As part of their transition to an Integrated Communication Strategy, many organizations are adopting VoIP solutions to meet their business goals. The financial advantages of conferencing, calling, enhanced client relationships, and increased performance and productivity at work are frequently cited as the main reason for this transition. Businesses benefit hugely from commercial VoIP phone services when they implement and manage everything professionally.
However, issues may develop over time if commercial VoIP phone services are not effectively implemented and managed. Here are a few of the most typical ones without getting into too technical explanations:
Network Addressing
To receive and make calls, handsets require an IP address. This needs to be a fixed address in some systems rather than a DHCP-assigned one. Duplicate network addresses may be formed if the VoIP address range is not explicitly restricted from DHCP and DHCP is utilized elsewhere in the network.
Bandwidth
For VoIP phone services to perform well, there needs to be enough bandwidth. Make sure that there isn’t a persistently high level of data traffic. If the issue recurs, find out which service or application is using a lot of bandwidth when it does. Your regular network administration task list should include bandwidth monitoring so that bandwidth problems can be rapidly discovered and resolved.
Cables
VoIP systems rely on physical connections made via Ethernet cabling. Even though Wi-Fi is becoming increasingly prevalent, mobile staff members who utilize smart devices are more likely to use it. Check the connection points at the user’s handset, wall-point, and switch if they are experiencing issues. Check that the cable in use meets the minimum requirement of Cat5e for VoIP.
Switches and Routers
Switches and routers must be set up properly to handle VoIP. A misconfiguration can cause a variety of issues, including bad call quality, no dial tone, and even a complete VoIP phone service failure. It is possible that the switch itself has a problem if all of the handsets linked to a specific switch exhibit issues. If it needs to be replaced, inspect it. One problem is that a switch’s settings may occasionally be impacted by a software or firmware update.
Misconfigured routers can also result in issues, especially if the router is not up to date with specifications. An older router in particular might not be completely compatible with the most recent VoIP software, which could result in performance and quality issues while not completely shutting down the VoIP services. There is no guarantee that restarting a switch or router would solve any temporary issues, however, resetting your setting could clear some network issues.
Service Quality
Quality of Service is the umbrella term used to describe a variety of VoIP difficulties. Typically, these come down to having enough bandwidth for VoIP and configuring the network hardware and software to handle VoIP environments correctly. Some other service quality issues that most businesses face include sound quality, delays, call drops, and connectivity problems. Verify the QoS definition on your router to ensure it is accurate. When other apps are upgraded or implemented, some configurations might need to be altered to keep up with the quality of VoIP services. If you are looking to implement or upgrade commercial VoIP phone services for your business, Rapidtech Computer Services can help you with your specific business communication strategy. Contact us to discuss your specific requirements.