I’ll try to keep this short and sweet for once…

I’m setting up a new home office. I had one a few years ago but this will be smaller and may be for two people, three max at any one time.

I have desks and so on so that’s sorted. My Netgear router is currently downstairs and my office is upstairs so I have to use wireless. However, I have heard that it may be worth getting a VoIP phone which plugs directly into the router. Apparently they cost around £300 and it can ring on your mobile phone all the time or whenever you desire – i.e. your landline effectively goes through it somehow…

I already have an iMac and 3 MS Office licences so may get more Macs in future but right now, I’ll just have to have one Mac and the rest PCs.

So I need some advice on a phone system and I perhaps need a solution in having the router running from the office? If everything can run wirelessly then great but I don’t want everything in our living room – I found it very difficult to close the office door before and now will definitely have to learn.

Thanks in advance for any advice you can give.

How about using Skype and ‘phone headset thingies?

You could also do conference calls an ting.

use ethernet over power devices, if you still want to use wireless tahts fine but use another access point in the office from the EOP

Maybes aye. I was thinking that but this guy was talking about a more seamless phone system. I am worried about my broadband speed though – sometimes it can be tragic and I really cannot afford for a phone call to have problems.

I’ll check out this EOP thing you mention…! I might need to get a BT Engineer in then to move the phone line upstairs do you think therefore?

If you can run a single cat5 cable from router to the office you can have a switch in the room to give you however many network points you need. Particuarly usefull to have a wired connection if your using network attached storeage and or you need to keep big files backed up. Cat5 cable is cheap and easy to work with.

Thanks and good point – I have exactly the same setup in the bike shop but had completely forgotten. I’ll try to find a way to get a cable in.

If you are planning on that many people, can you get your broadband upgraded?

I hate to raise the boring stuff, but fire exits, toilets, insurance etc?

Services like SIPGATE (and there are many others) provide you with a number that you can extend out to other devices. So if your number is say 0121 444 1234 when someone rings that you can “add” numbers so it’ll simultaneously ring your mobile, other phones, whatever. It also comes with voicemail that will send you an email, etc.

You pay for number rental (about 3 quid a month if you want a geographic one) and call costs which are very low to landlines (less than BT) and 10p a min to mobiles. We use it for our company as Skype didn’t do everything we needed and Skype business looked more expensive. It’s great, works fantastically well and I live in a pretty rural area with low BW and have no issue with phone quality.

For phone I use Bria on my Mac (£50) with a bluetooth Plantronics Headset (£100 but worth every penny and I also use it in the car with my mobile). I’ve also got a Polycom SIP phone which was about a £100 but I spend A LOT of time on the phone at home and sometimes prefer hands free rather than headset.

Loads of options out there. Really depends what you need and what you might need in the future. Email in my profile if you’d like more info.

I run my office on wireless. I’ve got a plug in USB wireless dongle on a USB extension lead which seems to help getting a good signal. A proper cable would be better but it’s not been an issue so far. I just do all work calls on the mobile so can’t help with the other bit.

I hate to raise the boring stuff, but fire exits, toilets, insurance etc?

Does that many people also mean that you’re using a residential property for business use?

Eh? It would be for me with the possibility of someone else coming in hotdesking.

I’ll have a look at Alex’s comments. Thanks for that. I noticed this:

http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/-/3317/2584/-/19137873/TP-Link-TL-PA211KIT-200Mbps-Mini-Powerline-Ethernet-Adapter-Homeplug-AV-Twin-Pack/Product.html

Could I get one of these and a switch so I would not have to move my router upstairs but have all the benefits of doing so or am I being stupid?

buy some lube

Eh? It would be for me with the possibility of someone else coming in hotdesking.

in the eyes of your home insurers theres big difference between you working from home and you bringing people (colleagues or clients) into your home.