sundance-communications.com/forum Forums TDM Business Telephone Systems Inter-Tel Telephones & Systems axxess and remote sites

With the Inter-tel Axxess systems, is it possible to connect two+ sites over a VPN over a Business DSL connection. OR do the sites require a T1 for connecting the sites for 3-4 Digit dialing?

I personally have no experience with Inter-tel. One of my IT clients recentl aquired a new building and an Axxess system is already in place, and had some questions, that I didn't have answers to!

any input would be great!

It is possible to 'connect' any IP-enabled PBX product via DSL. The question really is, 'why would you want to'? I can guarantee you voice quality will be poor some of the time, more likely most of the time. A managed connection like P2P T1, frame relay, LSS etc, is still the only way to go when engineering IP voice.

The Axxess would require an IP Resources Card, and a check of it's software rev and licensing. The Axxess will network w/ another Axxess or CS-5000 system very cleanly this way. If you are looking to network the system w/ another PBX product, then the Axxess can be outfitted w/ SIP trunks w/ the correct s/w rev and licensing.

No matter which way you choose, IP packets still have to get from point A to point B, then back to point A in a small amount of time, in the right order and w/ no packets missing. That level of service does not exist in unmanaged broadband connections.

I agree with superfoneguy... ADSL is not a good solution. BUT, if your distance to CO is not too far and your carrier has a SDSL product (Symetrical DSL, or same upload and download speeds) then the VOIP connections work really well. Inter-tels compression schemes work pretty good, though they do take some tweaking at first to get good voice qualify. Also, you will have a better design if all remote sites are using the same carrier so that you are on a common backbone and have reduced latency issues.

The IP keysets work great for remote home offices in this respect.. or the box to box IP connections and networking works really well too.

Good luck

i agree. Axxess networking of any kind won't work behind NAT or a firewall so internet is impossible unless you give public IPs to both sides. The internet is way to unreliable, no control over jitter, delay, etc. A point to point connection (or even a crappy frame relay) is the only way to go.

It depends on how many phones you are running too. I have a 1 man office running with a Site to Site VPN over commerical cable broadband. It works fine as both ends use QoS to put voice packets first priority. However when these packets get on the internet they aren't Qos at all. Since we use the same provider, Cox, on both ends voice quality is pretty good.

Now in our other larger offices we have an MPLS VPN network setup between us which is managed and supports QoS from us to them... but this is 5x the price of the first setup... again it depends on how many phones. One or two is probably ok on a standard connection, any more then that and you'd want a managed connection.