Asterisk implementers, whats your setup?

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KaosDG

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I've recently begun looking into * to replace our current PBX system, and wanted to get you guys ideas and implementation strategies.

So far I have 2 * boxes, with an IAX2 trunk between them, using softphones for access.

Trunking took a bit to get right but I got it.

I need to have a paging/broadcast system as well, but have found little info on it.
So, what are you running, howd you set it up?

Hard phone info would be nice too, I like snom and polycoms myself.
 
I'd respond to you if I had even the slightest clue about what you need....
Sorry.
 
we have one set up using asterisk@home for the web management stuff. We're using cisco 7940 and 7960 phones with it. To connect to the phone lines wer're using a TDM400P but will be replacing that with a T1 card soon. It works flawlessly and does everything you would expect a PBX to do. I would definently not use any phone other than the ciscos with it. The 7940s can be had for $250 or so.
 
I recently started playing with Asterisk as well. However, it doesnt sound like I can be much help though cuz it sounds like ur farther along than me.

So far, I'm just running Asterisk at home to get a feel for it. I have a couple free numbers (One in the UK, and one in WA state) that end up getting routed in via FWD. I'm currently solely using softphones, liking SJPhone better than X-Lite.

I'll probably add a paid VOIP service to it sometime as well. You can get a basic line from Broadvoice for $10/mo and a one-time $10 setup if you BYOD (Bring Your Own Device). My home network routes via a Linksys WRT54G which runs the Alchemy firmware, which I'm using to do QoS to give SIP traffic priority over everything else.

I've also been playing around with several Text-to-Speech engines in order to dynamically generate voice prompts. The open-source community points to Festival for TTS, but I find it's quality to be horrible and totally unacceptable. It's worse than the Speak-n-Spell I had when I was a kid. Hopefully it will improve as it progresses, but it has a long way to go.
 
The Polycom and Snom offerings also work well with Asterisk. Don't listen to people who say "only Cisco!"

When you say paging/broadcast are you talking about an overhead type system? Or are you referring to a page coming through people's phones?

I've heard of several hacks to implement a VOIP overhead paging system. One of which involves a BudgeTone wired to an external speaker and set to auto answer. Of course other phones implement this, but are obviously more expensive. I thought it was a pretty slick idea, even if it is a hack.

Ah Ha! Here's info on how to setup auto-answer on the polycoms. Make sure to read through if paging to the desk is what you want. http://www.voip-info.org/wiki-Polycom+auto-answer+config
 
JonR800 said:
The Polycom and Snom offerings also work well with Asterisk. Don't listen to people who say "only Cisco!"

When you say paging/broadcast are you talking about an overhead type system? Or are you referring to a page coming through people's phones?

I've heard of several hacks to implement a VOIP overhead paging system. One of which involves a BudgeTone wired to an external speaker and set to auto answer. Of course other phones implement this, but are obviously more expensive. I thought it was a pretty slick idea, even if it is a hack.

Ah Ha! Here's info on how to setup auto-answer on the polycoms. Make sure to read through if paging to the desk is what you want. http://www.voip-info.org/wiki-Polycom+auto-answer+config
Click to expand...


when you compare the cost and ease of setup on the cisco phones compares to the snom or other units, the ciscos always come out ahead. Even at the lower end, why would I want to use a $75 budgetone when I can find cisco 7905s for $120 ?

For the paging system, just use an analog FXO adapter and an off the shelf paging system such as the ones Viking makes.
 
Cisco is not out of the question, rest assured. However right now I am in a research phase, so I am possibly going to be buying/borrowing "one of each" to test with.
So I need to find what works best for us.

My goal is to completely imitate our Toshiba strata system that's in place now.

As for paging / intercom, we don't have an overhead system. (Although it's not hard to install)

We go through the phones.

One thing I always see in terms of hacks are "set it to auto-answer". That's not acceptable due to our DID's. What happens when a DID rings through? Auto answer as well. "Uh oh, telemarketer", you know?

What I want to see is a true paging/intercom system, with a distictive ring/tone.
Also have it set based on dialplan and context, so for example I dial *99<ext> and that will setup an intercom session with <ext> and so on.

From what I see on the wiki and mailing list, the snom's can set a Variable to turn on intercom mode... so I am going to see if the Snom softphone (snom 360 "software" clone) supports it as well.
 
KaosDG said:
Cisco is not out of the question, rest assured. However right now I am in a research phase, so I am possibly going to be buying/borrowing "one of each" to test with.
So I need to find what works best for us.

My goal is to completely imitate our Toshiba strata system that's in place now.

As for paging / intercom, we don't have an overhead system. (Although it's not hard to install)

We go through the phones.

One thing I always see in terms of hacks are "set it to auto-answer". That's not acceptable due to our DID's. What happens when a DID rings through? Auto answer as well. "Uh oh, telemarketer", you know?

What I want to see is a true paging/intercom system, with a distictive ring/tone.
Also have it set based on dialplan and context, so for example I dial *99<ext> and that will setup an intercom session with <ext> and so on.

From what I see on the wiki and mailing list, the snom's can set a Variable to turn on intercom mode... so I am going to see if the Snom softphone (snom 360 "software" clone) supports it as well.
Click to expand...

I don't think you fully read the link I provided. In it you set the ALERT_INFO variable to whatever you have set in the Polycom config. Once this is set the Polycom will know to auto answer. Please re-read http://www.voip-info.org/wiki-Polycom+auto-answer+config
 
Hi KaosDG, I'll do some more posting when I get home from work, but for now let me give you some of the info I have.

The Polycoms are nice, specifically the 500s. Let me know if you want to buy one, I've got a good contact for them. With them, you can do paging...sorta. I don't think there is really a difference from what you are used to, it's just a bit wonky. Essentially, you setup the phone to autoanswer from a specific extension. There's more in the wiki about it.

As I said, when I get home from work, I'll give some more detailed info. If you have any questions, shoot me an email at [email protected]
 
skylab said:
when you compare the cost and ease of setup on the cisco phones compares to the snom or other units, the ciscos always come out ahead. Even at the lower end, why would I want to use a $75 budgetone when I can find cisco 7905s for $120 ?

For the paging system, just use an analog FXO adapter and an off the shelf paging system such as the ones Viking makes.
Click to expand...

I totally agree that Budgetone's are lame. Awful sound quality almost every firmware has some quirk.

I don't want to get into a Cisco / Polycom / Snom argument. They are all very good phones with slightly different feature sets. However I found that once you add in the cost of a smartnet to the Cisco it's enough more money per phone to justify looking elsewhere. Not that Polycom's reseller support is perfect either. :)
 
JonR800 said:
Not that Polycom's reseller support is perfect either. :)
Click to expand...
As I mentioned, I know of an excellent company that is a Polycom Reseller.

Email me if you folks want more information, I don't think it's appropriate to post that info here.
 
JonR800 said:
I don't think you fully read the link I provided. In it you set the ALERT_INFO variable to whatever you have set in the Polycom config. Once this is set the Polycom will know to auto answer. Please re-read http://www.voip-info.org/wiki-Polycom+auto-answer+config
Click to expand...

I did read the link. (read that a long time before I posted as well)

What I was saying was that "other" phones don't seem to have native support for intercom/paging, or they do and no one knows how to get it to work.

Let's not turn this into a Cisco vs. Snom vs. Polycom please.

If I can evaluate ALL phones I would; I am just trying to narrow it down to what has the features I need first before I blow my research budget on BS crap that doesn't work.
 
XOR != OR said:
Hey kaos, here you go: http://www.voip-info.org/tiki-index.php?page=Asterisk Paging and Intercom

Specifically with the ip500s: http://www.voip-info.org/wiki-Polycom+auto-answer+config

Let me know if you need any help with this, as I have several * servers running and quite a few ip500s floating about. :)
Click to expand...


How do you have the servers setup?
Failovers, trunks, etc?

Right now as I said we're just messing around with it, but I am trunking to my second server via IAX2

Our Toshiba CTX demo unit is coming in today, i'm going to try and fenagle an IP phone and see if I can hook it up to asterisk.
 
KaosDG said:
How do you have the servers setup?
Failovers, trunks, etc?
Click to expand...
No failover yet, but I am working on that. My original theory was to...um...rsync the configuration files from the master to the client, and set them up in the dns in a round robin approach. A hack job, I know, but I figured that'd work well enough until I got a handle on how to do fail over properly with *.

Although if the wiki is to be believed ( http://www.voip-info.org/wiki-Asterisk+failover ), my method may be the best of all worlds. If I lose a server, I don't lose all my calls, just some.

I do have 4 servers at 4 different locations ( vpn to all locations. I love openvpn ). Are you doing "trunking" on the iax2 pipes? ie: Did you install ztdummy or a digium card?
Our Toshiba CTX demo unit is coming in today, i'm going to try and fenagle an IP phone and see if I can hook it up to asterisk.
Click to expand...
If you get that working, maybe you could do a write up about it and stick it on the wiki? If it's SIP, it should work, i don't see why it wouldn't.
 
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