Refurbished Phone Exchange Blog — Small Business

  ShoreTel Voice switches are designed to allow a certain number of IP phones to connect to a phone server. In addition to allowing support for IP phones to connect to the server, certain ShoreTel voice switches were release with the ability to store voicemail. These voicemail switches are known as ShoreTel V switches. There are two commonly available voicemail switches released by ShoreTel. These are the ShoreTel 50V and the ShoreTel 90V. The ShoreTel 50V has the ability to support up to 50 IP phones through the switch. This is perfect for medium sized businesses. A separate compact flash...

  The Plantronics CS series of wireless headset units are very popular due to their reliability, functionality, and styling.  The CS50 and CS55 are two of the most popular versions, but many customers often ask what the difference is between the two.  They look very similar, in fact the ear pieces looks identical.  Well, allow us to explain the differences and answer all your questions.   At first glance, the main difference you will notice between the units is the size of the bases.  The CS50 is much taller than the CS55, however, both units have the same button and...

Over five years ago, on January 14, 2009, Nortel declared bankruptcy. For those who just received their phone system, there was much concern about the future support of this equipment. Eventually, Avaya bought out the rights to Nortel’s equipment, ensuring a provider would be able to manufacture telephones and equipment at least for the Nortel Business Communication Manager systems. These systems are slated for integration with Avaya’s IP Office system, allowing for a smooth migration from Nortel to Avaya. For those with older Meridian and Norstar phone systems, affordable replacement phones can be hard to find. Refurbished phones from third...

When deploying, upgrading, or expanding existing network architecture, a network engineer must come to a decision, what network speed should I deploy? In the past, the choices would have been 10 Megabit or 100 Megabit, but as technology progresses the new standard today has become 100 Mb vs 1,000 Mb (commonly known as Gigabit). 10 Gigabit also exists, but is a much higher end standard that readers of this blog should not worry about. Between our choices of 100 Megabit and Gigabit, you will have to decide which is a better fit for your business. 100 Megabit is the older...

Analog Telephone Adapters (commonly abbreviated to ATA) are devices that are designed to support legacy analog equipment on newer digital or IP based systems. The ATA is most commonly a small separate device that contains an FXS (Foreign eXchange Service) port, an Ethernet port (RJ-45), and a power plug. In addition, sometimes IP based analog terminal adapters can be powered through the 802.3af power over Ethernet (PoE) standard to eliminate the need for a separate power supply.   Many businesses now use ATA terminals to connect a legacy phone or fax machine to their system. The fax’s RJ-11 phone line...