Not a lot’s been happening the last few weeks; too many other things going on to unfortunately do anything about the house or this site. But a Media Center House wouldn’t be complete without an IP phone so I do now have a new gadget in the shape of a SIP phone (internet telephony). I’ve gone for a dual-handset Siemens S685IP (£140 for 2 handsets). At its most basic it’s a landline DECT phone, but there is also a LAN port on the base unit and plugging that into my router gives me the option to add a further 6 SIP lines with the abilty of calling out over 3 lines simultaneously (1 landline & 2 SIP lines with upto a maximum of 6 handsets in total).
The landline feature needs no brains whatsoever to set up; just plug it in and start dialling. Setting up the SIP account though requires quite a few more setttings but rather than do this through the small screen on one of the handsets (small but at least colourful and clear), it can be done through the base units default IP address in a web browser (192.168.0.2 for mine until I gave it a static address; important if you go down the route of using QoS settings on you router (Quality of Service – so calls are treated with the highest priority by the router to avoid data drop-outs during high bandwidth usage)).
There are quite a lot of settings for setting up a SIP account that had me scratching my head for a few minutes but thankfully my SIP provider (sipgate.co.uk) also sells the S685IP and provides idiot-proof instructions on their site with all your account details filled in and within 2 minutes my extra SIP line was up and taking calls on the handsets.
As for a SIP provider there are loads out there, but I went for the one that’s been most prevalent to me in the last few weeks; sipgate.co.uk, a German based company with a good range of tariffs. The account is free to set up and you get to select a landline number with area code that closest matches your geographical location. For incoming calls it is completely gratis, and once you’ve credited your account (min £10) you can then make out-going calls. The account information online displays instant updates to what numbers have been received/called and what the call costs (if any) were. Other features include setting up voicemail and the option to email you a recording (wav file) of any voicemail. I however currently prefer to use the voicemail on the Siemens phone system which is very good and all handled through the handset; a feature important to me includes the option to manually divert an incoming call to voicemail and the handset then screens the callers message through its speaker with the option of picking up the call if need be (silence being the other option). Transferring calls between handsets is very easy and is as simple as it should be; just ring another handset then hangup. The call quality of SIP has also impressed me, just as good as any decent landline; nothing like the dodgy internet calling (Skype) that I’ve had before, although I have read you can get a beta version of Skype for SIP if that’s your poison.
I’ve tried many DECT handsets over the last few years trying to get dual-line capabilities without a PBX (phone exchange) but this S685IP landline/SIP phone from Siemens is without doubt the best one. There is an even nicer looking model with vibrate function, but at an extra £50 not quite worth the money for me.
Alternatively you can ignore landline capabilities altogether and go down the completely free IP/PBX route of telephones using free software from the likes of 3CX. I declined this option though as no doubt my sever running the system would fail the first second I go away and not be able to fix it. The Siemens system offers a great balance of standard landline features with an almost no-fuss approach to IP calling.