Thanks Oscar.
In the past I have not been particularly impressed with Twilio’s pricing models, so I decided to keep looking.
I actually just got a system up and running a few minutes ago.
When I was searching for systems, one of my biggest issues was that I didn’t even know how to ask for what I wanted. It seems like all of the VOIP cloud providers are expecting you to be connecting to their system with phones or using their proprietary software and there is a ton of cryptic acronyms and lingo.
Additionally, when I told them that I was using an automated dialer, they basically said they weren’t interested in my business.
(Vonage Business, RingCentral, 8x8, Genesys(wanted $2,000 / month!))
Finally, I found a company and just told them that all I needed was “SIP Trunking”.
That’s all you have to ask for: SIP Trunking
Don’t mention anything about having an automated dialer.
After that, they got me setup and it worked flawlessly.
The company I went with was Nextiva. Cost is ~$45 / month. (Almost $20 of that is taxes!)
It took me about an hour on the phone to get registered and setup through their support guys.
To get going:
- Call or Email: christal.swafford@nextiva.com / (480)565-6105
- Tell her Rob with Deep Fork Automation referred you. (I will get a very small commission. If this offends you, don’t do it. It won’t bother me.)
- Tell her that you need to setup a single line for SIP Trunking.
- Go through the quote acceptance process, and ask her to go ahead and connect you through to support to finalize setup on your PBX system.
- When they ask you the name of your PBX system, just tell them “Ignition by Inductive Automation”.
- After a while they will finish the setup and send you an email with everything you need.
- auth name = Username/Account
- auth pass = Password
- domain = Gateway Address
I didn’t have to mess with any additional Proxy settings or anything like that, and it looks like it uses the default SIP ports.
If this whole post sounds like a sales pitch, it’s not.
I was really frustrated by the documentation, because I have a cloud based system and don’t even have a telephone system to plug hardware into.
I think it would be really helpful if the documentation here was updated to mention that a “SIP Trunking provider can be used directly from Ignition”.
Additionally, I would like to see it updated to add a couple of other providers than SKYPE. Since skype is shady and charges your credit card in Euros, your Credit Card can easily decline the charge, causing potential undetectable system outages. (Sorry European friends, but they should have an option for payment currency and accept multiple forms)
And, SKYPE isn’t even working properly with Ignition right now to boot.
If anyone else has / finds any other providers that work, please add them below with some basic instructions! The more options the better in my opinion.
-RW