sevans

we have to sites linked each with a max1000 i like the system very users friendly but not alot for networking there is no abilty to vlan the phone systems but other then that all is good with it

A&J Technologies

We are still installing more and more altigen systems in my area and we are now installing in multiple states. I have had some issues as of late but I am sure we will get them ironed out. I probably have well over 100 installs at this time and we have many more proposed. My company is also starting to target the SMB with Cisco UC500 and Call Manager Express and I will let you know what we find out as time goes on. The Cisco systems are very limited in ease of use and features when compared to any of the Altigen platforms...so we will be selling the Cisco to groups that are going to buy Cisco anyway. The full blown Cisco is a different animal all together and will compare with the Altigen in many areas.

Charles Waters

I'm honestly surprised that they are doing so dang good... I got my Altigen certification back in 2001, and they had a good product, but I thougth they would get taken out by Mitel or Nortel, but good to see they are still afloat!

Keithn

We've been running 5.0 for about a year now and are looking to upgrade to 5.1.

Our current setup:
1G server at corporate office with fiber to the internet
- roughly 15 phones at corporate office
8 branch offices running on DSL with a hardware VPN to corporate
- 1 to 6 phones at each branch

The VOIP concept is great for our setup and the administration is very easy.

Our only issue has been with quality, which we believe stems from the DSL/VPN connection between the branch phones and the corporate server.

It's my understanding that the 5.1 version is a SIP protocol which will allow us to not force our branch phones through a VPN and should therefore increase quality.

So I guess I have 2 questions:
1) Does anyone have any comments about our setup?
2) Has anyone performed the 5.1 upgrade? If so, will it really improve our quality?

Thanks in advance

A&J Technologies

Wait and upgrade to 5.2 that will be released any day now. Yes there are some advanatages to the SIP and the upgrade but if you have a poor grade of bandwidth...you will still have quality issues.

Are you and installer or a end user? If you are an end user there are many things that are changing for the Altigen system and support. they have some pretty cool promotions coming out for upgrades that include free software upgrades and total replacement on hardware and software in case of issues.

A&J

Keithn

What is considered a poor grade of bandwidth?

I'm an end user. My Altigen rep has mentioned some of the upcoming programs. I was hoping to make a change sooner rather than later. Ever since we put the system in we have been getting complaints from our branches and we keep telling them we are going to fix it. I think they are starting to lose faith.

A&J Technologies

Do you have multiple systems tied together with DSL...or do you have users accessing remotely using DSL access to your server? If they are remote users what are they using?

Where are you located? What providers do you use?

A&J

kakthompson

We've been using Altigen for a little over a year now. Things have not been great from the beginning but Altgien was willing to work with us -- especially as we were working to implement their SIP solution. We did a LOT of beta testing for them and worked with them to get many kinks out of their software. But, it seems that in the past 6 to 8 months things have changed and we're no longer being treated well and they don't seem to care.

We've got three big complaints:
1. their new "Service" plans -- very expensive from our perspective.
2. as long as a vendor is between the user and Altigen, things have worked OK -- but as the end user, we don't like not being able to speak and work directly with them on issues!
3. All of a sudden all the IP706 handset LCDs are going bad -- after just a little over a year of use and now they're out of warranty.

So, buyer -- be careful!

jgearing

Hey there...just found out about this forum and read through the different posts. I have done dozens of installs since I joined up with my current company half a year ago, and yes while there are occasionally hiccups it goes pretty smoothly. As far as continued operations are concerned, I have found that the most common issue has been network problems...either a switch goes out, or bandwidth is bad at a remote office, etc.

Working as a 'vendor' I can see why it would be easier at this point to work through one...we provide service plans that are much cheaper than the cost of having constant access to Altigen's engineers, and often we can provide faster service simply because we're servicing only 150 customers instead of all users nationwide.

As far as the phone issues...Altigen has recognized the problem and offered free replacements for phones that have LCD issues in a certain S/N range...phones outside that range are replaced for $50 (still a good deal). Either way...yes issues like this do happen every now and then, but from what I see Altigen does respond and none of our 150 customers seem to have any complaints so far.

And as far as the new service plans...it will indeed be interesting to see how this all works out. Altigen is moving from a hardware based platform to a software based one...their new release 6.0 will soon have the capability to be installed as a virtual instance on most any server. As a network guy, this excites me, since it will give me the chance to explore putting the Altigen on a linux box in addition to MS server 200x...so overall i think it will be very exciting to see what ends up happening.