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alexhellierFlag for United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

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Mitel 3300cxi - QoS or Vlan?

Hi Experts!

We are moving our main office to a new site, and investing in a new phone system as we go.
BT have suggested a mitel 3300cxi and said we just need QoS switches, but buried in their documentation it also mentions Vlans.

So, my question is:

If we install the Mitel 3300, and have it on the same network as our computers, is the best option to just put QoS on for the phones and be done with it. or do I need to learn how to make Vlans? (i'm very new to both of these i'm afraid!)

To give an idea of the scale of the network, there will only be 20-30 people in the building and network use isnt massive (we just use a filemaker database for everything)

I've looked at some questions on here and got quite scared by how complex the Vlan looks to set up.

At present our network config is as below.
Draytek Router doing DHCP (will be windows 2003 when we move)
192.168.10.x as our ip range
we will install a couple of netgear QoS swtiches for both floors -the GS724T


Does this look ok to you - and do I want the mitel configured as a DHCP server as well???


Sorry if the questions sound idiotic - its a massive learning curve for me.

Thanks in advance!

Alex









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That sounds really easy thanks!

Now - can I throw something else into the equation?

BT are providing the Cxi + a 24 port PoE switch

i'm planning on using the CXI inbuilt port for the downstairs phones and the 24 port PoE for the upstairs phones. (We could have over 30 handsets really quickly)

Would it be possible to put non PoE Vlan switches into the network aswell, both upstairs and downstairs to provide gigabit network access for PC's which do not need PoE? Can multiple Vlan switches work on the same network - do I just set them all up together?

Would there be HP unit that you would recommend for this or would Netgear GS724TS be ok?

And, Last question! Can I put non Vlan Switches onto the network and just plug in Pc's and printers?

I'll try to whip up a network diagram and post it a bit later if that helps?


Thanks so much for your help so far - that makes it look much easier than I have been expecting!

Alex




Yes you can put either vlan capable or non vlan capable switches on the network. If you want gigabit connectivity, you can get gigabit PoE switches and gigabit lan stands for the pass through on the mitel. This would be a good option if you do not have dual lan ports everywhere. Otherwise you can do as you suggested above. I cannot vouch for the netgear switches as i have never used them, but have had a lot of trouble with their consumer grade gear so i wouldnt have the greatest expectations. Cisco and HP switches are very much suited to this though. With the HP gear you will pay a bit more than say a netgear, but you can rest assured it will work as HP and Mitel are partners, and all HP gear comes with a lifetime warranty. Meaning if the fans burn out after 10 years they will give you a new equivelant model free of charge.

Glad to hear the info i have provided thus far has been helpful. If you need me to elaborate on anything let me know.
Its all looking pretty good so far thanks.

Speaking to BT - they are recommending 3Com switches - and i've managed to get them to say their engineer will config the switches too :-)

If I put a basic network diagram up - would you mind checking i've not done anything really stupid?

I'm assuming that my PC's when plugged into the ports will be able to talk to the phones.

Our network is currently running in the address range 192.168.10.x so if I put the phones on 172.16.10.x they'll all be ok. (I dont need to set any routing or anything up do I??? do the switches do this?)

Sorry if the questions seem dumb, but its a whole new concept for me!

Thanks once again, I'm feeling much happier about the install as this thread goes on :-)

Alex
Yes, I will gladly check your diagram.
Depends on the switches as to whether they will route or not, probably best check with BT.
Most PoE switches are Layer 3 so they will route, but best check anyway.

PC's will only be able to talk to the phones (Not that you really need them to) if there is a route between the two network somewhere.
The thing with VLANs is that they use the same cable but the two LANs are logically seperated.
In effect, its as if the phones are plugged into one cable and the PC's another.
Obviously the PC's will still talk to the servers and your ISP, and the Phones will talk to the 3300, but if you want cross communication there needs to be a bridge of sorts (route).

If you want to learn more about VLANs, this guide should talk you through the fundamentals.
http://www.tech-faq.com/vlan.shtml
Hi

Cool thanks - here is my network diagram - i've left out the pc's and printers, this is more how the switches  etc will be connected.

From my understanding of the mitel phone system, there was some form of web interface to program the phones with and to program the PBX aspect. without the routing, how would we do this?

Cheers

Alex



KH-Network-Build.jpg
The diagram looks fine.
Keep in mind that you can plug PCs into the back on the phones to save on data cabling.
Ie. One Network cable provides connection to one Phone and one PC.

As for the configuration interface, yes the Mitel has a web interface used for configuration and there are a couple of options available for access.

The easiest is to have a switch port configured for "access" to the Mitel vlan.
This means that when plugged into this port, you are directly connected to that Vlan without any special configuration on whatever is plugged in. In this setup you can plug your Windows PC/Laptop into this port and configure the Mitel, then change back to your original port to keep working.

The other option is (Depending on your cisco) to set up a sub-interface on the cisco ethernet port that is a member of the Mitel vlan and is set as the router/default gateway address on the Mitel system. Eg. 172.16.10.1
From here you can route directly to the mitel from any PC on the network.

If your cisco is not Vlan capable, you would need to either use the first option or get a layer 3 switch to do the route between vlans for you, and just enter a single "ip route" command into the Cisco.
Eg. ip route 172.16.10.0 255.255.255.0 <Layer-3-Switch-IP>