VoipNow Platform F.A.Q.

VoipNow Express is a free, unlicensed version of VoipNow Professional that provides up to ten phone extensions. It does not support queue, IVR, complex conferences, callback, calling cards and intercom extensions or multi-server deployments. If you want to get a ten extensions license that supports all types of extensions, check out the First 10 Extensions License available under the Green Commitment program.

Yes, this is true, VoipNow Express is free. Community support is available in the 4PSA forums. Upgrading to VoipNow Professional only requires a license update in the web management interface.

The term PBX (Private Branch Exchange) is obsolete, an exponent of the old circuit switched networks. A Unified Communications platform is a system that integrates a powerful IP PBX and supports voice, video, presence, faxing, and instant messaging based on XMPP protocol.

Yes, the evaluation support is free. In order to get support, you must open a support ticket in the Support Zone. When you open the first ticket, the 30 days countdown starts. After 30 days, in order to receive further support you must purchase a VoipNow Professional license, which comes with free SUS support.

Yes, the image is based on CentOS 5.5 operating system and it's available here.

VoipNow is shipped in Virtuozzo templates to simplify software management and to improve the resources' utilization on Virtuozzo hardware nodes. The Virtuozzo templates are compatible with Parallels Automation.

Yes, VoipNow Professional is available in VMware image format. This image can be deployed on VMware Server, VMware Workstation and VMware Player. It can also be used on VMware ESX (requires conversion with VMware Converter). The image is based on CentOS 5.5.

4PSA VoipNow 4Grid editions are designed for service providers with special requirements regarding scalability, redundancy and performance.

You can buy the license from our online store. For special requests, please contact us at sales@4psa.com.

Of course, you can upgrade the license anytime you want. Log in your Business Zone account and you will be able to see what upgrade options you have, depending on the license type.

Yes, VoipNow Platform solutions can be installed in a High Availability environment. You can order the High Availability setup from the online store, but consider reading the requirements first.

We suggest you to read the following white paper, which describes everything you need in order to start a VoIP business. The next step is to read the 4PSA VoipNow Business Cases, a document that can offer some business ideas and deployment scenarios for VoipNow Professional in various environments.

You need a server connected to the Internet. The minimum specifications of this server depend on how many extensions you want to deploy, how many concurrent calls you want to support and what type of services you will offer to your customers. More details are available in the VoipNow Professional Requirements and Specifications. For less than two hundreds extensions, you can start with a low-end server.
In order to connect to the public phone network, you do not need any hardware interface (although you can use one). All you have to do is connect to a provider that can give you public phone numbers and can forward your calls to PSTN. If you need a provider recommendation, your 4PSA account manager can help you.

You can integrate VoipNow Professional with a third party application using the VoipNow APIs available. If you want to find out more about these APIs, check the SystemAPI and/or the CallAPI.

All you have to do is connect your server to a SIP provider. This can be done using a channel in VoipNow Professional. There are many SIP providers you can use. Some of them offer good rates for all destinations in the world, while others are specialized and offer call termination to selected areas. No matter if you use one or more providers, VoipNow Professional\'s call routing features will help you select the best route. A provider will also be able to offer you public phone numbers. These phone numbers can be associated with local extensions in VoipNow Professional, which means that you will be able to call extensions over the traditional PSTN network.

Administrator's perspective:
The product can be installed in less than 20 minutes, the process is mostly automatic due to the installer that resolves operating system dependencies, downloads the latest version of the product, and installs it. A new user following the "Getting Started Guide" can make a phone call in less than 45 minutes after the login to the online interface. An average user can do this in less than 20 minutes. With all the settings, charging plans, time intervals, channels, the system can be deployed for production in less than two hours.

User's perspective:
The average VoipNow Professional user can make a phone call in less than 15 minutes after he gets the VoipNow Professional account.

That’s the VoipNow Professional beauty. 4PSA has an extensive experience in designing and implementing domain and/or server control systems for HSP and ISP. With VoipNow Professional, 4PSA brings VoIP hosting as close as possible to domain hosting. There are many reasons behind this decision:
- The SIP protocol used in VoIP communication looks very much like the http protocol. For technicians and engineers, it’s a real pleasure to learn new things while taking advantage of their knowledge.
- The hosted VoIP services are new, hard to sell and penetrate, while the domain hosting is mature. Due to the similarities between VoipNow Professional and a generic hosting control panel, the provider will be able to promote the VoIP services much easier.

VoipNow Professional implements full T.38 support. You can use a T.38 compliant fax machine and a T.38 channel provider. VoipNow Professional allows you to receive faxes even if a fax machine is not present thanks to the Fax Center function. The Fax Center option can be enabled on any phone extension. Also, any extension on the server can send faxes.

Yes, you must purchase at least one voice support license and a concurrency support license. The voice support license allows you to use a certain voice and the concurrency support license allows you to use the licensed voices from multiple call streams. You can check the current list of voices available on Cepstral website. The concurrency license is global (per server) and several bundles are available (for 3, 10 and 20 concurrent calls). Both the voice support and the concurrency support licenses can be purchased from 4PSA.

Updating VoipNow Professional is a straightforward process. You must upgrade from the command line installer, the procedure is described here. To be able to have access to the latest software updates, you need a valid SUS (Software Update Subscription) on your VoipNow license.