asterisk users - Nov 2003 - Looking for recommendations for home office setups

Greetings Asterisk Users,

I'm looking for some friendly advice on setting up a asterisk
PBX for our small business. I've played with Asterisk and setup
a soft-phone open323, though even on my ethernet network this
showed very poor performance. Got a phone call through to digium,
but had a difficult time either hearing (low volume) or understanding
(line breaking up). Hoping a hardware solution would solve both of
these.

We're a small software company, with employees working from home
in three different locations:
 - Atlanta: cable modem connection
 - Denver: ADSL/PPPOE connection
 - Oklahoma City: ADSL/PPPOE connection 

Is this a pipe dream? Here's my goal:
 - One phone & one fax at each location
 - One telco phone line at each location
 - Utilize existing phones, though willing to buy new phones
 - Central asterisk server in Atlanta
 - Phone line "best rate" routing, outgoing calls routed through
	the hard-line at a different location if local, etc. ie:
	One can originate a call from the Atlanta phone, have it
	routed through the Denver outgoing line to another location
	in Denver to achieve a local phone call.

As far as I understand, this may involve three hardware interfaces,
one at each location (plus a central asterisk box). Each would have:
 - TCP/IP connection back to the central asterisk server (perhaps
	via a VPN? Or can we just use straight TCP/IP with some form
	of authentication. Caveat: we have NAT firewalls at each location.
 - Local telco phone line input
 - Analog line output for using existing phone, or potentially
	go via ethernet to a true IP phone?

I believe I'm looking for some form of "gateway" box at each
location,
controlled by the Asterisk server. Possible? If so, what hardware is
recommended.

Thanks for any assistance,
James Harrell
Copernicus Business Systems
www.copernicusllc.com

On Fri, 14 Nov 2003, James Harrell wrote:

<snip>
>We're a small software company, with employees working from home
>in three different locations:
> - Atlanta: cable modem connection
> - Denver: ADSL/PPPOE connection
> - Oklahoma City: ADSL/PPPOE connection
>
>Is this a pipe dream? Here's my goal:
> - One phone & one fax at each location
> - One telco phone line at each location
> - Utilize existing phones, though willing to buy new phones
> - Central asterisk server in Atlanta
> - Phone line "best rate" routing, outgoing calls routed through
>	the hard-line at a different location if local, etc. ie:
>	One can originate a call from the Atlanta phone, have it
>	routed through the Denver outgoing line to another location
>	in Denver to achieve a local phone call.
>
>As far as I understand, this may involve three hardware interfaces,
>one at each location (plus a central asterisk box). Each would have:
> - TCP/IP connection back to the central asterisk server (perhaps
>	via a VPN? Or can we just use straight TCP/IP with some form
>	of authentication. Caveat: we have NAT firewalls at each location.
> - Local telco phone line input
> - Analog line output for using existing phone, or potentially
>	go via ethernet to a true IP phone?
>
>I believe I'm looking for some form of "gateway" box at each
location,
>controlled by the Asterisk server. Possible? If so, what hardware is
>recommended.

First, thanks for the very nicely prepared (and well thought-out) message.

You are looking for 1 FXO port to bring in the local telco line at each
site.  You want two FXS ports to provide asterisk dialtone to the existing
phone (assuming it's an analog phone) and dialtone to the fax machine.  If
your solution ends up being an asterisk box at each location, you can do
this with 1 X100P and a 2-port TDM400P.

Your "best-rate" routing is absolutely no problem.  The
'swich' statement
will be your friend.

You shouldn't need VPN unless you're concerned about encryption.  IAX2
(which, as you mention NAT, you'd be -strongly- encouraged to use) will do
authentication for you.

Good luck,

Steve

___________________________________________________________
Steve Creel                                screel@turbs.com