SoftPhone for remote user

[jschweg]

Hi Guys, need some opinions on SoftPhone. Running an IP Office 406 with the 4.2 firmware.

I have a user that will be starting to work from home exclusively, and am toying with the idea of using SoftPhone instead of setting up a VPN device at the home location and using a hard device.

Personally, in the rare times that I've used SoftPhone, I've had nothing but trouble, but then again I don't think I've ever spent enough time setting it up properly to be a good judge.

What do you guys think? Should I not even bother with this idea and just setup a VPN tunnel? The fact that I wouldn't need to put any VPN hardware at the home office is part of the reason why I'm leaning in this direction.

 

[Ragnorak]

You could also use the VPN firmware on an IP phone and not have to do a hardware VPN at the remote site.

http://marketingtools.avaya.com/kno...edProjects/bulletins/techtips/205_techtip.htm

Scroll down to VPN Gateways and there are some Job Aids on setting it up with specific products.

 

[jschweg]

While it looks like the document you provided says otherwise, my vendor is saying that they don't have a hard VPN phone that is compatible with my SonicWall VPN firewall.

This is why I was looking at either setting up a hardware VPN at the remote site (which I really don't want to do for security reasons), or use SoftPhone as long as it actually works reliably.

 

[Ragnorak]

The 4.2 firmware supports VPN phones, you may need a license but it will certainly cost less than a Sonicwall at the remote end. The physical IP phones are the same you just download a different firmware.

The softphone works fine, though on average I've had far more headaches getting them to work in the first place. It also invites a whole set of support questions that can be annoying-- "The sound thing looks different... the ringer is too loud when I listen to my mp3's..."

Either there's something I'm missing or your vendor is mistaken; you can get a hard VPN phone and connect it to your Sonicwall.