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Phone Systems & Phones
for Small Business & Home
by Michael N. Marcus
Why does this book exist?
· To provide the information people need to select phone equipment and services for professional offices, small businesses and homes.
· To help people use the equipment properly, to get the most out of it, and to keep it working.
· To help phone people understand and talk to computer people.
· To help people diagnose trouble and make simple repairs.
· It can even help people who sell phone equipment.
396 pages
Suggested retail price: $29.95
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COMMENTS FROM READERS:
Outstanding! An entertaining (and sometimes humorous) thorough education on phones and telecommunications. It’s a must read for shoppers as well as salespeople.
— Edward Cohen, Doggone Consulting
This book is an easy-to-understand, but complete encyclopedia that should be on lots of bookshelves. It’s an important and entertaining reference for both consumers and business people, and is better than the manuals or videos supplied by the phone system manufactures.
— Joseph R. Cafarelli, City University of New York
After spending just three minutes flipping through the pages, I learned that my telephone problem could be cured for 99 cents, instead of nearly $400. I expect that this book will save my company a lot of money. It belongs in every office, and in many homes.
— Gary Elkies, Gemsco
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CONTENTS
Foreword
Preface: Why does this book exist?
Chapter 1: Where we are and how we got here
Chapter 2: Telephone terminology
Chapter 3: Kinds of phone systems
Chapter 4: What makes a phone system a phone system?
Chapter 5: What’s a KSU? Do you need one?
Chapter 6: Technology evolution
Chapter 7: Some phones, phone systems, & add-ons I like
Chapter 8: What the phone system salesmen don’t want you to know
Chapter 9: Buyer Beware
Chapter 10: Phone Fallacies
Chapter 11: Phone sex: is Jack male or female?
Chapter 12: Phone system features
Chapter 13: What’s the difference between paging and intercom?
Chapter 14: Useful & useless phone company services
Chapter 15: What’s Centrex? What’s wrong with it?
Chapter 16: Hosted or virtual phone systems
Chapter 17: What is ISDN and why doesn’t it matter?
Chapter 18: What is T1 and how does it work?
Chapter 19: What is VoIP and should you care?
Chapter 20: What’s best: Cable, DSL or Fiber?
Chapter 21: Why are some cordless phones called wireless phones?
Chapter 21: Use your head. Use a headset.
Chapter 23: Music & messages on hold
Chapter 24: Phone wire
Chapter 25: Phone plugs and phone jacks
Chapter 26: Are you one of the special people who can install their own phone system?
Chapter 27: System Buyer's Checklist — What goes into a phone system?
Chapter 28: Back-up power and surge protection
Chapter 29: Paging systems
Chapter 30: Vital voicemail advice
Chapter 31: Assorted add-ons
Chapter 32: Fax machines and alternatives
Chapter 33: Phone system problems you can solve without even touching a screwdriver
Chapter 34: What’s in a phone geek’s tool bag?
Chapter 35: Telephone time wasters
Chapter 36: A bit about computer networks
Chapter 37: What happened to AT&T, Western Electric, and phone renting?
Chapter 38: Telephone acronyms. What’s POTS?
Chapter 39: Useful phone numbers & dialing codes
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FROM THE BOOK'S INTRODUCTION:
A hundred years ago, telephones were simple.
If you wanted to call someone, you picked up the receiver, cranked the crank, and waited for the nice lady to say, “Operator, may I help you?” Then you said something like, “I want to talk to Daddy,” or “I need the doctor;” and in a few seconds you were connected. You didn’t even have to know the phone numbers.
For equipment, maybe your family could choose between an oak box that went on the kitchen wall, or a metal candlestick model that sat on the hall table. If you lived in a high-tech area, you could get a dial instead of a crank.
Regardless of the telephone style, you paid to rent it month after month, and there was just one company in your town that you could do business with, and they owned “your” phones.
Today the choices seem endless.
Phones can be analog or digital, rotary or touch-tone, plain or fancy, corded, cordless, or cellular. You can connect through a local phone company, a national phone company, an international phone company, a TV company, a satellite company, a cellular company, or a VoIP company. Phone companies sell TV service. Cable television companies sell phone service. They both sell Internet service.
You can get a phone or phone system or phone gadget from hundreds of sources, and own it, rent it or lease it. You can pay someone to install it, you can install it yourself, or get something that needs no installation.
► This book can help you sort out your options. It covers corded and cordless phones, multi-line phone systems, add-ons like headsets, music-on-hold, paging systems, back-up power and fax equipment — for professional offices, small businesses and homes. There are sections on technology trends, telecommunications terminology, tools, networking, wiring, phone company services, troubleshooting, and much more.
► The book will help you pick out the right size phone system, to minimize initial cost, and provide room to grow.
► The book even deals with the important items that you really do need, but are often left off bids and proposals.
► The book also sorts out the various technologies for making phone calls and accessing the Internet: conventional dial tone, ISDN, DSL, cable, fiber, T-1 and VoIP.
► It will help you to avoid the worst mistakes of phone system buyers, and can help you decide if you can save money by installing your own home or business phones.
► And the book will help you quickly diagnose many common telecom troubles, and often fix them yourself quickly and inexpensively.
But even if you don’t plan to do your own phone work, by understanding what has to be done, you’re more likely to get the right thing done, and pay the right price. You could save much more than the price of this book.
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