Question : What is the best way to introduce VoIP into our network?

Hello all,

I am in the planning process of implementing a new hosted VBX VoIP solution, and am trying to think through the best way to accomplish our necessary infrastructure modifications and upgrades.

We are a small business with approximately 20 employees working in the office.  Our current network infrastructure consists of the following:

1, T1 circuit
1, Cisco PIX 501firewall (running VPN and DHCP)
3, 12-port unmanaged Netgear Gigabit switches

The PIX is performing all of the DHCP services, so we don't have an additional router in place.  All workstations and servers are talking through the switches directly to the PIX and then out to the T1.

We are soon to install hosted Cisco VoIP phones, and I'd like to understand my options to get the network ready.

The factors are as follows:

1)  We will have two different ISPs providing services.  One ISP will be bringing in a new T1 circuit that will be solely to carry the VoIP traffic.  Also, our current T1 circuit will remain active for the purpose of providing data service to our workstations, servers, etc.  How do we go about introducing both of these ISP connections into the same router/switch?

2)  The current switches are not PoE or QoS, so I know they're bad news for VoIP traffic.  I have been looking at replacing all of them with a single, new Netgear GS748TPS.  http://www.netgear.com/Products/Switches/AdvancedSmartSwitches/GS748TPS.aspx  Any thoughts?

3)  We will be connecting the phones and the computers over single CAT5e drops that are already in place at each of the workstations.  The phones (7965g) have a Gigabit switch in them which allows the PC to be daisy-chained with the phone.  Any problems there?  Is it feasible that the phones and computers could successfully reach the internet through two different ISPs, even though they are communicating over the same piece of copper?

What am I missing?  Any further suggestions?

Thank you,
Robert

Answer : What is the best way to introduce VoIP into our network?

There are many potential issues here.

1.) The Cisco PIX 501 will not be able to support dual WAN interfaces. You will need to get another router that does support it and place it in front of the PIX. Something like a Linksys RV042 may suffice.

2.) The Netgear GS748TPS should work for how you have it planned out.

3.) I believe it will be possible for the phone and computer to reach the Internet through different ISPs, because it looks like the Cisco 7965g phone supports VLAN. This is crucial. Basically, the phone and computer will need to be set to different VLANs and subnets, and the port on the Netgear switch they are connected to will need to be in trunk mode. No real issues with daisy chaining the computer through the phone, but just be aware that if there are any issues with the phone, your computer may lose network access as well.