Cisco hardphone compatible?

[THUFIR]

I was reading that zoiper is recomended, but it also sounds like a Cisco hardphone would work? I was reading:

"This tutorial goes over the steps needed to create a phone account entry in the system that you can configure a soft-phone(computer based phone) or SIP-based hard-phone(a separate physical phone) to use."

So, Asterisk and ViciDial are installed on the server, and the agent points his pc's browser to the ViciDial manager, and calls in/out are routed through the hardphone?

The agent could run Windows, also?

[mflorell]

You can use Cisco hardphones if you want, but that's usually the last type of VOIP phone we recommend using due to the inconsistencies and poor reliability on networks.

You can use Mac/Windows/Linux for the agent workstations. There are free softphones for each of those platforms, and a USB headset is what we recommend for that.

[THUFIR]

Huh, ok In broad strokes, for the hardphone, does the hardphone connect to the agents pc? Or, does it connect to the router?

Also, why do you recommend against a hardphone? Isn't it advantageous to use a dedicated device?

[mflorell]

The hardphone would be connected to your network. It doesn't have to be connected to your PC.

We recommend softphones with USB connection to the PC because that is the simplest way to connect a headset for the call center agent and it is good audio quality. A hardphone costs a lot more and adds another device that needs to be configured.