which are not IP) and a Edgemarc router box made for VOIP and to form a VPN.

--------------------------------------------------
Problem: The installation of phone and router in the employee home promises to be complex and unreliable;

1) Employee internet is DHCP, not static IP. If address changes (at any employee location) all 6 routers must be

reprogrammed- in some cases phones also (?).
2) Phone Router must be directly hooked to employees dsl or cable modem- dhcp must be turned off on employee

firewall/router (which can be plugged into the phone router)
3) Hard to get phone located where you want it;
Phone must be plugged directly into phone router- maybe can't use employee Ethernet wiring, or must turn off firewall

functions of employee router/switch/firewall for distribution.
4) Employee may be completely wireless- no cabling.How to get wire to phone?
5) Wireless may come from dsl or cable modem or employee router and may have issues with having phone router

interspersed.


-----------------------------------
The main points of failure I see are:
- employee IP address changes- employee phone and internet stop working until phone router wan IP is changed to match ip

address.
- employee IP address changes; phone will not work until Remote ip address of employee is updated in main phone router;

needs to be updated in all other employee phone routers also, or cannot communicate with them.
- employee adds a dhcp device to their home network
--------------------------------------------

Question;
What are the options of phones that an employee can plug into their network, without changes and restrictions to their

network (ie; just plain internet access) and ?
Is a soft phone a possibility? The employee will be at a computer using remote desktop, so a computer is available.

Anything like the following;
Soft phone?
IP that plugs into existing employee internet access?
WI-Fi IP phone that connects to employee internet access?

-------------------------------------------
Current proposed Edgemarc/Panasonic phone combo Pros and Cons:
Pro;
-remote phones show the same functions as the office phones
-busy lines light up and show use
-busy office extensions show use



Con
-busy remote extensions do not light or show use
-remote installation has many problems
-----------------------------------------------


The ideal remote phone shows and does all the things an office phone does. Especially;
-busy incoming lines
-busy extensions
- can answer any incoming call
-can easily xfr call to any other extension

you can get a ip softphone with 24 eys with second page giving total of 48 buttons
setup a router that can setup vpn with pc with a vpn client once main site has fixed ip it will work
if on a laptop then you can use wireless on laptop

you will need softphone licences on ncp

1) Just to be sure: I don't need a fixed IP on the remote side?
2) Would this work also with the standalone phones if I used a "home type" vpn router such as D Link DIR D330, Zyzel 300, etc. and set the ip of the phone so it matches the ip expected for that phone by the main location? Hmmm...... guess that also needs the home router to have that phone ip set to static and use that address scheme. Right?

the vpn client on the pc is different it will set up the tunnel between the pc and the router.
a vpn router can be setup with vpn as long as one site has a fixed ip the remote site can setup the tunnel using dns name and a dsn service like dns.org

I second (or third) this motion. The Panasonic softphones will be the way to go. The laptop can be configured for a VPN connection to the office and the softphone can talk to the PBX's private addresses.

This solution will work through any router that doesn't block outgoing traffic, wired or wireless.

I seem to be having trouble finding the Panasonic PN for USA version of the Softphone, and my dealer is dragging his feet. Anyone know the USA PN and where to download a brochure?
Thanks!

Just to add a detail regarding the VPN setup between the main office and the remote locations...you don't have to have a static IP address at any of the locations. There are several free dynamic DNS services that routers support any many routers (we use Netgear) allow you to use DNS for the VPN rather than an IP address. We do that with our office setup where one location does not have a static IP address so we use a dynamic DNS name to keep the VPN working. You never have to update the IP address.