[Sussex] Asterisk/Trixbox

[Jon Fautley]

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Al Bennett wrote:
> Evening all
> 
> One of the companies I work for has a small office (three people) and
> we're considering some kind of PABX type set up for three lines.
> 
> Does anyone here have any experience of setting up a simple Asterisk or
> Trixbox type set up?  What kind of SIP handsets and PC hardware did you
> use?
> 
> I'm new to this but I think I prefer the idea of using an existing
> network to putting in more phone wiring!
> 
> Any pointers would be appreciated

Yeah, I have quite a bit of experience in this area.

At my last place, we used to do professional installs for customers
using Asterisk on Debian. The customers generally had a choice of handsets:

1. Straight analogue handsets either via a PSTN->IP converter (I used
the HandyTone ones, or a channel bank (24 analogue ports -> IP)

2. Cisco 7940/7960 - damn good phones, but a little pricey (around 200
quid per handets, cheaper on ebay)

3. BudgeTone handsets - dirt cheap, and about as useful as a box of
frogs on the London eye - avoid at all costs!

If the company has existing telephone wiring, then I'd look at a channel
bank (http://www.voiptalk.org/products/Mediatrix+1124+FXS+Gateway), and
use standard analogue handsets.

Also, you might want to take a look at FreePBX - Asterisk with a nice
web frontend for configuration - pretty good :)

How are they planning to connect to the big wide world? You have 3
choices (there's sommat about VOIP and the number 3 - 3 handsets, 3 PSTN
interconnnects, etc... ):

1. ISDN2e (aka Basic Rate ISDN, BRI): Get a card, hook up to an ISDN
line and you've got 2 channels of data. Throw in more ISDN2e circuits
from BT, and you can have up to 8 channels.

2. ISDN30e (aka Primary Rate ISDN, PRI or E1 (T1 in the US)): BT will
supply PRI circuits with between 8 and 30 channels. More PRIs = more
channels. Cards are a little pricey compared to BRI cards, but if you
need lots of channels, this is the way to go.

3. Analogue/POTS: Cards are dirt cheap (3 PCI cards for about 30 quid on
ebay), but call quality is as you'd expect, and you can also suffer from
nasty echo problems, and they're generally a bit harder to setup and
maintain.

Personally, if it's an office with 3 people, I'd go for:

A basic FreePBX installation, and 2 ISDN circuits (4 incoming lines, so
you can have someone on hold while all 3 other people are on the
'phone). You can either use the existing wiring and throw ATAs (analogue
telephone adaptors, handset option 1 - check www.voiptalk.org) at the
'end' of the wire, or if there's two ethernet sockets by the desks, then
just throw them in there. Nice n simple :)

I've just basically braindumped above, so I apologise if nothing makes
sense - feel free to ask for clarification :)

Regards,

/j
- --
Jon Fautley RHCE, RHCX <jfautley at redhat.com>   direct: +44 1483 739615
 Technical Account Manager                     office: +44 1483 300169
 Red Hat UK                                    mobile: +44 7841 558683
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