Home Office configuration advice needed

[smurchie]

Hi all -

First time setting up a VoIP environment, and puzzling over best way to configure my environment given existing setup and new needs. Here's the basic stuff: basic home telephone service currently provided by Qwest; Internet access provided by Comcast. For various reasons, don't want to change those two variables.

Want to add two VoIP home office lines (two different businesses for my wife and me). Trying to figure out hardware and service options. Reading through everything on this site and elsewhere, I'm puzzling over a couple things:

1) Can I get some kind of deskset that can integrate a VoIP service and PSTN? Am I better off with an analog deskset and an ATA for each incoming VoIP service, or does someone makea VoIP deskset that does this?

2) Anyone have experience getting a 2-line business service that supports two separate business entities? Home service programs appear to be 1 line typically, and business services are 2+ lines; we need the two lines, but don't really need any sharing between them. Do need to have some tracking on the two lines for upcharges as applied.

Thanks -- that's where I'm stuck, at least for the time being.

S

[mberlant]

As you read through the previous postings here you will find that there are several solutions to the situation you describe.

The least expensive hardware solution is to use a two-line ATA (SPA-2000, PAP2, etc.) with two independent lines from a service provider who permits self provisioning of the ATA. BroadVoice is one of a very few providers to meet this requirement.

If you want to get fancier, and have a junk PC laying around, you can implement an Asterisk VoIP PABX and use an SPA-3000 to integrate your home telephone line into the system.

You don't mention anything about your calling pattern, so I am unable to comment about how best to manage upcharges.