Topic: Outgoing / incoming VOIP only calls - noob question

[paul_xedos]

Hi,
Sail currenty set up to handle internal 4 digit extensions. The plan is to be able to allow dial out / in to external contractors in India and elsewhere through VOIP only (no PSTN) using mainly soft phones. The server is natted and behind a firewall and so I plan to open up the 5060 SIP and 10000-2000 RTP ports. My question is do I need a VOIP carrier such as gradwell for this? Should I be looking as an IAX2 to IAX2 connection or do I register the server as a sip client to someone. Also do people remotely dialling in need to be registered as extensions?

Apologies for these fairly basic questions but several hours of reading the manual, voip-info and various others have left me more confused as to what I need
Thanks
Paul

[SARK devs]

Hello Paul,

Depends on where your users are.  (It's not entirely clear from your mail).  For example,  do the external contractors have the softphones?  Do they use them to call people other than you? 

You can register a softphone as a remote extension.  It will then behave just like a local extension on your switch.  It can call other extensions and it can make and take external calls through your switch.  However, if they have a switch of their own then you'd be better creating an IAX link or using a carrier.

If the contractors have neither then you will need a carrier (like gradwell) to call them at wherever they are.  You can also set up local in-country numbers which people can dial to reach your switch.  (for example, we have American and Australian numbers).   It's quite complex.  we'd need to know who has what and where before we can give you a straight answer. 

Finally, you need to check on the local country regulations before you hook up any remotes.  I'm pretty sure that there are some fairly strict laws on what you can and can't do with VoIP in India.

Kind REgards

S

[paul_xedos]

Hi Selintra,
Thanks for this reply which has helped a lot
     ...  I think
The problem I am trying to solve it to provide a Skype alternative using VOIP softphones to both external suppliers and non-company related external individuals (anyone else basically). (Skype is not liked by the firewall administrator)

Most of the India based consultants will be known to us so I can use your suggestion of remote extensions and get them to use Xten or SJphone as the skype alternative. However I believe setting up extensions for every external user could be an administrative burden and option 'b' was to have a remote server over there. For other users external to my company I was wondering about the possible simpler solution of getting them to register with their own ITSP  (broadcom, voiptalk whoever) and in turn the Sail server I have set up needs to do one of the following (sorry my understanding is very dodgy at this point)    :-
   "trunk|peer| register" with a "sibling| Carrier | peer"  using 'IAX2 | Sip'   in order for its service to be known to the outside world? And that carrier can be any one - not necessarily the same as remote users have registered with?

Thanks
Paul

Thanks
Paul

[SARK devs]

HI again,

If there are lots of potential callers then I think your plan is correct.  Get each one to register with a local VoIP carrier.  Then, at your end,  you can buy a voip number for a few quid from any of the major carriers.  Telappliant and Gradwell  are as good as anyone for professional use (Telappliant use Magrathea, Gradwell use Gamma and Magrathea).

To set up your new number to take incoming calls is very easy with SAIL - look at trunks in www.selintra.com/docs. 

Doing it that way means you don't have to get involved in any local country issues because you will be taking the call in the UK.

Kind Regards

S