Remote user / Telecommuter / Home User

[BoBAz]

My Goal: To find a method to give telephony features to home office users… with out having to set up a VPN.

We are looking for a method to deliver telephony features from our S8700 pbx to home users by using a IP phone from Avaya. Currently home users are using a Linksys hub on a broadband connection ( either dsl or cable service ). The employee has a vpn client software running on their laptops which provides the connectivity back to the corporate network and data connectivity works just fine. Now here lies some of the issues we are trying to overcome.. Each laptop user has an extension for their individual softphone… the softphone connects to the gateway and they can make and recv calls.. when the users fires up a few applications and start to pull down email.. while on a call the laptops resources either maxout and the machine grinds to a stop or an application will hang ( pretty common for a roadwarrior setup) disconnecting the call or experience jitter . thus causing grief and all sorts of finger pointing…

Our data guys are refusing to have to continue to set up individual vpn tunnels because of the environment that it creates.. they currently have to create an entry to the access lists to enable the each vpn end point to communicate seamlessly with other vpn endpoints.. ( like IP phone to IP phone ). ( Ip shuffling issue )…

Another issue is fact that each VPN site (home user and/or branch) share the same secret key for the VPN. So if one home user leaves the company now each site/vpn tunnel has to be touched to change the “secret key” . Could be that we have the wrong VPN solution happening. See question 5 below..



What I am trying do or to find out if it is possible. Is this. If I was to add another CLAN board and give the new CLAN board a Public IP… would this enable the gateway (S8700) to communicate with home users/telecommuters without using a VPN tunnel. Hence the voip call set up would bypass the laptop/software VPN client and traverse from IP phone ( ie 4610 ) to the gateway to make calls.



Question:

1.Is there a limitations on how many CLAN board one can install on the S8700 ?
2.What risks are involved, what are the gotcha’s?
3. Heck.. would this even work ?
4. Is there a way to encrypt the calls ? or would the be “in the clear” so to speak.
4. Does avaya or cisco make a VPN device that manages more than one key for each vpn endpoint ? ( don’t laugh I am a voice guy)

BoBAz


Thanks for the help.

 

[NX01]

YOu may have more options than you think. Changing the VPN and handing out Routers instead of hubs is one. You can do some QOS on the router to ensure the VoIP has the needed bandwidth. As for the laptops, you can also give priority to the softphone.

As for the IP Hardphone application, there are two things that need to happen.

1. e911. Your IP Hardphone DID must be registered with the LEC with the users home address.
2. You will need a network appliance to run the VPN client. If you move to IPSec there are a number of routers that will do it. They range from $100 to $200 a router.

In the future everything will work...

 

[sjforcum]

You could always give them IP Softphone and an Clarisys USB handset or a set of headsets.

 

[AvayaHelp]

Ok we are looking at a similar option - Telecommuter

Excuse me for the dumb question but what about IP Agent configured as Telecommuter? They use a Hard line from their home phone but dial in and out of the PBX. The call cannot be broken if a network connection fails and the costs are encurred on the PBX.

S8700 & S8710 v12/CMIV/Octel 250/CMS v12/Intuity AUDIX/IP Agent/VOIP/Programming
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Does anyone have a quarter, I need to make a phone call?

 

[BoBAz]

AvayaHelp,

That is not a dumb question...What is the diffrence between IP agent and the use of a IP softphone ? I have not yet worked with IP Agent. I have used Telecommuter on the IP softphone, works like a champ... What is IP agent ?

 

[isme2323]

IP agent is a softphone, but just customized for easy use by call center agents. Avaya adds buttons like Login, logout, aux. Both IP agent and IP sofphone can be used in road warrior or telecommuter mode.

I would personally recommend using the IP softphone in telecommuter mode if QoS has not been established you your data network, your PC memory is in short supply, PC processor utilization is too high, and you are using a hub. The telecommuter mode only sends signaling information (I believe a little of 8k for connection and less than 8k as keep alive) via the data network but separates the voice (bearer) channel to be sent via PSTN.

That is my 2cents.

 

[njpete08096]

IP agent, telecommuter mode, off an s8700 works well, most of the time. We are currently experiencing issues where the home user loses connectivity to the server for no "Apparent" reason. We utilize pentium 3/4 sets with 512 of ram but also run some intense applications that are html based, and of courese through a VPN I'm trying to determine if this is the root of our problem, but how?

 

[BoBAz]

Well, the saga continues.. still working on this issue. I am no w looking at the Avaya Security Gateway products I am demoing the SG203 and in conjuction with the SG5X pro. It is a complete VPN solution.. seem that it will do every thing I need . I have a 30 day trial so I am awaiting on the equipment for now. Once it is in operation I will post how well the product works....

I appreciate all the comments/advice.

Regards,

BoBAz

 

[AvayaHelp]

Hi BoBAz

To continue the IPA solution. I can tell you that we use it extensively from remote sites as well as from home with little to no issues. we do have version 4 and 5 and the latest patches. we have experienced problems in the past but Avaya had patches to fix the problems, ie: WXP SP2 caused a problem for us but Avaya had a fix for that.

Yes it is used primarily for Call centres but you can create station logins that will work for remote users in either Telecommuter or Road warrior modes. We still don't like the road Warrior mode as the LAN is not as stable as we would like so primarily we use the Telecommuter mode.

The best part is that you are on a true Telco line and not dependent on the LAN and it's abilities as well you do not depend on the Laptop's ability. I have one user on a P2 with 512mb ram using w2k with no issues. Again if your user looses LAN connectivity to work while on a a call with a very important client he does NOT lose the connectivity of the conversation. That was the key point for us.

Yes there are long distance charges to worry about but you would have these charges in the office as well. Best thing is that all the calls are through the Corperate PBX so they can be monitored same as when the User is in the Office. Not sure if you can do that with IP Softphone, still learning that tool myself. Also I understand you need to configure an FTPT server for VoIP use so there is another server to maintain, no extra VoIP phones to purchase, little to no network intervention to make it work, same cost of lisence for IPA as IPS I beleive even cheaper, etc.

Read about it for yourself and see if it is right for you. In any case for us, the industry wants VoIP so our company is still going to persue that as well eventually just to keep up with the Jones.

http://support.avaya.com/japple/css...ea&temp.productID=107698&temp.bucketID=160257

http://support.avaya.com/japple/css...ea&temp.productID=107698&temp.bucketID=160259

Good luck.

S8700 & S8710 v12/CMIV/Octel 250/CMS v12/Intuity AUDIX/IP Agent/VOIP/Programming
==========================================================
Does anyone have a quarter, I need to make a phone call?