voip questions

[goodcooper]

ok you voip gurus... i need some help

delving deeply into voip and asterisk/freepbx as of late and i've got a lot of cool stuff set up, but i had a few questions

first of all it looks like i'm going to try going all cisco phones, unless someone says otherwise, we have a SPA504G and a SPA303, both work awesome, i'm looking to requisition 4 or 5 more, and i'll probably go with the 303, it comes with a power adapter which is nice, a couple will be in the office, but most will be going home with employees....

also would like to either get a wifi one, or a wired cordless one too, so if you have suggestions for one of those it'd be nice as well...

which leads me to my next question, WHERE do you buy your phones? the ones i've been playing with i just grabbed off of newegg, seemed to have decent prices, but thier voip phone selections seem to be getting slimmer and slimmer as of late...

but i have a question with regard to remote sip extensions, i have my sip signaling and RTP ports forwarded (ippbx behind untangle server) and the qos setup on the RTP ports, and i can connect and register to the pbx with a remote extension at home, and i can call extensions at the office and everything works perfectly... but when i set up another remote extension at home (2 on my network) it also works perfectly calling people at work, but once i try to call the other remote extension it rings but i get no audio... what could be causing this?

i have 0 firewall configuration at the remote site (at home, also untangle) and from what i understand i shouldn't need to configure anything on my firewall at the remote site...

i've also come to the general consensus that soft phones just plain suck... does anyone make a somewhat reasonably priced hardware phone that supports bluetooth headsets?

 

[Nate7311]

I've had GREAT luck with the Aastra phones and their scripts. although occasionally they require an update.

Most of my phones I've gotten from either 888voipstore or Voipsupply. They rotate specials fairly often.

For cordless, you have 3 primary options:
-Wifi-based cordless phone: Obviously Wifi dependant and pricey.
-Cordless Sip phone: Hardwired network connection for base and then DECT wireless connection to handset, cheaper than a Wifi phone with 90% of the functionality.
-FXS adapter and standard cordless phone: Typically the cheapest route, especially where employee reliability is concerned. It'll only take one dropped and cracked phone...

Your multi phone @ home network issue revolves around NAT. You may have to change a config either on the Extension setup or the phone setup.

No reasonable hard phone with Bluetooth support yet. They are all $$$$

 

[goodcooper]

awesome info, just what i was thinking...

what models aastra were you referring to? also when you talk about the scripts, what do you mean?

looks like i'll try to find a DECT wireless phone, thanks!

what hardware do you recommend for interfacing with the POTS? right now i have a little linksys box that has an FXS and an FXO that i'm playing around with, but eventually i'll probably want a bigger box that'll take 4 lines or so... i see cisco also makes one of those...

 

[dashpuppy]

goodcooper are yuo dedicating a box to your voip system or ?


I run freepbx, and have this card it was 129$ us shipped to my house, fully supported on freepbx and very nice card, allows me to bring in 2 analogue lines, to my cisco spa942 sip phones.

 

[Nate7311]

what models aastra were you referring to? also when you talk about the scripts, what do you mean?

Aastra makes a few models with 1line, 3 line, or larger LCD screens that can have LOTS of increased functionality via XML script functionality that they wrote into the firmware. They distribute the scripts for free. Check out the latest documentation here: DOCUMENTATION. There used to be a few Youtube vids out there talking about the scripts as well.

what hardware do you recommend for interfacing with the POTS? right now i have a little linksys box that has an FXS and an FXO that i'm playing around with, but eventually i'll probably want a bigger box that'll take 4 lines or so... i see cisco also makes one of those...

That really depends on a few things, like skill level, budget, capacity, reliability/ease or replacement, etc. You can do an internal card in PCI or PCIe that'll accomodate up to 8 lines (FXO or FXS) for reasonable. Or use an external box (channel bank/media gateway) to accept the lines and then you just create a SIP trunk to the media gateway (this would be how the Cisco box you mentioned would work). Or, just signup with a SIP provider and skip the interfacing all together.

 

[goodcooper]

Aastra makes a few models with 1line, 3 line, or larger LCD screens that can have LOTS of increased functionality via XML script functionality that they wrote into the firmware. They distribute the scripts for free. Check out the latest documentation here: DOCUMENTATION. There used to be a few Youtube vids out there talking about the scripts as well.



That really depends on a few things, like skill level, budget, capacity, reliability/ease or replacement, etc. You can do an internal card in PCI or PCIe that'll accomodate up to 8 lines (FXO or FXS) for reasonable. Or use an external box (channel bank/media gateway) to accept the lines and then you just create a SIP trunk to the media gateway (this would be how the Cisco box you mentioned would work). Or, just signup with a SIP provider and skip the interfacing all together.

yea, i know about the PCI cards but i'll probably still go witht he media gateway, i like the ability to keep it away in a phone demarc while my server is elsewhere, and i also like the ease of swapping if something goes bad... also makes building the server easier because i can virtualize it by itself on a machine so it stays portable if i want...

unless these media gateways are known to be unreliable or bad quality...

i have a SIP provider going in to my first server at the office and once i got the QoS rules set up the quality seems to be great... i am concerned about FAXes at the moment too though, thus the need to be thinking about analog lines...

awesome info on the aastras i'll definitely look into them now

 

[Nate7311]

One of the coolest things about the Aastra scripts, is the auto-provision feature. If it detects that a phone has no default config, then it'll ask for an extension # and the VM password. with that info, it does the initial configuration ans assigns features, soft buttons, lines etc. This makes rollout a breeze, a little faster alternative to the standard manual config or Endpoint managers. "Here's yer phone, here's yer Ext #, and here's your VM password. Go plug your phone in!"

Oh and regarding phone chice, I didn't see you mention this, but wanted to be sure. Skip the used Cisco 79XX series, they are great phones with wonderful clarity, and built like tanks. But using the SIP firmware, management on a larger scale and user features are pretty weak compared to the newer phones.

Regarding PSTN interface, the last system I did used a Xorcom 8FXO/8FXS Astribank. These are USB-based channelbanks. All the config is kept in the server and firmware/configs are loaded every reboot. Makes swapout a breeze if you have any issues. Also, you absolutely MUST put a surge surpresser/protector on the incoming PSTN lines. They are cheap insurance and like a UPS, will take the hit so your interface equipment doesn't have to. Suggested model: Panamax MOD-AT8110 or MOD-AT4