PBXpress; Anyone used it?

N

NotSoSimple

[H]F Junkie
Joined
May 17, 2003
Messages
14,618
We are looking to upgrade our old PBX Setup to VoIP...

http://www.pbxpress.com/

That looks to be our most likely candidate. This is the first place I thought I would check to see if anyone has used it/heard of it. I also had some questions.

1) I have heard it really is a *nux box under the hood, running asterisk. Is this true?
2) Why is it so cheap (~$4000 vs. the tens of thousands of dollars for other applications)?
 
Yep, it's using linux and *. That's why it's so cheap. It's underlying structure is free to them. They develop a pretty interface etc and there you go. I've heard decent things about them.

How big is your office? Are you sure your network environment is ready for VoIP? You may want to find a qualified consultant in your area to assist you with this.
 
We have this ancient Executone PBX System right now.

We have about 75 Phones, spanning a couple office; Boston, New Jersey, Chicago, Medford/OR, Central Point/OR, and Shanghai China...

The IT Manager has already proposed the switch to VoIP and has full backing from administration. If we do go with *, we will deffinately be purchasing our own box.

I have experience in linux, using Debian and some Red Hat. So between 3 of us, I am sure we can manage. The current IT Manager (My Boss) aided in the installation and is the only one to upkeep the current PBX system.
 
Well, if you've got all that confidence in doing it yourself, why not roll your own and just get support directly from digium? I'm guessing all those pbexpress units really do is put a pretty interface on the front of * and linux.

If you want hardware support, buy several Dell rackmount units and load your favorite distro and install *.
 
If you go with a custom asterisk solution, let me recommend you shoot this guy an email: [email protected]

He did quite a bit of the backend work on my setup here ( built the boxes, got the right hardware for me ). Very easy to work with, does what you ask and more. In short, a rare vendor in this world.

If you go with *, I highly recommend you email this dude. Further, I am getting to the point where I know * inside and out, so ask any questions you might have about it if you want, I'll tackle them.

( btw: I would estimate an * solution running you about 30g at most for 75 stations. I wouldn't take their quote if they went higher than that. I'm over estimating by quite a bit based on what little I know. )
 
I guess I'm just saying that it's not like PBexpress really is selling much that you can't do yourself. It's up to you. If you have someone with the time/skills, you might as well get someone trained in * and then have them implement your setup. I think having an onsite expert is huge. There's always Digium to fall back on for support (paid) if there's something you can't figure out down the road.

If you have no desire etc, to learn * then pre-packaged solutions like pbexpress are fine.
 
I would love to learn *. Hmm I guess I will take a look into it.

Another question...What's a decent SIP Compatible Phone?

We basicly need intercom call, hold...Basic functions. Intercom Call is the biggest one.

XOR, I heard you liked the Grandstream phones via your thread, correct?
 
NotSoSimple said:
I would love to learn *. Hmm I guess I will take a look into it.

Another question...What's a decent SIP Compatible Phone?

We basicly need intercom call, hold...Basic functions. Intercom Call is the biggest one.

XOR, I heard you liked the Grandstream phones via your thread, correct?
Click to expand...
Snoms, actually. I haven't used any grandstreams yet, but I hear they are good. The speaker phone on the snoms is pretty decent however, and configuration is dead simple.
 
Awesome! I've re-read your * success thread like 4 times today.

One thing I am confused about...How many FXO and FXS (?) cards do I need? Im assuming just one or two, as I feed it to the switch, which feeds the rest of network and phones.
 
Depends on how many lines. The hardware I have has the ability to have 6 different fxo modules on it, and each module can support 4 lines. It's all fed out to a normal 66 punch down block ( I think that's what it's called ). I have two modules right now, so I can have 8 lines from the phone company.

The only reason you might need an fxs module ( in a corp enviro ) is if you wanted to power a fax/credit card machine. But then, it'd be easier to just take a line from the punchdown block delivered by the phone company, bypassing the phone server entirely.

btw: Decent link explaining the difference between the two: http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/view/FXO
 
Hmm so your using punch down blocks...

Here we have everything loaded through CAT5 Patch Panels.

Correct me if I am wrong in this, as this is how I see it working: You program the phones to have an IP and an extension, you tell * the extension information. The phone is forwarded the calls via the extension record the * box has in it's .conf files. If so, then it would not matter if I was using a 66 Block or a Patch Panel.

Is that right?
 
NotSoSimple said:
Hmm so your using punch down blocks...

Here we have everything loaded through CAT5 Patch Panels.

Correct me if I am wrong in this, as this is how I see it working: You program the phones to have an IP and an extension, you tell * the extension information. The phone is forwarded the calls via the extension record the * box has in it's .conf files. If so, then it would not matter if I was using a 66 Block or a Patch Panel.

Is that right?
Click to expand...
Yeah, the underlying tech doesn't matter. That's one of the awsome things about VoIP. My ext could be in a hotel room half way around the world, connected via a vpn. But if I can get SIP connectivity, then it's no different then being on the local network.

The punch down block is for the POTS from the phone company feeding into *. Everything from there on in is VoIP. I highly recommend against an internet based terminator, as you are subject to internet wonkiness at that point. I've had many bad experiences with it.
 
Got it..Keep our 6 or so POTS lines and call it good.

Another Q...How about conferencing? We do alot of conference calls, how does it do?
 
NotSoSimple said:
Got it..Keep our 6 or so POTS lines and call it good.

Another Q...How about conferencing? We do alot of conference calls, how does it do?
Click to expand...
Pretty easy, let me see if I can dig up the extension I use in *...

Code: 
exten => 100,1,MeetMe(|MD)
What this does is allows anybody calling exten 100 to enter which conference they want to join. If no conference exists, they can create a new one ( complete with pin if they want it ). While there is only one member, they get music on hold music. This is a good link for more details on this application: http://www.voip-info.org/wiki-Asterisk+cmd+MeetMe

All in all, very handy.
 
Awesome. Thank you for that link; It provided 2-3 solutions for conferencing. Man, I should be paying you for outside consulting!

How much bandwidth are you using for your VoIP, and how many phones again?

Edit: Another question lol. I dug around some more and found that our phone lines are budled in via out T1 Connection. So would this require a T1 Card in my * box? Im assuming it is smart enough to handle the POTS lines via T1.

Hmm know of any other VoIP Applications like PBXpress?
 
NotSoSimple said:
Awesome. Thank you for that link; It provided 2-3 solutions for conferencing. Man, I should be paying you for outside consulting!
Click to expand...
If I can help people avoid companies like Avaya ( note: I'm not saying PBXpress is anything like avaya ), that's all the payment I'm after. And anyway, I'm not nearly experienced with it enough to charge people for what I know.

I'm working to correct that however. :D
How much bandwidth are you using for your VoIP, and how many phones again?
Click to expand...
We're using 10 phones right now, and I'm looking at another 30 phones at my new location. I'm not really sure how much bandwidth I'm using on the network, honestly. I'm using the ulaw codec, which is the beefiest, but even with that it'd hardly make a dent in our traffic. If it ever becomes an issue, I have plans to install a seperate network just for the phones ( which is *way* overkill, and I will likely never need to do it ).
 
NotSoSimple said:
Edit: Another question lol. I dug around some more and found that our phone lines are budled in via out T1 Connection. So would this require a T1 Card in my * box? Im assuming it is smart enough to handle the POTS lines via T1.
Click to expand...
Depends on how they are being broken out. My lines are delivered via a 'burstable t1', which is nothing more than a full t1 over which the voice lines travel in data form, being seperated out via my adtrans into copper.

Digium has t1 cards as well ( which is the better choice in my opinion, but.. ), however I don't know that they know how to work with anything other than a full pri t1. That's not something I've investigated yet, I don't have enough lines to make it worth it.

So, it depends on how the lines are broken out of the t1. Worse comes to worse, you could always get a channel bank to break out the lines to a full pri t1 ( so it'd go "Funky t1" => Channel Bank => Full PRI T1 => * ). Not the cleanest solution, but it'd work.
 
Ahhh it all comes clear to me now.

Hmm what are some good forums for Virtual PBX/VoIP Providers? Another thing we want is like what Covad does. They bundle everything together to be our ISP, VoIP Provider, etc. Administration likes the idea of having the equipment offsite also.
 
Well, XOR I might be buying you a couple dinners (Via Gift Cards of course :p)

We just got approval to purchase PBXpress software, and necessary hardware, as well as 2 Polycom 301 SIP Phones. So I will be needing your advice soon.
 
NotSoSimple said:
Well, XOR I might be buying you a couple dinners (Via Gift Cards of course :p)

We just got approval to purchase PBXpress software, and necessary hardware, as well as 2 Polycom 301 SIP Phones. So I will be needing your advice soon.
Click to expand...
Absolutely, and no payment is required.

My experience is for everyone. I hope someday to get to the point where I can do this professionally locally, and save this area a great deal of cash ( yet still make out like a bandit :D ).
 
Nothing like a 5 year old thread first thing in the morning. To update my recommendation, I'd go with switchvox now a days for clients that was a pre-packaged solution.
 
just rolled out a freepbx distro box last week or so... working great so far...

freepbx pbx in a flash... why pay?
 
holythreadresurrection.jpg



IF anybody is stuck on SIP for their phones look at fonality. They seemed to have a pretty good solution, just not a good fit. We wound up going with Shoretel
 
dashpuppy said:
Sorry :(
Click to expand...
You're fired.

As to why pay for switchvox; it has a company behind it. Some of my clients aren't comfortable with me being their only tech support in the area, and I don't blame them. So they contract with Digium for switchvox, while I usually end up doing the actual maint.
 
Yeah, and 3CX blows. I tangled with it for a while and never could get it to work smoothly.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top