[Edit: Want your own DIY PBX, but not sure where to start? NebulaPBX.com offers a low cost, cloud hosted, FreePBX based system, preconfigured to work with CLONE LINE. See www.nebulapbx.com for details.]
Looking for a digital voip service to use with your PBX system? Click HERE to view our multi-line voice plans and pricing.
Want to build your own phone system? There are several options. Here's what you need.
1. You'll need a "server" to run it on.
This can be a physical PC/server, virtual machine (vmware), cloud server, etc. This is an important decision, and you should consider if this is going to be a hobby/learning project, or for serious business purposes. VMware is perfect for learning. If it is for serious business, you'll want serious hardware.
voiSip also offers very affordable phone systems, either for purchase, or as a hosted cloud service. It's hard to beat our system options and prices, especially since everything is pre-installed and ready to go.
2. You'll need phone system software.
The most popular options are Asterisk and FreePBX. FreePBX is really just a better user interface that sits on top of Asterisk. We recommend FreePBX, and offer it on our systems. You can download the FREE .iso installation disk image file at freepbx.org. This installs everything you need onto your local or hosted server, including a Linux operating system, the Asterisk core, and the FreePBX user interface. Once you have your FreePBX system installed, up, and running, open a Support Ticket to request a basic walkthrough guide. The walkthrough helps you configure your voiSip Trunk, Inbound Route, and Outbound Route. From there, you can add extensions, menus and other features to your liking.
Another software option is 3CX for Windows, available at 3cx.com. They have a feature limited FREE version, which is suitable for home or hobby use, or perhaps a very small business. But for serious business use, you'll want a full version, which can get a little pricey. It starts about $250/yr for 4 users. If you choose a 3CX system, let us know. We have a very basic 3CX setup walkthrough that should help you get started.
There are a few other software options if you look around. Most are based on Asterisk, but not as nice a FreePBX.
Again, if you're not sure about building, loading, and configuring a server, you should consider voiSip's affordable phone systems, which are ready to go, easy to use, and incredibly powerful.
3. You'll need some phones or softphones.
Any brand of IP phone or softphone will do, so long as they support the voiSip (SIP) protocol.
For testing, we'd suggest something FREE, like Xlite softphone, available at counterpath.com. If you have existing IP phones, from Aastra, Cisco, Digium, Grandstream, Polycom, etc, those can work as well.
For serious business use, you will definitely want phones with lots of programmable buttons that support the BLF (busy lamp field) feature. BLF is a key feature to make the phones work more seemlessly with each other, and the phone system software.
voiSip sells, and highly recommends, IP phones from Yealink, in particular, model T27G or higher. Yealink phones are affordable, easy to configure, and loaded with the latest features, including BLF.
4. You'll need any CLONE LINE voice service plan.
Any CLONE LINE residential or business voice plan will work. Just select the smallest plan that fits your "call bandwidth" needs.
This is much like buying internet service. You just choose a bandwidth plan, and share it with as many users and devices as you want.
Likewise, with CLONE LINE , you choose a plan, and share it with as many users and phones as you want... no "per phone" fees.
We hope this article was helpful in selecting a phone system to buy or build.
If you have additional questions, please open a Support Ticket so we can assist you.
