Any plans for a business edition or a skype business appliance that would allow for multipe lines of incomming/outgoing calls under one user name.

eg: Smith & co Ltd have 10 employees, smith&co would be the username, but just one line for the whole of the company would be a tad impractical.

A business edition of the software or even a dedicated skype appliance would route calls possibly using mac addresses of local machines within a local intranet and have the ability to transfer calls to other machines. ie the skye appliance would be the 'reception/switchboard' of the local system. the other machines in the local network would be the regular program, and as far as they are concerned, they are just having a conversation within the local network talking through the skype appliance. the skype appliance handels the WAN side of everything.

HI!

Skype is just about to develop such a business version - I don't know details about it, but they are definitly smart enough to come up with such solutions for business use.
I read a newspaper article about it - was it in forbes? i don't remember anymore.

They are also planing to come up with a classic phone-device, siemens is one of their partners, as far I read.

But you made some good points - it's worth spending a minute on thinking on it!

There is such equipment available to connect Skype to a business' PBX system. The internal call transfers for incoming calls are provided by the PBX system in the traditional way. Users on the PBX system can place outgoing calls via Skype from their regular extension phones.

See http://forum.skype.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=4301

I just checked and the solutions I have been beta testing that allow Skype access from PBX's are now described and available at http://www.pcphoneline.com/skype .

I don't see how this can possibly work? What kind of PBX are you testing this with? Or are you even using a PBX? It just seems like a RJ-11 USB converter to me..

The comment you made must have been about the VTA1000 Skype Gateway.

The VTA1000 is not a simple USB audio device like a "phoneconnector" but also includes an integrated gateway with dualmode Skype and SIP calling abilities. Comparing the VTA1000 to a "phoneconnector" draws a parallel to comparing a PC running Windows XP to a PC running DOS. The PC's may physically look the same but the engine under the hood is very different.

The functionality provided by the VTA1000 is similar to a Cisco ATA-186 and Sipura 2000 and I am not aware of any other USB based device on the market quite like it especially one that supports Skype. You can also use the dualmode SIP capability of the VTA1000 to have "Skypin" now without waiting for it from a number of SIP service providers like Stanaphone.com

There are 2 simple configurations that work to attach Skype calling services to any brand or model PBX. I actually did my testing against a Nortel Meridian PBX.

1. Connect Skype to an available analog PBX extension using the VTA1000 Gateway and the VPC1000 Port Converter. To place outgoing calls PBX users simply dial the extension and then they will hear dialtone to be able to dial their Skype call. Remote employees may use the Skype dialer in the opposite direction to directly access dialtone from the PBX and dial extension numbers of their fellow workers. A password may be set up on the VPC1000 for security.

2. Connect Skype to an outgoing trunk line on the PBX using the VTA1000 the same way other PBX trunk lines are connected to regular PSTN lines. A special outward dialing code would be required to access the Skype trunk line like "8". The PBX users would then simply dial "8" and then hear a dialtone to be able to dial their Skype call. Remote Skype users may also call in and they will be connected to the main PBX attendent or IVR system the same way as if someone had called the company's main telephone number.

I believe you can find some further technical information and diagrams on the above at http://www.pcphoneline.com/vpc1000.htm .

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That link didn't work, but I checked it out..



How? what wiring schema are you doing this in, my station set is 200m from the PBX. Where is the Skype client running, and how do you provide access to it for an office situation?

Just trying to wrap my head around this from a deployment scenario, and a usablity scenario.

The VTA1000 Skype Gateway and VPC1000 Port Converter are used together to connect to any spare analog station extension on your PBX. The VPC1000 Port Converter is needed because it allows the VTA1000 to be connected to a regular phone line (or analog station on a PBX) instead of a regular telephone.

The VTA1000 plugs into the USB port of a Windows XP or 2000 computer and is connected to the spare analog station extension on your PBX using the VPC1000 Port Converter.

The only consideration is that there must be a Windows XP or 2000 computer near the spare analog station extension on your PBX to install the VTA1000 on. The actual distance your own or any other station extension is from the PBX to place calls via Skype does not matter.

To place a call you will dial the extension number of the spare analog station extension. You will then hear dialtone generated by the VTA1000 Skype Gateway and dial the telephone number you want to call. To call a Skype contact you simply dial a 1 or 2 digit speed code previously set up in the VTA1000's phonebook.

If you set up the VPC1000 to work in both directions, a remote Skype user may call into the PBX using the regular Skype dialer and then dial the extension number they want to reach using the dialer's DTMF keypad. You can add a password to the VPC1000 if you want to prevent unauthorized remote access.

The basic same scheme can also be used to connect or mesh PBX's together using Skype and cut out all the long distance charges between the sites if they all have the VTA1000 and VPC1000 installed.

Sorry, I think the link should have been http://www.pcphoneline.com/skype/vpc1000.htm .

Has anybody tried these solutions that VOIPWIZARD is hyping up?? I noticed that he is selling these units on ebay. He must have shares in the company![/quote]

I have not tried the Skype version yet but I have the SIP version of their gateway and port converter connected to my home phone line in the Philippines. I had to adjust the volume a little bit but it worked like they told me.

I have a lot of relatives living in the US and they call me and other family they have here for free using my local phone line. If I am not around they can also reach me by dialing my GSM phone number. The Skype version seems like it would work the same.

Hi,

I want to setup a dedicated PC with the VTA1000 gateway connected to a PBX extension thru the VPC1000 port converter. What I want is to be able to access my local PBX when I'm travelling using skype, and with no human intervention where the PBX is (that's the reason of he dedicated PC).

I'd like to know from people that tried the VTA1000 and the VPC1000 about the PC specifications they are using. I read that the VTA1000 needs a 700 MHz. processor as a minimum, but I'd save a few bucks if I can use an old Pentium III with 128 Mbyes RAM and a 500 MHz. processor. Did somebody tried to use the VTA1000 on a PC with a lower processor speed than the announced minimum???

Regards,

Martín

So you want to dial in on Skype and using the DTMF generator - dial an extension locally. Interesting.

This is a little tricky, and I am not sure that you can do it without a bit of tinkering. That PC has to "listen" to the Skype audio channel for DTMF from the Skype call, as that is the only way you have of communicating with it, (possibly voice rec., but get out your wallet and a much faster PC). So you would need an app running on the PC that can wake up and take the local anaolog phone off hook, dial an extension - I am not sure the VTA1000 can do that without some software help.

The human intervention part is easy, just set that instance of Skype to auto-answer only from people in its contact list. The tricky part is the rest, but I am confident I could develop the app to do it.

Hi Droop,

PCPhoneline provides a software you should install with the VTA1000 gateway, in order to enable the gateway to work as other products that uses a regular phone to control the skype application (dial, ring if a contact calls you, etc). Such software acts as an interface between the skype application and the USB box you bought (I'm guessing, I never touched or operated such devices).

I don't think that additional software or developing is needed... the magic part of the system is the VCP1000, which converts a FXS interface to a FXO one. On usual gateways where you connect a regular phone, you have an RJ11 port that acts as a FXS port, where you only (and only) could connect a regular phone. The converter has two RJ11 ports, one facing the FXS port of the gateway, and the other one should be connected to a FXO port (like a PBX or POTS line).

Let suppose this scenario. I configured at home a PC with skype and a user account (let's say 'home_pbx'). When powered up, the PC loads the OS, connects to internet, loads skype and log on the home_pbx user (I configured the options in order to automatically answer incoming calls).

From a remote location using my laptop, I look to connect to the user 'home_pbx'. Skype on the PC hangs-off, but instead of what you expect from a regular telephone, the incoming audio to the PC is dial tone... the gateway converts such 2-wire audio to 4 wire and enters such incoming audio thru the USB, then skype do its magic and delivers dial-tone audio to my laptop. When I generates DTMF, the opposite way takes place: my DTMF audio tones are converted to 2 wire and gathered by the PBX. In my case, if I dial 9, I'll gain access to a trunk line, and then I can place a call on the PSTN.

Please le me know if I forget to consider something... I think I did not, but no one knows all...

Regards,

Martín

Martinvg, this makes my head spin, but it would appear that you are right, and this adaptor can do this, which is pretty cool, to say the least.

I guess the only way to know for sure is to order one and try it for ourselves.

This isn't a very scalable solution as you would only be able to have one person on this gateway at a time, but it is better than nothing. And one doens't have to install Skype on their work PC, If you got really crazy, A server with Virtual Machine, running multiiple SKype clients and mapping the USB to multiple ports on the PBX..

That is UGLY.

What is ugly?

I just ordered my VTA1000 + VPC1000 from PCphoneline, hope I'll receive it by the end of december... so you should wait till new year o know from my experience!

See that on http://forum.skype.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=55886#55886
a guy is saying that he did it work.

Regards,

Martin

Fine for individual use.