The Life and Times of Seattle’s Only Small Business Systems Consultant. Articles and advice on small business phone systems, phone and internet services, VoIP, and all things technology related.
Selkowitz Technology | Seattle’s small business network and telecom consultant
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(4.11 out of 5)Packet 8 vs. Buying a Phone System - Price, Service, and Quality Compared
Many offices are looking at hosted VoIP as a solution to cut phone equipment and monthly service costs. The reality however is hosted VoIP services leave you to do a challenging technical installation for a service that generally doesn’t work as well and costs more.
First, lets talk about packages. An interesting aspect of many VoIP [...]
Polycom vs. Konftel - Conference Phones Compared
There’s no denying Polycom is the best known brand in conference phones and they make a great product. However in any industry its often the case that the number two vendor in the industry has to deliver better value to compete. Konftel is newer to the US but has a strong presence in Europe and [...]
Where the Allworx Phone System Excels
We’ve regularly compared phone systems - Talkswitch vs Allworx, Talkswitch vs Response Point, etc. For your average small business I really like the Talkswitch system due to its feature set, ease of management, excellent support policies, and very affordable entry points.
But for a different class of buyer - those looking for top end functionality the [...]
Talkswitch Helps a Renton Church Save Thousands
We recently had the opportunity to install a Talkswitch Phone System for a local Renton church. A new building is what made them start looking for a new phone system, but it turned out upgrading not only delivered better functionality but also saved them money.
First, how they saved money. Their old phone system didn’t have [...]
Understanding Ethernet Over Copper In Seattle, Bellevue, and Tacoma
Ethernet Over Copper is a new kind of high bandwidth internet connection which will range from 5-30Mb. There will inevitably be many comparisons to cable, DSL, bonded T1s, and fiber.
What separates this connection from DSL and Cable is a matching upload rate (a.k.a. synchronous). Cable and DSL can now offer download speeds of up to [...]
Talkswitch 6.1 Improves our Favorite Small Business Phone System
Talkswitch just released their new 6.1 update for their systems with some nice new enhancements. While these changes seem small - in the right situation they’re really handy.
Check Firewall Diagnostic - to work right VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) requires specific configuration from the network router. This one click diagnostic makes it easy to confirm [...]
What’s Response Point Doing at Costco?
Microsoft released their small business phone system, Response Point, to great hoopla in late 2007. It seemed their intent was to use their Partner program to get the product out to small businesses. This market strategy made a lot of sense, but their recent moves to undercut that model makes me think that plan isn’t [...]
How Softphones Can Be Useful
A softphone is a software phone which runs on your computer and let you make and receive calls anywhere with an internet connection. I use the Eyebeam softphone to connect to my office phone system when out of the office.
You might ask, why not just forward to your cell phone when out of the office? [...]
Introduction to IBM Lotus Foundations
I haven’t been very excited about the computing side of technology for quite some time. Microsoft leads the small business server market with Windows SBS, but honestly I think it doesn’t do much and hasn’t advanced much in five years.
First, let me explain why Windows SBS doesn’t deliver much value. Really its used for a [...]
Costco AccessLine Digital Phone System - How Does it Stack Up?
I recently received a Costco email about their specials including a “Digital Phone System for Small or Home Business”. This system is a Mitel 1000 with Accessline service its an interesting bundle, but not necessarily better than options like Talkswitch.
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