asterisk users - Oct 2004 - New. Testing?

Hello all. I am new to the list and after doing some research on 
"Asterisk" this
week I would like to get started testing.

I am a 15 year "Unix" veteran and "Open Source User". I was
wondering
what you guys would suggest I use to start testing with regards to the 
Telephone
Interface?

I am the IT Manager for a firm that is moving next year. I have decided to 
go with
VoIP for our new Phone System. After discovering Asterisk last week, I 
have
decided to "test" it and get some practical experience using the
software.

I currently have an unused ISDN (BRI) line that I was thinking about 
cancelling until I
learned of Asterisk. I thought about buying one of the BRI PCI cards 
(listed on
the Digium website) to use in a test server. Although, I see that they can 
be rather
expensive for something that I most likely will have to just "throw
away"
when we
move (I assume we will have a T1 or fractional T1 in the new building.). 
My question
is, "What would you guys recommend I use to get started testing/looking at 
this
software?" I only see these two ("affordable") options for
testing:

Buy an ISDN BRI interface board, use it and test it then "throw it
away".
     (This option wouldl give me two lines to test with, which would be 
nice.)
Buy an analog board and use a dedicated line.
  (I think we only have one incoming line that I could use for testing. 
OR, could I
   use the two POTS ports from our ISDN router and in effect just use the 
two
   ISDN data lines as POTS lines?0


Thanks to all!
Shayne
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On Oct 22, 2004, at 9:15 AM, sjudkins@christyind.com
wrote:
> Hello all. I am new to the list and after doing some research on 
> "Asterisk" this
> week I would like to get started testing.
<stuff deleted...>
> I currently have an unused ISDN (BRI) line that I was thinking about 
> cancelling until I
> learned of Asterisk. I thought about buying one of the BRI PCI cards 
> (listed on
> the Digium website) to use in a test server. Although, I see that they 
> can be rather
> expensive for something that I most likely will have to just "throw 
> away" when we
> move (I assume we will have a T1 or fractional T1 in the new 
> building.). My question
> is, "What would you guys recommend I use to get started 
> testing/looking at this
> software?" I only see these two ("affordable") options for
testing:
>
> Buy an ISDN BRI interface board, use it and test it then "throw it 
> away".
> ? ? ?(This option wouldl give me two lines to test with, which would 
> be nice.)
> Buy an analog board and use a dedicated line.
> ? (I think we only have one incoming line that I could use for 
> testing. OR, could I
> ? ?use the two POTS ports from our ISDN router and in effect just use 
> the two
> ? ?ISDN data lines as POTS lines?
In the long run I think the ISDN BRI interface board will teach you 
more as you will have access to full and reliable call progress and get 
a much better idea of how fast connections are established etc.  I used 
the TDM400P and the X100P for my "Proof of Concept" testing and then 
switched to a ISDN PRI via T100P for deployment and it took a while to 
get used to and adapt to.

On an analog interface dialing out onto the PSTN asterisk assumes the 
call is answered (unless call progress is turned on but that is still 
not 100% reliable). Whereas on an ISDN connection it knows what the 
state of the line is (i.e. Ringing / Answered / Busy etc).

Also on analog incoming call you don't get DNIS so they get dumped into 
the s extension in the context you define. On ISDN you will get the 
DNIS and have to parse it in the dialplan.

All of this is valuable experience for when you get the T1-PRI for the 
new location. It will speed up you deployment a lot!

Later;
Tim