With the move to IP phones one of the major issues that arises is that the analog telephone cable is not usable with the IP phones. IP phones need the same cable as do computers. In order to lower the costs of installing IP phones, IP phones have the ability to share the computer connection at each desk with the computer. This is done by connecting the computer to the IP phone; the IP phone then connects to the data jack on the wall. In the computer room, the IP telephone system connects to the same network switches as is used by the computer network. This solution works great in that it saves the cost of installing additional computer grade cables in the office.
The down side is that while all of the computers that have been shipped for the past several years have the ability to communicate at gigabit network speeds; the IP phones are limited to 100 megabits per second. This means that your computer network is running at 10 per cent of its capacity.
What is even worse is the offices that were wired with mulitple computer grade data connections at each desk and the IP phones and computers are sharing a single connection! In those offices, the computers could be running at gigabit speeds and the phones could be completely isloated from the computers.
During a network evaluation for a new client, we discovered that the client had mulitple data connections at each desk and PoE, power over ethernet, network switches. With a PoE switch, the power for the IP phone is provides over the data wiring which means that there is no need for the wall wart power supply to be installed at each desk. What the phone guys had done was to connect the computers to the IP phones (not using the existing unused data connection. They had also not used the PoE network switches that they had sold the client.
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