[TriLUG] Suggested Asterisk voip setup

[Hadrian Zbarcea]

Heath, thanks for the tips.  Comments inline.

Hadrian

On Jan 30, 2009, at 12:31 AM, Heath Roberts wrote:

> On Thu, Jan 29, 2009 at 10:52 AM, Hadrian Zbarcea <hzbarcea at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> I want to try a voip solution using Asterisk.  My research was not
>> very conclusive, so I hope somebody who did this could help.  I  
>> have 2
>> (up to 4 in the future) AT&T landlines, I will have 6 voip phones for
>> now, not heavy call volume.  I will need to buy all the hardware,  
>> so I
>> am flexible there.  Do you have any recommendation for:
>>
>> 1. FXO card (Digium, Sangoma, Rhino?)
>> 2. System and OS.  Is there any issue with AMD vs Intel.
>> 3. Phones that work (Aastra seems good)
>> 4. Good supplier/reseller (although they may all be pretty much the
>> same)
>
> Why would you want additional landlines with VoIP? I can see keeping  
> the two
> you have, but not adding more.
Good point.  My forward thinking was that it may be easier to add  
another line than get another (VoIP) provider.  It doesn't make much  
sense though.

>
> Aastra make good phones, so do Polycom.
>
> For hardware, digium cards are great, but for just a couple of FXO  
> ports to
> connect to existing land lines, you may want to just get a couple of  
> analog
> terminal adapters. Linksys/Supira are cheap, work well, etc.
My eyes are on a Digium TDM 402E.  Are you saying that I could use a  
couple of adapters *instead* of the digium card?

>
> For software distributions, I'll echo the
> Trixbox<http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=123387&package_id=192286 
> >endorsement.
> There's a pre-configured vmware image that you can probably
> have processing calls in about ten minutes if you want to play. The  
> trixbox
> page says the vmware image "is not to be used for production" but  
> I've not
> had any issues with it. Trixbox Without
> Tears<http://dumbme.mbit.com.au/trixbox2/trixbox2_without_tears.pdf>is
> a decent starting guide.
Great, thanks.

>
> You should also look at the combination hardware/software boxes from  
> Digium
> (Switchvox SOHO <http://www.digium.com/en/products/switchvox/ 
> soho.php>),
> Aastra (Aastralink Pro
> 160<http://www.aastratelecom.com/cps/rde/xchg/SID-3D8CCB6A-5FAFD3A6/03/hs.xsl/27293.htm 
> >),
> and Trixbox (Appliance <http://www.trixbox.com/products/appliance>).
I did.  I have mixed feelings about getting an appliance.

> I've been happy with vitelity.net as a VoIP provider. I don't have a  
> lot of
> calls, so the $1.49/number/month was attractive to me, and they have
> asterisk/trixbox configuration guides. Make sure you use an Internet  
> router
> that lets you prioritize your VoIP traffic.
Absolutely.