How to Manage Your Own IP PBX

IP PBX is a good solution to organize your telephone systems. When IP PBX systems were first introduced they were mostly used by big corporations to unify and manage the work of their multiple offices and officers. IP PBX are designed to offer convenience and cheap telecommunication but the installation of IP PBX systems was quite complicated and expensive even a few years ago. However things have changed greatly and open source software allows you to set up your own IP PBX at home. What makes this option more attractive is that the process of set up does not require much time and expenses.

The following components are needed to set up IP PBX:
- IP PBX itself
- Phones (VoIP softphones, VoIP phones or ordinary phones with VoIP adapters)
- SIP Gateway (to call other people on the PSTN)

Most people have an already set home network so you have part of the job done for you.

Broadband internet access is needed to make your IP PBX perform at a good level. Sufficient bandwidth (both upstream and downstream) is required to transmit voice traffic.

To run your IP PBX you will need a computer. If you have a Linux server at home you can use it to run your phones. PIII class machines that are available at low cost you can make them a server. Besides, most of these machines have a built-in sound and Ethernet so you do not need to buy additional hardware. Then the IP PBX software should be downloaded on this computer to manage the whole system. Some IP PBX solutions require formatting of the hard disk so make sure you do not keep valuable information on this machine.

PSTN network is used for telecommunication mostly so you need to get gateway service. You will have to pay for it as part of your call is carried out by PSTN (public switched telephone network).

Phones are required to perform telecommunication through IP PBX. The easiest and cheapest way is to download VoIP software on your computer. VoIP softphones create a virtual telephone on your computer so that you can speak and hear the voice, dial the number and use other VoIP options. VoIP softphones are offered for free by the majority of VoIP providers.

Another way is to buy VoIP phones that resemble ordinary phones but designed to use internet protocol instead of public switched telephone network. VoIP phones can cost you some money so you may delay buying VoIP phones till later and use VoIP softphones.

In case you want to use your ordinary phone you can acquire VoIP adapter and fix it to your phone.