Router for business VoIP
Business VoIP router installation
As business VoIP or hosted VoIP service grows in popularity, creating the best office network for a long term high quality stable voice network becomes an important part of the installation process. One of the first considerations after choosing which business VoIP provider's service, would be the router to handle your office network. One exceptional choice would be a Linksys model that is capable of being flashed with an open source software (Linux based) called Tomato. These routers are available on the open market like Ebay already with Tomato installed for anywhere from $50.00 to $75.00. Tomato software is relatively easy to configure and handles VoIP calls very well giving voice priority over data. A router that would compare could easily run $600.00. Quite a good deal.
Tomato router handles VoIP well.
As far as routers go, some older Linksys routers may have
larger memory capacities than some of the new ones and some of
these are capable of having a Linux based open source software
installed (Tomato or ddwrt) that is much more robust and
capable.
One such Linksys model would be the popular wireless WRT54G.
We have put together some
configuration settings with Tomato screenshots
for ease of your VoIP installation. This router option is
worth every dollar spent and in actuality is worth hundreds more;
well worth it.
Setting QoS priority for Voice
Installing business VoIP right from the beginning can make a very stable and successful VoIP installation. Choosing the right router is as important as any other aspect of the installation, including which business VoIP provider, the IP phones, and the other network infrastructure in your office.
Using an open source software like Tomato, which has a good VoIP QoS configuration setting, makes your VoIP calls have a better quality when network conditions are less than ideal. These are the times that users tend to experience choppy voice, or bad quality calls. With Tomato the voice traffic is prioritized over the other data to move through the network without delay. This makes for better quality VoIP and also allows the SIP signaling to travel unhindered back to the VoIP provider, bypassing congestion. Today Internet service providers are offering larger bandwidth services for lower costs, so typically these issues may not arise, but often when network conditions, like video streaming, etc. are done by employees the VoIP traffic (voice) can suffer. Tomato sorts all this out, something typically a $1000.00 router would only be capable of.
To locate one of several models of Linksys routers that support Tomato firmware you can visit : Unleash your router, which one.