the last word

After I decided on the NEC SV 8100 PBX, the next big decision was selecting an IP trunk vendor. In this country, Internet Protocol trunks are usually called SIP trunks, after the Session Initiation Protocol that most of them use. I looked at two choices: AT&T and Appia. The AT&T solution required replacing my existing… [Read More]

On to the on-site IP PBX options. If you like rolling your own, the most open, customizable, and versatile option is to take any old computer, and load software onto it that turns it into a PBX. If all of your incoming trunks are going to be IP-based, and all of your telephones are IP-based,… [Read More]

I had a 10-year-old NEC PBX. Two analog trunks, eight or 10 digital phones, and a bunch of outlets wired for analog phones from the days in which guests needed to access their corporate networks through a modem connection. The voicemail card failed. To replace it would cost a couple of thousand dollars. I went… [Read More]

Let’s get some background and terminology out of the way first. What the heck is a PBX? The letters stand for private branch exchange: private because it is located on the customer’s premises, branch because it connects to the public switched network on one side and phones on the other side – it’s the end… [Read More]