For the first time in a while, I cracked open my box of VoIP gear and broke out a couple of my IP phones. Why? Because I recently received an IP PBX from the folks at Talkswitch and I want to give it a try. While Talkswitch sent me both an analog and a VoIP phone of their own, I also wanted to see what of my gear was compatible.

I have phones from Linksys (SPA-841 and SPA-941), Grandstream (Budgetone 100, GXP2000), and Polycom (301 and a 501). It looks like the GXP2000 and the Polycoms are compatible, but why not the Linksys gear? I suppose I can configure it manually, but I'd rather not. I'll do it for the review.

After looking over all these phones, I realize why I eventually got fed up with every single one of these phones: they're all too big. Every single one of them takes up too much desk space. If I want to make a call at my desk, I have Skype and a USB headset that works pretty well. If I need to get up, I have my mobile phone, which I can run VoIP on if I really want to. Better yet, I have a dedicated WiFi VoIP handset.

Granted the phones I have are probably a couple of years old by now. Maybe there's newer gear out there that's cooler? What do you think?

© Mr.Thomas