Home Phone / Intercom / Regular Phones

[pgershon]

I have my house wired for an old ATT Partner Plus system, with home run Cat 5 runs from my basement to all the rooms in the house.  We have about 12 cordless extensions, all regular single lien phones (analog), and it has worked well.  Would like to upgrade to something that can handle caller id.  Only product I see out there is the Panasonic.  Avaya Partner PCS could do it too, but not cheap and probably overkill.  Really all I want to be able to do is handle two phone lines and distribute to all the rooms, and support room-to-room intercom.  The thing I like about the Partner system is that is easily allows two or more extensions to pick up the same call - there is no assumed privacy setting that locks out other extensions once one has picked up.  Key consideration remains that I want to keep my analog extension phones - the digital corded units are not great for my family needs and the digital wireless tend to be expensive and less good than the Dect 5 analog consumer models.  
 
Any suggestions?

 

[tmbrown97]

Too bad I just tossed out 3 panasonic systems 2 weeks ago... one of those would've done you well!  They supported analog or digital extions off the bat and included the Caller ID cards.
 
You can do a lot nowadays with SIP but there are some differences; among them, the loss of the privacy settings you talk about above.  That said it's very easy to set up PBX In A Flash, 3CX, Asterisk, FreePBX - etc for next to nothing; depending on how many analog extension you need, that'd determine how many ATA ports you'd need; you can even get entire VOIP PBX systems in a small affordable package.
 
They do also make DECT VOIP phones - the base connects to your LAN and then the phones connect to the base station with DECT like you're used to - those can be very affordable - here's just one example: http://www.grandstream.com/index.php/products/ip-voice-telephony/enterprise-ip-phones/dp715_710

 

[pgershon]

The trouble with the DECT VOIP phones there is that you seem limited to 5 extensions.  Question on the Panasonic's as I have a KX-TA824 in my weekend house.  Is there an easy way to get two analog extensions (SLP, not PT phones) on the same outside call?  
 
I would think my needs are rather easy, but not the case.  Have one phone system to manage 2 lines and 15+ extensions, with extension to extension support.

 

[tmbrown97]

It's been a few years since I worked with the Panasonics - I dumped them because I figured I could still package up a cheaper SIP system given the extra time it takes to set them up.
 
"When you're a hammer, everything looks like a nail" - if it were me, I'd start with a VOIP PBX and if I decided I needed to bring another person in, i'd either transfer the call to a conference bridge, or conference the person in - that seems to be the sticking point; the rest of this is easy (2 lines, 15 extensions).  And yes, most of the DECT systems are restricted to 5 handsets PER BASE - nothing states that you can't have 4 bases though.  Then I'd go a step further and create a VPN between both houses and make them all extensions off the same system with the ability to all be on the line together, dial each other, etc.
 
I ditched POTS a long time ago and use SIP trunks that just cost me a couple bucks per month and have caller ID and softphone access outside the home too - so even when I'm away I can take the calls via my softphone, or route them as I wish.
 
One of the most affordable systems I work with is Grandstream - if you'd like to explore any of their pricing - their handsets are extremely affordable... drop me a PM. 
 
Anything else and I think you'd be working a lot with legacy technology; not to say it's not perfectly possible - honestly the Panasonic systems probably do a lot of what you want and can be obtained quite inexpensively... but I'm a little stuck on the "party line" piece.

 

[xlurkr]

Question on the Panasonic's as I have a KX-TA824 in my weekend house.  Is there an easy way to get two analog extensions (SLP, not PT phones) on the same outside call?  

 
On page 70 of the Operator's Manual of the KX-TA824, it says you can do the following:
 
Depress switchhook (flash)
Dial extension you wish to add to the call
(Optionally) Talk to the person who answers the extension and introduce the caller
Depress switchhook
Dial 3
 
You now have a 3 way conference call with the outside caller and two of your extensions, including your own.  I've never tried this; I've only conferenced in a SLT from a PT.  You don't have to flash to do that, because there's a "Conf" button on the PTs.  But I assume it works as advertised.
 
Note that this has to be initiated on the phone that answered the call in the first place.  A third party can't just pick up any phone and join an existing conversation, AFAIK.
 
-Tom

 

[pgershon]

The last comment is the big difficulty.  The Partner system lets a third party pick up any existing conversation and we will miss that feature.  Only issue with our existing system is lack of caller id

 

[picta]

The Panasonic PBX is as complex as a small spaceship, it has a lot of features, and most users only utilize a handful. We have a KX-TD, and in that system you can program some or all of your extensions for Executive Busy Override that will allow pick up of the existing call by a third extension establishing a conference call.

 
 

 

 

[tmbrown97]

Well could the CallerID gap be filled by having the CAller ID show up on places like the TV's or even secondary Caller ID Displays?  It could even be announced over TTS if you had any sort of automation system in place.
 
Too bad the topic of those Panasonic KX-TD's is coming up now - about 3 weeks too late; I wouldl've given them away for the price of shipping - had one KXTD0816 and two KXTD1232's and about 20 phones.

 

[picta]

Too bad the topic of those Panasonic KX-TD's is coming up now - about 3 weeks too late; I wouldl've given them away for the price of shipping - had one KXTD0816 and two KXTD1232's and about 20 phones.

 
Work2Play, next time you come across these, please let us know, I could use a few extra phones. Love the intercom feature on KX-TD, it is the only PBX system I am aware of that has an auto-answer feature on the intercom.

 

[xlurkr]

I hadn't really looked at the Executive Busy Override before.  It's described on page 85 of the Operating Manual for outside calls.  It look like you need a PT to use it on the KX-TA824.
 
-Tom

 

[sic0048]

I recently switched to a PBX in a Flash system which is based on Asterisk.  It is free and relatively easy to set up.  It can be run on something as small as a Raspberry Pi, or it can easily be run in a virtual environment (they have a virtual image all ready to go).  I'm running it on an old laptop that I repurposed for the phone system.  There are numerous benefits to running a digital system and intercom is certainly one of them (although your existing wireless phones won't auto answer like many of the SIP phones will).
 
Check out a "How To" article I recently wrote on the CQC Forum.  http://www.charmedquark.com/vb_forum/showthread.php?t=10709  It talks about the benefits and then walks through how to set a system up for basic use.  In order to use your analog phones, you would need a FXS port to convert the analog data to digital data.  I use the Obi products - like the Obi202.  The Obi202 has two FXS ports, so you could have two analog extensions off that device.  If you really wanted all 12 wireless phones on their own extensions, then you would need 12 FXS ports in total (could use 6 Obi202 units).  Of course you don't have to have all 12 phones on their own extensions.  You could combine some phones together on one extension.  Of course all the phones on a combined extension would ring when someone dialed that extension.
 
As noted, being able to pick up several extensions and all be on the same phone call isn't something that most PBX system do.  However I suspect you could utilize the conference call system that is built in to many of these systems to combine several extensions/calls into one.

 

[tmbrown97]

Work2Play, next time you come across these, please let us know, I could use a few extra phones. Love the intercom feature on KX-TD, it is the only PBX system I am aware of that has an auto-answer feature on the intercom.

Unfortunately, I won't be coming across any more of these; these were systems that I had installed in offices, then pulled out after an upgrade to VOIP; I'm pretty sure I sent everything I had to recycling when I was on a mission to make more room in my garage.  I think all that's left is about 20 Avaya Magix phones and a couple analog polycoms.

 

[rsw686]

Unfortunately, I won't be coming across any more of these; these were systems that I had installed in offices, then pulled out after an upgrade to VOIP; I'm pretty sure I sent everything I had to recycling when I was on a mission to make more room in my garage.  I think all that's left is about 20 Avaya Magix phones and a couple analog polycoms.

Which VoIP system are you going with these days? I used to be a big fan of FreePBX but their focus seems to have changed. At the office I have FreePBX with Asterisk 1.8 handling 450 employees with 200k minutes of calls a month. Before the certified Asterisk releases I would find different things would be broken at each release and I would have to backport patches. The Asterisk SIP stack is such a mess they are replacing it with pjsip in Asterisk 12. Plus CDRs with transfers are a nightmare. I've been looking at Freeswitch and the Bluebox GUI. Downside is Bluebox doesn't seem to be getting any new development in the last 2 years.