I've been playing with Asterisk for a few weeks now, and I've gotten everything to work well with softphones, so I'm ready to move on to normal VoIP phones. I've been looking around and reading comments that people have had, and I was convinced that the Polycom IP300 was a great phone for a good price. But, then I ran into this page, which has been update in the last few days: -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.digium.com/pipermail/asterisk-users/attachments/20050402/b1138e5e/attachment.htm
Sorry for the double post, I tried to paste and accidently sent the email I've been playing with Asterisk for a few weeks now, and I've gotten everything to work well with softphones, so I'm ready to move on to normal VoIP phones. I've been looking around and reading comments that people have had, and I was convinced that the Polycom IP300 was a great phone for a good price. But, then I ran into this page, which has been update in the last few days: http://www.voip-info.org/wiki-Polycom+SoundPoint+IP+500 The page in the wiki used to say that the person would not recomed Polycom phones to anyone. So anyway, I just want to make sure that the IP300 is a good choice. I don't want to get cheap phones that aren't business quality, since I do play on using them for my business after testing. Also, is the IP500 worth the extra money? What can it do that the IP300 can't. And finally, will the IP300 do ulaw encoding? Thanks in advance. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.digium.com/pipermail/asterisk-users/attachments/20050402/3cbfd454/attachment.htm
> The page in the wiki used to say that the person would not recomed > Polycom phones to anyone.I missed that part of the WIKI! Maybe it's more recent. I don't want to invalidate anybody's experience, but in the process of picking phones for my company, I evaluated a huge number of IP phones (and bought a lot of them). The only ones I would consider for us to use in real production are the phones from Polycom, Cisco, Zultys, Snom, Avaya, and Pingtel. Of those, the Polycom and Cisco units seemed to be the highest quality with the best feature set (I was looking for high quality speakerphone, multiple line appearances, centralized administration, intercom, lots of hard keys, and something that looked both sturdy and flashy). I went with Polycom in the end because they are cheaper (actually, the cheapest in my list above). They are NOT the easiest to configure, and they are NOT well supported, but they have certainly met my requirements and expectations., and once you have an FTP server set up with a good config, it is very fast and easy to set up new phones.> Also, is the IP500 worth the extra money? What can it do that > the IP300 can't.- Full duplex speakerphone (IP300 is listen only) - Real graphical display (IP300 is more like an old-style calculator display) - 3 line appearances (IP300 has 2) From a qualitative perspective, the IP500's just look more professional. The plastic stand is more solid and durable on the IP500 than on the IP300. The display is much more readable on the IP500. All our employees use IP500's or IP600's. We only use the IP300's for lobby phones and in back rooms. Depending on the supplier, you can get the IP500's for not much more than than the IP300's. I would highly recommend the IP500's over the IP300.
My personal opinion is that the Polycom IP-300 is a slightly better phone than the Sipura, but I would be happy to be proved wrong on that. later, PaulH ________________________________ From: asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com [mailto:asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Rod Bacon Sent: Monday, 4 April 2005 5:00 PM To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Buying some Polycom IP300s Over the last few weeks/months I have been testing phones and ATAs from Grandstream (BT101, GXP2000, 286, 488), SNOM (190), Zyxel (Piece of Crap), Sipura (SPA-2000, SPA-841) and I personally feel that the Sipura SPA-841 is the best value, good quality phone that I have used. I haven't used the polycoms yet, but I plan to in the next few weeks. ----- Original Message ----- From: Dan Morin <mailto:DMorin@ABBCOInc.com> To: asterisk-users@lists.digium.com Sent: Sunday, April 03, 2005 10:22 AM Subject: [Asterisk-Users] Buying some Polycom IP300s Sorry =or the double post, I tried to paste and accidently sent the email I've been playing with Asterisk for a few =eeks now, and I've gotten everything to work well with softphones, so I'm ready to =ove on to normal VoIP phones. I've been looking around and reading =omments that people have had, and I was convinced that the Polycom IP300 was a great =hone for a good price. But, then I ran into this page, which has been =pdate in the last few days: http://w=w.voip-info.org/wiki-Polycom+SoundPoint+IP+500 <http://www.voip-info.org/wiki-Polycom+SoundPoint+IP+500> <=DIV> The page in the wiki used to say that the =erson would not recomed Polycom phones to anyone. So anyway, I just want to =ake sure that the IP300 is a good choice. I don't want to get cheap phones =hat aren't business quality, since I do play on using them for my business =fter testing. Also, is the IP500 worth the extra money? What can =t do that the IP300 can't. And finally, will the IP300 do ulaw encoding? Thanks in advance. ________________________________ _______________________________________________ Asterisk-Users mailing list Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-user CAUTION: This email message and accompanying data may contain information that is confidential. If you are not the intended recipient, you are notified that any use, dissemination, distribution or copying of this message or data is prohibited. If you have received this email message in error, please notify us immediately and erase all copies of this message and attachments. Thank you. CAUTION: This email message and accompanying data may contain information that is confidential. If you are not the intended recipient, you are notified that any use, dissemination, distribution or copying of this message or data is prohibited. If you have received this email message in error, please notify us immediately and erase all copies of this message and attachments. Thank you.
I tend to agree. We own some Polycom 500's and a bunch of 841's. the 500 looks nicer, but its an abolute PAIN to configure. The 841 is simple, and does basically the same thing. One of the bigger headaches we have had stemmed from putting the power phone users on the 500's. they aren't able to help the other users as much because they don't have a 841. You can tell the difference on the sound and speakerphone features. The polycom speakerphone and mic are much much better. But it's just a phone and most people have no idea what they are. In fact, I had a technician in house last week and he asked to use the phone. I pointed him to a SPA-841 and explained he was welcome to use it and to make sure to hit Dial "like a cell phone" when he placed his call. After he was done 20 minutes later I asked what he thought of the phone. He asked why and I explained that it was a new VOIP phone and that his call had gone across our network to the server and then out the phone line. He said he'd had no idea and that he was really impressed with it. I then spotted a phone I hadn't configured in the same area and configured it in the space of about 5 minutes and when he asked to call again I pointed to that phone and mentioned that it now worked just like the other one. hehe. Brian Greul Texas Shirt Company www.txshirts.com 713-802-0369 / 713-861-6261 (fax) _____ From: Rod Bacon [mailto:rod.bacon@empoweredcomms.com.au] Sent: Monday, April 04, 2005 2:00 AM To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Buying some Polycom IP300s Over the last few weeks/months I have been testing phones and ATAs from Grandstream (BT101, GXP2000, 286, 488), SNOM (190), Zyxel (Piece of Crap), Sipura (SPA-2000, SPA-841) and I personally feel that the Sipura SPA-841 is the best value, good quality phone that I have used. I haven't used the polycoms yet, but I plan to in the next few weeks. ----- Original Message ----- From: Dan Morin <mailto:DMorin@ABBCOInc.com> To: asterisk-users@lists.digium.com Sent: Sunday, April 03, 2005 10:22 AM Subject: [Asterisk-Users] Buying some Polycom IP300s Sorry =or the double post, I tried to paste and accidently sent the email I've been playing with Asterisk for a few =eeks now, and I've gotten everything to work well with softphones, so I'm ready to =ove on to normal VoIP phones. I've been looking around and reading =omments that people have had, and I was convinced that the Polycom IP300 was a great =hone for a good price. But, then I ran into this page, which has been =pdate in the last few days: http://w=w.voip-info.org/wiki-Polycom+SoundPoint+IP+500 <http://www.voip-info.org/wiki-Polycom+SoundPoint+IP+500> <=DIV> The page in the wiki used to say that the =erson would not recomed Polycom phones to anyone. So anyway, I just want to =ake sure that the IP300 is a good choice. I don't want to get cheap phones =hat aren't business quality, since I do play on using them for my business =fter testing. Also, is the IP500 worth the extra money? What can =t do that the IP300 can't. And finally, will the IP300 do ulaw encoding? Thanks in advance. _____ _______________________________________________ Asterisk-Users mailing list Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-user -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.digium.com/pipermail/asterisk-users/attachments/20050404/551eeb4f/attachment.htm
Actually, once you know what you are doing, the IP500 and other Polycoms are quite easy to configure. You just setup an FTP server to serve your configs off of. W ________________________________ From: asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com [mailto:asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of brian@txshirts.com Sent: Monday, April 04, 2005 9:29 PM To: rod.bacon@empoweredcomms.com.au; asterisk-users@lists.digium.com Subject: RE: [Asterisk-Users] Buying some Polycom IP300s I tend to agree. We own some Polycom 500's and a bunch of 841's. the 500 looks nicer, but its an abolute PAIN to configure. The 841 is simple, and does basically the same thing. One of the bigger headaches we have had stemmed from putting the power phone users on the 500's. they aren't able to help the other users as much because they don't have a 841. You can tell the difference on the sound and speakerphone features. The polycom speakerphone and mic are much much better. But it's just a phone and most people have no idea what they are. In fact, I had a technician in house last week and he asked to use the phone. I pointed him to a SPA-841 and explained he was welcome to use it and to make sure to hit Dial "like a cell phone" when he placed his call. After he was done 20 minutes later I asked what he thought of the phone. He asked why and I explained that it was a new VOIP phone and that his call had gone across our network to the server and then out the phone line. He said he'd had no idea and that he was really impressed with it. I then spotted a phone I hadn't configured in the same area and configured it in the space of about 5 minutes and when he asked to call again I pointed to that phone and mentioned that it now worked just like the other one. hehe. Brian Greul Texas Shirt Company www.txshirts.com 713-802-0369 / 713-861-6261 (fax) ________________________________ From: Rod Bacon [mailto:rod.bacon@empoweredcomms.com.au] Sent: Monday, April 04, 2005 2:00 AM To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Buying some Polycom IP300s Over the last few weeks/months I have been testing phones and ATAs from Grandstream (BT101, GXP2000, 286, 488), SNOM (190), Zyxel (Piece of Crap), Sipura (SPA-2000, SPA-841) and I personally feel that the Sipura SPA-841 is the best value, good quality phone that I have used. I haven't used the polycoms yet, but I plan to in the next few weeks. ----- Original Message ----- From: Dan Morin <mailto:DMorin@ABBCOInc.com> To: asterisk-users@lists.digium.com Sent: Sunday, April 03, 2005 10:22 AM Subject: [Asterisk-Users] Buying some Polycom IP300s Sorry =or the double post, I tried to paste and accidently sent the email I've been playing with Asterisk for a few =eeks now, and I've gotten everything to work well with softphones, so I'm ready to =ove on to normal VoIP phones. I've been looking around and reading =omments that people have had, and I was convinced that the Polycom IP300 was a great =hone for a good price. But, then I ran into this page, which has been =pdate in the last few days: http://w=w.voip-info.org/wiki-Polycom+SoundPoint+IP+500 <http://www.voip-info.org/wiki-Polycom+SoundPoint+IP+500> <=DIV> The page in the wiki used to say that the =erson would not recomed Polycom phones to anyone. So anyway, I just want to =ake sure that the IP300 is a good choice. I don't want to get cheap phones =hat aren't business quality, since I do play on using them for my business =fter testing. Also, is the IP500 worth the extra money? What can =t do that the IP300 can't. And finally, will the IP300 do ulaw encoding? Thanks in advance. ________________________________ _______________________________________________ Asterisk-Users mailing list Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-user -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.digium.com/pipermail/asterisk-users/attachments/20050405/25a79ca0/attachment.htm
They can do PoE with the additional cable. -----Original Message----- From: asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com [mailto:asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Philip Trauring Sent: Tuesday, April 05, 2005 9:51 AM To: jim@vanmeggelen.ca; Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Buying some Polycom IP300s I'm not 100% certain, so please correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought the IP 300 and IP 500 both support PoE using the add-on PoE cable that Polycom sells. It costs about $35-$60 on the net in various places. Philip On Apr 3, 2005, at 4:00 PM, Jim Van Meggelen wrote:> The IP300 is a nice entry-level business phone. It does not have a > speakerphone, and cannot handle PoE, but other than that it is > excellent._______________________________________________ Asterisk-Users mailing list Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users The contents of this email message and any attachments are confidential and are intended solely for addressee. The information may also be legally privileged. This transmission is sent in trust, for the sole purpose of delivery to the intended recipient. If you have received this transmission in error, any use, reproduction or dissemination of this transmission is strictly prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please immediately notify the sender by reply email and delete this message and its attachments, if any.