[TriLUG] Asterisk for the office

[Brian Henning]

I've been in touch with people at CDW, where we buy some of our 
enterprise-grade stuff (when we do buy such things).  They don't seem to 
offer the Cisco 79x0 phones, but their "telephony expert" suggested the 
Polycom 501/601 phones, as units that are reasonably easy to use and 
work well with Asterisk.  Does anyone have comments to make in favor or 
against the Polycom models?

Cheers,
~Brian

jonc at nc.rr.com wrote:
> Brian,
> 
> Asterisk is definitely enterprise ready but you have identified some of
> the weak points below. Still, if you have a fairly static phone config
> and just need basic phone apps, then Asterisk is easily do-able for the
> average office.
> 
> Paging is best done using an analog speaker system - which looks to
> Asterisk like a simple Analog phone line. Other than that, you can use
> the intercom feature available with Cisco 7940 or 7960 phones and just
> setup a "conferencing" group that uses the intercom feature on all your
> phones. It won't work perfectly, but it will work.
> 
> If you think you need 24 lines then a PRI is the way to go. You'll get
> CallerID and the cost is much cheaper for the setup and maintenance.
> 
> If you go with POE switches, that will be more expensive than buying
> power bricks for each phone, but you will get some nice honking Cisco
> switching power that will vlan out your Voice traffic from your Data. 
> The cheaper solution is to get a Cisco 2924 XL-EN (that "EN" part is
> *very* important) and bunch of power bricks. It cost would be about half
> of that of going with a Cisco 3524-PWR
> 
> The advantages of VoIP are tremendous, and installation is about half
> the cost of a traditional service, but... it still ain't cheap.
> 
> If you guys want an interrum solution (hosted VoIP), then look us up. We
> would be happy to help you take you guys off your old PBX and move you
> over to the world of VoIP. And if you need any Asterisk help, let me know.
> 
> BTW: I've gotten several Kick-butt Asterisk servers from Cerient (Jason
> Tower). The costs have all been around $2k (plus the Digium hardware),
> and they would work great as and Enterprise Asterisk server for an
> office of your size or larger.
> 
> Jon Carnes
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Brian Henning <brian at strutmasters.com>
> Date: Thursday, November 9, 2006 12:20 pm
> Subject: [TriLUG] Asterisk for the office
> To: TriLUG <trilug at trilug.org>
> 
>> Hi Y'all,
>>   Coming back around to the Asterisk topic again..  Now that we're 
>> looking at the possibility of expanding off-site operations, having 
>> a 
>> completely-VoIP office telephony solution is seeming more and more 
>> prudent.  So I'm looking for some advice from folks who have 
>> deployed 
>> whole-office systems using Asterisk (as well as input from folks 
>> that 
>> have used non-Open-Source software).  I've already thought of the 
>> following points:
>>
>> - Need a real butt-kicking server to handle as many as 24 inbound 
>> lines 
>> (using a Digium TDM2400), plus however many inter-office calls may 
>> be 
>> occurring (plus room for expansion).  Right now I'm contemplating a 
>> Core 
>> 2 Extreme-based system.
>>
>> - In the absence of intelligent managed switchgear, need separate 
>> switchgear for 100bT for the phones.  Possibly with PoE.
>>
>> - Need to have all the features of our existing PBX.  General 
>> call-handling features are a cinch with * dialplan and 
>> applications, but 
>> I'm finding, in particular, the "page" or "intercom" feature seems 
>> to be 
>> more of a challenge in the VoIP world.  Paging ability is essential.
>>
>> - Phones need to be simple enough that our folks can use them, but 
>> complex enough to handle things like paging.  I've seen 
>> recommendations 
>> for the Cisco 7960 set.  Price is a consideration, as our initial 
>> investment will be 30 phones.
>>
>> I'm also all-ears for other options.  It'd be fantastic in $boss's 
>> eyes, 
>> I'm sure, if we didn't have to abandon the investment we've already 
>> made 
>> in our current Nortel MICS system.  Unfortunately, so far the only 
>> way 
>> I've found to interface the PBX with an Asterisk system is via 
>> analog 
>> adapters.  Icky, because of course then you lose a lot of the PBX 
>> features for the Asterisk users.
>>
>> Also, if there's anyone that would like to come visit our facility, 
>> evaluate our current system and our needs and make a quote, I'd be 
>> very 
>> happy to entertain it.
>>
>> Thanks a lot!
>>
>> Cheers,
>> ~Brian
>> -- 
>> ----------------
>> Brian A. Henning
>> strutmasters.com
>> 336.597.2397x238
>> ----------------
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-- 
----------------
Brian A. Henning
strutmasters.com
336.597.2397x238
----------------