This FAQ only applies to our on-premise software. Our cloud solution already includes telephone service.
There are many types of VoIP phone services and Voicent software will work with just about any of them.
There are three especially popular types of service:
The first type is a free, stripped-down service suitable only for individual use.
Skype, Callcentric and many other providers offer free VoIP service. But free services only allow connections to other users of the same free service.
The second type targets residential and small- to mid-sized business users.
The majority of these VoIP services are SIP-based, which is a common, highly-regarded standard for VoIP. Examples of this type include SkypeConnect and Callcentric's Pay Per Call service.
The third type of service is SIP Trunking.
A SIP trunk service is targeted at large enterprise customers needing dozens or even hundreds of lines and phone extensions.
Among the SIP Trunking service popular with Voicent customers are Broadvox and Bandwidth.com. However, a Google search wil provide listings of many more SIP Trunking services.
Your choice of phone service should depend on your call volume and calling area (international, long distance, or local). The good news is that you have a lot of choices. But you need to shop around for a service that fits you the best.
Voicent is especially easy to use with the second and third types of services described above.
In general--and especially for easy testing, we recommend the following two VoIP providers:
For small call volume or testing, use CallCentric
For large call volume, use SkypeConnect
Here are some of the other VoIP services many Voicent customers use: CallCentric, RingCentral, Vonage, SkypeConnect, CallWithUs.
Using a PBX System?
If you are already using a PBX system, you have the flexibility of choosing almost any type of business phone service, such as analog trunk, T1, E1, ISDN, PRI, and SIP Trunk. For Voicent software, it does not matter which phone service you choose. As long as your PBX system supports IP phones or extensions (and just about all of them do), you can configure Voicent software to use the phone service through your PBX system.
Most major PBX systems, such as Cisco, Avaya, Asterisk, etc, support SIP extensions. Even smaller PBX systems, such as the four-line Talkswitch, offers SIP extension support.
To setup Voicent software to use your SIP trunking service or PBX system, you need to get the SIP credentials (connection information) of your account from the service or PBX admin. Once you have the information, enter it in the Voicent Gateway. Step-by-step instructions for doing this can be found in the Voicent Quick Start Guide, or online here: http://voicent.com/sip/setup-sip-trunk-for-voicent.php.
To test multiple simultaneous calls using Voicent, please see: Video Help: Make Multiple Simultaneous Calls Using SIP
To test multiple simultaneous calls using Voicent, please see: Video Help: Make Multiple Simultaneous Calls Using SIP
Yes, SIP-based VoIP services allow you to call any phone, whether a landline or a mobile phone. Free VoIP services, however, only allow you to call other users of the same free service.
Yes, there is a VoIP service feature called DID number, which stands for Direct Inbound Dialing number. This number works like a traditional phone number--it can be called by anyphone--but you answer it on your computer (or a USB phone).
DID phone numbers require a small monthly charge and can be the phone number displayed as your Caller ID number when making outbound calls using your VoIP account.
Yes, actually it is easier to scale up the number of simultaneous calls using a VOIP service than traditional phone services, this is because with VOIP, there is no need to add physical lines.
For simultaneous calls, you need to subscribe to multiple channels for your SIP account. Each channel acts as one physical phone line and can handle one call at a time. For example, SkypeConnect offers up to 300 channels per account.
Usually, you do not need multiple SIP accounts for multiple channels. However, some services have a limit to how many channels one account can have. In this case, you can use multiple SIP accounts for Voicent. For Voicent software, these accounts do not need to be from the same VOIP service company.
For regular phone numbers, specify the country code + full telephone number. For US and Canada, use an 11-digit number that includes the prefix 1, which is the country code. For example, 1 408-799-0000, where 1 is the US country code. You can add 1 in Voicent Gateway as a default dialing rule for all the phone numbers in your call list, then just use the 10 digit number 408-725-7578 in the program. To add a dialing rule on Voicent Gateway, click on the Voicent Gateway icon in the task bar, then choose Setup > Option > Outbound tab.
To call another SIP user, use the prefix sip: followed by the user's SIP ID, which normally is an email address. For example, sip:myaccount@mysipprovider.com, where myaccount and mysipprovider should be replaced with the actual account value.
You can have as many channels as your computer allows. The more CPU power and more internet bandwidth, the more lines your computer can support. Please see System Requirements.
No, a second line from Voicent system is not required. However, your VOIP account needs to have 2 channels; one channel for the original call, and the other for the transferred call. For example, if you have a 4-line Broadcast By Phone system, and you use the press a key feature to transfer call to cell phone or another phone number, you need to have 8 channels from your VOIP account. Please note when a call is transferred to a computer with popup screen, such as for Agent Dialer, there is no need to get additional channel from your VOIP account.
SIP is a widely-used industry standard for VoIP. Regular Skype does not use SIP, it uses a proprietary technology that only allows calls to other Skype users.
SkypeConnect is a SIP-based service provided by Skype for business users. It allows calls to any phone and also supports multiple lines, simultaneous calling and many other VoIP features.
That depends on your SIP service provider. If your SIP account has an incoming call number, referred to as a DID number, you can set this number to be the caller ID to be displayed. Voicent software does not provide a way to change caller ID.
For SkypeConnect, you have the option to associate your business office number to your SkypeConnect account. If you set it up that way, the caller ID display, when calling out using SkypeConnect, will be your business number.
A STUN server is used to help Voicent software connect to your VoIP/SIP service if your computer is behind a router. Some VoIP services provide their own STUN server to use, others rely on public STUN servers.
For public STUN servers, please google "public STUN servers." The following are a few examples: stun.xten.com, stun01.sipphone.com, and stunserver.org.
SIP stands for Session Initiation Protocol. which is an industry standard protocol for VoIP. VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol, an IP telephony technology to transmit voice or to make phone calls through the Internet using a computer.
With SIP, you do not need any telephony hardware, all you need is a soft phone. A soft phone is a software program with a telephone-like user interface. There are many SIP soft phones available on the internet, such as X-lite (which is free).
Voicent software works as the replacement of your soft phone, offering many auto-dialing capabilities. For multi-line system, Voicent system will function as many soft phone simultaneously. Unlike traditional telephony hardware such as dialogic board, Voicent system has no limit as how many lines it can support. It is limited only by your computer power and your internet bandwidth. In SIP or VoIP terminolodgy, a line is referred to as a channel.
SIP is also a standard for PBX system IP extensions. These SIP extensions can be used for a hardware IP phone or a software softphone.
If you have a PBX system like Cisco, Avaya, or Asterisk that already supports SIP extension, you can use Voicent software directly with your PBX. This configuration works even your PBX is connected to the traditional phone network (PSTN).
