VOIP PROBLEMS?
HERE’S HOW TO GET CRYSTAL CLEAR QUALITY 24/7
Nothing is worse than being on a phone call and experiencing an “echo” or other quality issue. Immediately you focus on the quality of the call rather than on the person you are communicating with. It’s distracting, frustrating and a large time waster. Not exactly what you were looking for when you adopted the VoIP technology, right?
At CMIT Solutions of Stamford, we speak with many VoIP customers who have this same complaint. They know the technology is working for other businesses, but somehow their employees are continually struggling with call quality issues, and they want to understand why.
Achieving smooth, seamless VoIP phone calls, however, comes down to an important factor: the VoIP phone system must be set up correctly. But how exactly is this accomplished?
Tips for Proper Setup of Your VoIP Phone System
In order to get high-quality voice when using VoIP services, it’s essential that each “node” in the network path from the phone to the receiver be set up correctly. To accomplish this, we recommend the following tips:
Use separate cables for the phones. Avoid daisy-chaining them with the computer. The cable should run from the back of the phone to the wall jack.
Use switches sparingly. No more than one switch should be used between the phone and the firewall. Too many network jumps may cause quality issues.
Pay careful attention to the voice network. It should be a separate physical network and have its own network segment. The switch and firewall should also be configured for quality of service (QoS) and priority to voice.
Use a quality Internet connection. If possible, the connection should have dedicated (not dynamic) bandwidth. Dedicated bandwidth means that the data “pipeline” is always available to you.
Select a VoIP provider carefully. Vet providers on technical skills, but also on financial health. Today many VoIP providers are entering the market, and as a result, some have been in business for only a few years. CMIT Solutions of Stamford has evaluated many popular vendors and found problems that ultimately lead to poor services. For example, there may be issues with:
- Immature VoIP and network competency;
- Not enough redundant data centers;
- A financially insecure company;
- Lack of company investment in infrastructure during a period of growth.
These are all large problems, and often when we’re called into a situation where there are voice quality issues we discover that the system was not configured correctly. It’s very important to select a team that is trained on configuring the “virtual phone system” and also understands the network requirements for VoIP.
If you have questions about quality and your VoIP system, please contact CMIT Solutions of Stamford at 203-595-9091 today. We would be happy to help you.
