VoIP or Voice-over-IP has replaced telephone “land-lines” in many businesses today due to ease of use, added features, and lowered costs.  Yet many things can cause call quality to degrade that are not well understood.

First of all, VoIP requires a good quality Internet connection – an asymmetric DSL connection to a small business, which is common, is usually not enough to run multiple phone lines without having some quality issues in the slower direction.   A T1 line, symmetrical business quality DSL, or higher speed cable modem is best for overall voice quality.

Secondly, VoIP connections can suffer call quality issues if there is no QoS or “Quality of Service” priority scheme built into the networking equipment used.  If voice is not prioritized over data, someone downloading a huge file in the next room or playing YouTube videos can cause a call to become very degraded or even dropped.

When choosing an Internet service provider, be sure to tell them that you plan to operate VoIP so that they give you a service that is designed for voice – otherwise, you may have issues such as packet loss that can also create gaps in the speech that you hear.

Choosing good VoIP phones is also critical to good quality and service, as well-designed phones have many features designed to make the overall VoIP experience as close to land line quality as possible. A good phone will have a good quality echo cancellation algorithm built into the chipset used, and will have a well designed headset with additional noise reduction features.  Cisco, Avaya, Nortel, and Shoretel all have superior products used by many businesses today.  Analog telephone adapter technology has also come a long way in the past several years – which means you can have a VoIP system using your old phones by simply buying boxes from Dlink, Linksys/Cisco or any number of other vendors and simply plugging them in.

A solid infrastructure built using at least cat5 Ethernet cabling is also a prerequisite for any business-class VoIP deployment.   If your infrastructure is not solid, or cabling is not run properly, high levels of interference or packet loss can cause your calls to be spotty or even inaudible.

The right structured cabling installers will be more than happy to do a detailed analysis of your network infrastructure and make cost effective yet useful recommendations for enhancements that will help keep your new VoIP system running efficiently.  Why not call them today?

If you liked this article, tell all your friends about it. They’ll thank you for it. If you have a blog or website, you can link to it or even post it to your own site (don’t forget to mention our Network Cabling website as the original source).

Joe Small Business Owner rushes out to buy the latest and greatest servers, printers, and wireless access points for his company – spending lots of capital in the process.  Yet when it comes to his inside wiring, he just runs another used cat 5 wire he got from eBay or Craig’s List across the floor or over a cabinet and thinks he is saving money. What’s wrong with this picture?

For starters, “rat’s nest wiring” can create many problems that get blamed on the shiny new equipment – such as poor performance and interference.   Running wires too close to fluorescent lighting can also cause interference that shows up as slow data or voice connections.   And who knows what is actually INSIDE those walls!

Wires with frayed shielding in the walls can cause increased vulnerability to interference too, and this can be an elusive problem that usually gets blamed on equipment misconfiguration.    Damaged media or wiring inside the walls can lead to intermittent dropped connections, which is very annoying when using VoIP (voice-over-IP) telephone systems as key parts of calls may be dropped.

Poor termination of Ethernet cabling or fiber optic cabling can lead to a whole host of problems that can plague your business’s mission critical activities in many ways.  And using old wiring such as cat 3 while trying to handle streaming media is another mistake made by many – it is older media and directly analogous to trying to fit an entire pitcher of lemonade into a thimble.

What’s a business owner to do?  Call experienced network cabling installers to come and do a comprehensive evaluation of not only the cabling you can see, but also what you can’t see.  Professional installers use the latest wire integrity evaluation equipment on the market to test for compromised shielding, improper termination, or damaged media that may be wreaking havoc on your business communications.  And they will only recommend that wiring be upgraded if it really needs to be – no need to worry about upgraded wiring being recommended just because someone wants a trip to Tahiti.

Business communications are critical to your very growth – and survival in this economic climate.  Running top notch “state-of-the-art” IT equipment over faulty wiring is like driving a Porsche in off road conditions; you just wouldn’t do it. Professional installers will identify any wiring issues, and also any potential interference issues and either reroute wiring or use a media type that is not susceptible to interference.

No matter what the professionals find, they will keep your needs and your budget in mind at all times throughout the process.   No nasty surprises at the end of the job, and no more compromised communications.  Why wait, call professional network cabling installers today!

If you liked this article, tell all your friends about it. They’ll thank you for it. If you have a blog or website, you can link to it or even post it to your own site (don’t forget to mention our Network Cabling website as the original source).

Although some businesses are lucky enough to be located in brand new buildings with new shiny cabling and infrastructure – most are living with cabling that was installed in the 1980’s or earlier.  Many business owners don’t associate the quality of their internal cabling with difficulties in their networks.  For the most part, network cables are hidden in the walls – out of sight, out of mind!

But upgrading your cabling NOW will pay dividends, and can help make your business more efficient now while allowing you to take advantage of new technologies that can have a great impact on your business in the future.  Eight good reasons to upgrade now include:

1)Most 1980’s cabling is cat 3 UTP cable, which is really not suitable for money saving technologies such as VoIP.  Moving to a cost effective VoIP system will more than pay for the cable upgrade within months!
2)Older cable can have insulation that is wearing off, which means shielding is also wearing off which can lead to crosstalk related network problems
3)Newer cabling is required for the installation of telepresence systems, which can cut down travel costs dramatically and improve communications between remote branch offices.
4)Older cabling is easier to “sniff”, meaning your competitors could tap into your networks and gain unauthorized knowledge about your business and products
5)When installing new cabling, you can run more cable to accommodate more computers, VoIP enabled fax machines, or phones – meaning you can streamline your switch and router locations and make your overall network more efficient.
6)You can install fiber optic cabling in areas where security is critical, and use media conversion to areas where cheaper copper cabling is adequate.  Fiber optic cabling is nearly impossible to sniff.
7)Gigabit Ethernet capable cat 6 cabling can be installed to allow use of faster download speeds in engineering areas or anywhere huge files have to be uploaded and downloaded.
8)PoE (power over Ethernet) switches can be added to your network which require newer cabling – these allow better overall power management, mean less wires to trip over for your employees, and can help save on your power bills.   You can also set up your infrastructure to run on a generator in the event of a power outage, which means productivity can continue no matter what the outside conditions are.

Your network cabling installer can help you achieve the perfect network infrastructure and cabling scenario that not only meets your present needs, but “future-proofs” your organization.  This allows you to take advantage of money-saving new technologies now and in the future.  They can assess the current state of your infrastructure, make detailed recommendations as to what needs to be done, then help you make the decision as to the best course of action for your organization in terms of budget, needs and future scalability.   Why not call one today and get started on your future IT plan?  There is no better time than now.

If you liked this article, tell all your friends about it. They’ll thank you for it. If you have a blog or website, you can link to it or even post it to your own site (don’t forget to mention http://www.intsysinst.com as the original source).