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[NMLUG] Asterisk/TrixBox
On Aug 1, 2006, at 1:35 PM, Ed Heron wrote:
> Is anybody using Asterisk in a production environment?
I set a box up for a small medical office a year ago
>
> What are you thoughts?
Regular telephony industry is in immediate danger.
> Do you use SIP trunks, analog trunks or a digital line such as a
> T1 or PRI?
this is mostly because it's a small setting,
we use a WCTDM with 2 FXO and 2 FXS ports (analog trunks)
the 2 FXO are for the incoming regular qwest lines.
the 2 FXS for the two fax terminals, one is a regular fax machine and
the other is a hylafax that mostly sends out faxes.
the front desk is a polycom 301
and the two other extensions are regular wireless phones connected to
a sipura 2 port ATA
there's nothing stopping you from adding virtual voip lines from a
provider like teliax.com
and many more internal extensions,
> Do you receive faxes using the Asterisk system?
yes, but without any transcoding, the calls are bridged all analog,
from the fxo to the fxs that goes to the fax,
you can also re-route the call internally to hylafax,
or use a fax to email interface,
faxes will work perfectly if they are coming from an analog line, a
T1, or less perfectly, from a ulaw encoded stream provided that QoS
is good, any compressed codec will not pass,
> Do you soft phones or hard phones?
hard phones,
but tested a soft phone with headers and worked fine,
cheapest way to go is softphones if you already have the computers,
other opt is adding sipura ATAs and connecting analog phones to them,
although these days simple Voip phones are getting cheaper,
fully blown voip phones are nice but still expensive,
> What was your users reaction to the change-over?
at the beginning (a year ago), I had problems because I choosed to
use a sipuras to interface with the regular line instead of using a
digium card,
after I changed the system to a digium card, the system worked nicely,
they liked the features a lot, you can practically do anything with it,
but it was a little overkilling for a little office,
I got the digium card got zapped couple of weeks ago with the
thunderstorm,
digium sent a replacement promptly,
I got trixbox installed after that and it looks much more featured
than it was a year ago
you'll need to have a good backup plan in place,
(like an extra card sitting there)
but this can happen with any kind of
equipment,
>
> Obviously, SIP trunks over the Internet is a questionable idea
> considering the lack of any real QOS. However, considering the
> vendors that are getting into the SIP trunk arena, it is becoming a
> viable option if the SIP trunk provider is also your ISP. Really,
> that's what the dynamic integrated T1's are and vendors have been
> pushing them for a few years.
that really depends on your connection, if you are using a regular
DSL, is a no-go for a production environment,
If you need close to 10 lines, I'll suggest a T1 with 10 channels (or
more, or less) working (so you don't have to pay the full cost) which
you can get for about $500 a month,
later you can switch over a data T1 that connects to a voip
terminating central,
or you can start running a mixed environment,
and then using a digium or sangoma T1 interface,
re-compiling the kernel and taking away all unused device drivers
(especially usb ports)
it's a great idea,
one of the greatest things about * is its promiscuity,
you can connect almost anything to almost anything else,
>
> My boss would like a testimonial from someone who is using
> Asterisk in a production environment.
the best place to post such a thing is the asterisk list
I'll say, use a spare pc and get a digium wild card, ($300)
you can get simple FXO interface for $20 but they might
you can interface this system with your current one and show some of
the capabilities it can give you,
and give your boss a testimonial of his own,
>
> --------------------
> Ed Heron
> IT Manager
> Rio Grande Travel Centers, Inc.
> V:505-245-9256
> F:505-323-4556
> _______________________________________________
> NMLUG mailing list
> NMLUG@nmlug.org
> http://www.nmlug.org/mailman/listinfo/nmlug
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