Phone lines for the office

[Mandi]

I'm thinking of adding a separate land phone line for my home office; to date, I've just been passing out my cel number, so as not to have it tied up by the afternoon phone habits of middle school-age (I'll just say it, sexist though it is . . . ) girls. (You'd think the IM they are so fond of would cut down on this, but you'd be wrong. It's more fun, apparently, to IM *and* chat on the phone to the same person.)

I'm wondering how extensions work; is that something built into the phone system you purchase, or is it physically extra phone lines you have run to the site? I've read up a little on it, and I'm still confused on this point.

I'd also like recommendations for a good phone setup/system. I'd like to be able to put someone on hold, and send a new call straight to voice mail if I need to, or by default if I don't answer the new incoming call (I can do that on my cel phone, and it's a nice feature.)

I'd like to be able to treat my fax machine as a separate line, but I'm wondering if I can treat it as an extension. At best, I only use it a couple times a week. Possible, or should I add a separate line for that? When I need to be on the phone and doing fax things in the past, I use my cel; the problem is, reception is a little flat right in our house - I sometimes go outside to hear well. I'd like to get away from that if possible, I think it sounds pretty unprofessional.

[hobbes]

Mandi -

You'll need a separate line for each *extension* you want, unless you don't care about each extension being able to place/receive calls at the same time.

For example, a small business may have 10 extensions with only 5 separate lines. This means only up to 5 people will be able to be on the phone with outside callers at the same time. Small business phone systems however shouldn't tie up a phone line for internal extension to extension dialing.

You may find the price for the small business systems prohibitive however if you're looking at a home solution as they usually run in the few thousand dollars. There have been some new product releases targeted at the SOHO market, but in general I've found that good 2-4 line phones with a separate answering machine (on UPS) do the trick well.

Then again, I'm currently looking for a new multi-line, multi-handset (wireless) 5.8GHz phone system ...

[Mandi]

Yeah, aren't those sweet? I was scoping them out this morning myself - we made a super-early Target run to avoid crowds. (This is my "returning/exchanging gifts" run as our holiday started last week.) And of course since we were already out . . . and the roads were so uncrowded . . . we might as well stop at our favorite Tech Toys store too . . . and make a Sam's Club run . . . and, well, you know how that goes LOL . . .
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I want to scope out the broadband 'net phones too, maybe that's something I can use.

[TVB]

Hey Mandi,

As Hobbes wrote, you'll need to run a physical line. I ordered and use a second 'distinctive' ring on my main line for my fax machine. It rings with two short rings and that tells the fax machine to pick up (and me not to answer). Since it is a ring only number, it is about $5 a month.

For send to voice mail, hold services, etc., most phone companies offer exactly that with their voice mail service they offer.

And most importantly, unless you want a listing for your business in the local phone book, and since it is a home office, don't tell them it's a business line...the cost goes waaaaaaaaaay up yet the service remains the same.

Betsy