ZesteR October 29, 2007 Share ZesteR Member October 29, 2007 Here is the assignment: The group that I am in, we are a consulting firm that was given the task to create, from scratch, a network for a law firm. There is 25 ppl in the firm and our budget is 100,000 for everything. One part of the project is telecommunications. I have that section and need help researching, purchasing, installing a Voice over IP system. I did some googling and really only found a few articles that give me an overview of VoIP. I need to know what is involved in a setup. Hardware, Software, Installation, Monthly Fees and the prices on all that. I'm looking to you guys to lend me some direction where I can figure this out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tookey October 29, 2007 Share tookey Member October 29, 2007 ummm...spend a couple thousand on comps, high quality sound cards, mics, and internet connections....then spend the other 98000 on "other expenses as needed" read as "cars planes and trains" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stutters October 29, 2007 Share stutters GC Alumni October 29, 2007 first, hosted VoIP or onsite VoIP? that determines how much is fixed cost (onsite server, server maintenance/management, config, etc.) vs. variable (per user fee) regardless: local network infrastructure. cabling, QoS routers, gateway/firewall (+config). + repeat x number of office locations (or assume 1 central office). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZesteR October 29, 2007 Author Share ZesteR Member October 29, 2007 This would be for a LAN, not a WAN 1 office, 2 floors, same building. It's a law firm, so we prob. would rather the troubleshooting and administrator be not up to them. They do not have an IT department to call for help. So i'm guessing the best way would be to find prices for an ISP that has VoIP option. but when looking for that, what will i need to look for? I know QoS. To answer your question, hosted VoIP. (that still includes free in-house calls, right?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NOFX October 30, 2007 Share NOFX Member October 30, 2007 How many employees? Are you to do the computer network also? What kind of class is this?? so many varibles we don't know, that its hard to help. If you install any sort of computer, it WILL require maintenance.. so it looks like he may want you to farm the work off to an ISP?, but that is being lazy.. quality of service, uptime, bandwidth, clients needs.. all come into play. general rule of thumb is you want to have about 100% more bandwidth than traffic. You have an average of 10Mbps, at the very least you want to put in a 20Mbps connection... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akaM2 October 30, 2007 Share akaM2 Member October 30, 2007 give me company size and amount of telephone lines needed and I can get you a price. Atleast a price from TWC Business Class Phone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anonymo October 30, 2007 Share anonymo Member October 30, 2007 give me company size and amount of telephone lines needed and I can get you a price. Atleast a price from TWC Business Class Phone. Oh, who let this bot in here? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZesteR October 30, 2007 Author Share ZesteR Member October 30, 2007 25 employees. Yes we have to do a TOTAL install of a computer and telecommunications network. The reason I am not giving sufficient information, is b/c I do not know what you guys need to help me. This is the first time I every dealt w/ VoIP in any form. Since it's for a grade, and apart of a project, I need as much info as possible. This is for my Network/Communications class. It's kind of an intro, but a very detailed one. I would like to have 1-2 connections, especially since we do not want phones to go down, and for backup reasons. (Also, maybe a third b/c of fax machines and credit card charges) but that will not need high bandwidth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NOFX October 30, 2007 Share NOFX Member October 30, 2007 (edited) Setup your internal network. 10/100 is starting to age, but it should be more than sufficent for a small office like that. Add a voip server on that network. This will allow in-house calls to never leave the building.... I would not use voip for outgoing calls, I'd put two or three or four standard phone lines for "out-of-house" calls. My office has 50+ people and I believe we only have 2 maybe 3 lines out as well as a fax. One pipeline to the internet with a high uptime should be fine, a backup could never hurt though, but I would be very weary of the price. You don't need to over-do the bandwidth.. 1.4Mbps(t1) doesn't seem fast to us now, but you gotta remember this is for just office work, not downloading movies. a T1 is more reliable than your standard consumer line. Our office of 50+ has a T1 and rarely gets bogged down. all this is coming from a computer science major with a networking concentration Edited October 30, 2007 by NOFX Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZesteR October 30, 2007 Author Share ZesteR Member October 30, 2007 Thanks NOFX! Is there any suggestions on hardware and how to backup? I have a meeting tonight to gather all the intel on the network and it's specs. (i.e. server, pcs, cabling, prices, switches and routers) What is a good brand to research for phones (at work we have the Cisco ones, but that's a big casino) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NOFX October 30, 2007 Share NOFX Member October 30, 2007 not sure on brands, but I remember my university was expanding their VOIP network to the entire campus as I left and they were all using Cisco phones.. I'm not looking for answers, but ask yourself this Are the people in the office saving the work to their machine or to the server? Do you really need a daily backup? What data is being saved that has to be backed up daily? tape backups are the safest because they can be kept out of house in case of fire and they aren't prone to dying when the machine goes down. If not that a redundant raid array. It seems to me like you may be going outside the bounds of your project. Backups would definitely require an IT department, if your job is to build their network from the ground up, this should not be your responsibility. Find out the needs of your client and see if you can install linux as the OS, since most people would have a hard time doing this in practice, this is only theoretical, so you could save alot of $$$ from not buying those windows keys. Also linux is a much more reliable and easier to setup server than any microsoft product. Heck, Dell even sells PC without Windows on them now, check it out, it may save you big bucks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZesteR October 30, 2007 Author Share ZesteR Member October 30, 2007 Our budget is 100,000. It's a business that wants MS products. The server would be supported by us. (The fake company creating the network, we will be support) I would say we would go in and do backups w/ tapes and take them to a safe, data recovery area. So to sum things up: We have a network to attach this VoIP network to. I will need: QoS Router Server to store data on (logs, software for VoIP) <--- i need help on software 1 T1 line, Fax line, credit card charge line 25 IP enabled phones <-- I think i'll get ones that plug into the wall for power, so I do not have to mess with power of ethernet cabling - cat 5e gateway/firewall <-- is this so the two networks, data and voice, can connect to each other?? server <-- can this be the same server as the other network gets it's data from? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leveller October 30, 2007 Share Leveller Member October 30, 2007 (edited) I'm not technically sound enough to add much input on that front, but a couple of obvious things jumped out at me. This 100K budget, is that a 1 off purely for the install or does it have to cover a 1 year support contract with yourselves, if so do you need to put together an SLA to cover potentially different severity issues, and what would you anticipate to be the cost of providing that support? Is the 100K purely for hardware and are the "delivery"/consulting manpower hours billed separately, or do they need to be incorporated to be within that 100K? What specialist skills will you need to subcontract out to do this install and what are their hourly rates to do this installation, will you be able to negotiate support contracts with them if need be? Maybe I'm going a bit too deep, but unsure if this is a project for a business portion of your course or for IT? From your above breakdown, are you making the assumption that all 25 currently have laptops/pcs? If not do you have to incorporate that in your cost, what about monitors, not many people like to sit all day using just a laptop screen. edit: would you need to do backups on site, or could you farm that out to another provider so all storage is remote? Edited October 30, 2007 by Leveller Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZesteR October 30, 2007 Author Share ZesteR Member October 30, 2007 I'm not technically sound enough to add much input on that front, but a couple of obvious things jumped out at me. This 100K budget, is that a 1 off purely for the install or does it have to cover a 1 year support contract with yourselves, if so do you need to put together an SLA to cover potentially different severity issues, and what would you anticipate to be the cost of providing that support? Is the 100K purely for hardware and are the "delivery"/consulting manpower hours billed separately, or do they need to be incorporated to be within that 100K? What specialist skills will you need to subcontract out to do this install and what are their hourly rates to do this installation, will you be able to negotiate support contracts with them if need be? Maybe I'm going a bit too deep, but unsure if this is a project for a business portion of your course or for IT? From your above breakdown, are you making the assumption that all 25 currently have laptops/pcs? If not do you have to incorporate that in your cost, what about monitors, not many people like to sit all day using just a laptop screen. edit: would you need to do backups on site, or could you farm that out to another provider so all storage is remote? it's an IT class, not business, but he wants us to get an idea what really is involved in creating a network for a business. the pcs/laptops is someone else's part of the project. that is incorporated into the 100k budget. the 100k is for hardware, software, and installation costs/labor, and i believe about 6 months of monthly fees for ISP and whatnot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benjester October 30, 2007 Share benjester Member October 30, 2007 (edited) Network... look into cisco and HP for starters. We just put in new HP core layer 7 switche, and it will do VOIP as well as power over ethernet. You will need a firewall, and probably a few servers. Think SECURITY!! it is a law firm... information is most treasured there. A lawfirm of 25 will also house an internal research staff, they will have specific database needs... SQL most likely... VOIP is actually pretty easy at this point... Once your network hardware supports it... it is just a matter of ensureing you have the right phone equipment (read phones and voip server). You will still want standard phone lines coming into the building and split off... I would say 4 as well. 3 for regular use, and one fax. Desktops are easy, most would be laptops I would imagine. Server wise, I would think 3 or 4 is enough to do everything you would want including local email systems and such. Work in a budget for maintenance which wouldn't fall under the 100K that would allow them to call someone for support. Again, do not leave out security measures... that is a 50000 ft top down view. I would get basics down, and then step through the day of an attorney to see whatever needs they would have. Software use and such. Don't forget a voice mail system as well... often times, it is not included with regular voip phone service. Edited October 30, 2007 by benjester Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZesteR October 30, 2007 Author Share ZesteR Member October 30, 2007 Awesome! I wonder if m2 still can get me a quote w/ voicemail feature. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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