How to connect a remote IP Phone to our VOIP Network?

Question

We have an IP phone system in our office, and about 8 VoIP phones running on the system. We have a remote worker, who is literally states away.

We'd like to connect his phone to our VoIP network, so that he has a business phone and an extension to which we could transfer calls.

I was thinking, although I don't know for sure, that a pair of Cisco routers could be used in some way to make this work. I imagine a VPN solution, where I have one router connected to the phone network and the other router connected to the remote phone. Then have a site-to-site VPN set up so that the remote router...

And that's where I'm stuck. I know the remote router will need to use the DHCP server of the phone system. I've never set up something like this, so I am seeking the help of the community here.

What is the best way to get this remote VoIP phone RELIABLY connected to our internal VoIP network?

Answer 1

Any router pair will do - they don't have to be Cisco - and, yes, a VPN is the way to go. Certainly stick to a pair of routers that support a hardware VPN and, if possible, assign a static IP to the phone; DHCP will work but it's nice to know the exact IP of the phone for quick troubleshooting

The setup should work - the only thing that tends to kill remote VoIP is if the link suffers from high latency but I have run remote VoIP phones across VPNs on ADSL with no problems whatsoever. What phone make and model are you using at the remote end - it would be useful to know in case there are any specific quirks with the make/model.