asterisk users - Dec 2004 - pc

I'm going to install asterisk with four digium cards.
Can anyone mention a brand that carries boards with 4 compatible pci
slots?

Thanks

Shoval Tomer,
IT Manager,
SofTov Advanced Systems, Ltd.
Office: +972-3-9230686 ext. 179
Fax: +972-3-9216642
Mobile: +972-54-8000200

On Wed, 2004-12-08 at 18:07 +0200, Shoval Tomer wrote:
> I'm going to install asterisk with four digium cards.
> Can anyone mention a brand that carries boards with 4 compatible pci
> slots?
What 4 cards are you thinking of installing? Most people seem to run
into trouble after the second concurrent card. 

Anyways, almost all motherboards put 4 PCI slots on the board as it is
not much extra and expected on anything non entry level.
-- 
Steven Critchfield <critch@basesys.com>

>I'm going to install asterisk with four digium cards.
>Can anyone mention a brand that carries boards with 4 compatible pci
>slots?

Why ???
if your wanting the pci 4 port fxo/fxs boards you should be looking at
a t1 card & channel bank, its less expensive & far superior quality

Hi Shoval -
> I'm going to install asterisk with four digium cards.
> Can anyone mention a brand that carries boards with 4 compatible pci
> slots?
I ended up getting a Dell PE1600SC.  It is a tower computer with 6 PCI 
slots (2 32-bit, 2 PCI-X, 2 64-bit), but it can be rack-mounted with a 
special kit from Dell.  It does take 4 rack spaces when mounted, but if 
you have the space, it is the most PCI slots in a single, commercially 
available, rack-mounted server that I could find.  All of the PCI slots 
seem to work fine with Digium cards we currently have - TE410P and 
TDM400.

Thanks,
Noah

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Steven Critchfield [mailto:critch@basesys.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, December 08, 2004 6:39 PM
> To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion
> Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] pc
> 
> On Wed, 2004-12-08 at 18:07 +0200, Shoval Tomer wrote:
> > I'm going to install asterisk with four digium cards.
> > Can anyone mention a brand that carries boards with 4 compatible pci
> > slots?
> 
> What 4 cards are you thinking of installing? Most people seem to run
> into trouble after the second concurrent card.

I was thinking one 4 port FXO card
Two 4 port FXS card
And the fourth with one FXO and three FXs
For a total of 11 FXSs and 5 FXOs (for five POTS lines and 11 analog
extensions).

What trouble should I run into?
Define trouble? Hard to configure, or impossible because of IRQ sharing
issues or whatever?
> 
> Anyways, almost all motherboards put 4 PCI slots on the board as it is
> not much extra and expected on anything non entry level.
I thought so. Apparently most of them only come with three.
I was hoping to locate a motherboard that has five so I'll have room to
expand, but four will be great.

Anybody knows if PCI express technology is compatible with
Wildcards?
> --
> Steven Critchfield <critch@basesys.com>
> 
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Simply because I'm afraid of buying a used channel-bank on ebay.
Never seen one up close.

I'm quite certain I can handle installing 4 PCI cards in linux better
then I can figure out how to work with a channel-bank.

Sure hope digium will pick up this gauntlet (provide a way to connect
numerous analog phones to asterisk) like Cisco does with the VG248
> -----Original Message-----
> From: TC [mailto:trclark@shaw.ca]
> Sent: Wednesday, December 08, 2004 6:48 PM
> To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion
> Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] pc
> 
> >I'm going to install asterisk with four digium cards.
> >Can anyone mention a brand that carries boards with 4 compatible pci
> >slots?
> 
> 
> Why ???
> if your wanting the pci 4 port fxo/fxs boards you should be looking at
> a t1 card & channel bank, its less expensive & far superior quality
> _______________________________________________
> Asterisk-Users mailing list
> Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com
> http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
> To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
>    http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
> 
> --
> This message has been scanned for viruses and
> dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
> believed to be clean.
> MailScanner thanks transtec Computers for their support.

Can you recommend a channel bank make and model that will support all
(or most) of Asterisk's features and can be installed by a newbie?

I'll search for it on ebay

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Steven Critchfield [mailto:critch@basesys.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, December 08, 2004 7:22 PM
> To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion
> Subject: RE: [Asterisk-Users] pc
> 
> On Wed, 2004-12-08 at 19:09 +0200, Shoval Tomer wrote:
> >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Steven Critchfield [mailto:critch@basesys.com]
> > > Sent: Wednesday, December 08, 2004 6:39 PM
> > > To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion
> > > Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] pc
> > >
> > > On Wed, 2004-12-08 at 18:07 +0200, Shoval Tomer wrote:
> > > > I'm going to install asterisk with four digium cards.
> > > > Can anyone mention a brand that carries boards with 4
compatible
pci
> > > > slots?
> > >
> > > What 4 cards are you thinking of installing? Most people seem to
run
> > > into trouble after the second concurrent card.
> >
> >
> > I was thinking one 4 port FXO card
> > Two 4 port FXS card
> > And the fourth with one FXO and three FXs
> > For a total of 11 FXSs and 5 FXOs (for five POTS lines and 11 analog
> > extensions).
> 
> You would be far better off going with a channel bank and T1 card.
> Immediately you get room for expansion as you won't be limited to just
> 16 ports. As for cost, 4x $305(I think that is the current price) >
$1220, $1220 - $500(t100P) = $720, or enough left over to get taken on
> parts from ebay a couple of times before you reach level costs.
> 
> > What trouble should I run into?
> > Define trouble? Hard to configure, or impossible because of IRQ
sharing
> > issues or whatever?
> 
> Trouble being 4 x 1000 interupts per second on the machine. Lack of
> expansion, interupt sharing, any number of annoyances.
> 
> > >
> > > Anyways, almost all motherboards put 4 PCI slots on the board as
it is
> > > not much extra and expected on anything non entry level.
> >
> > I thought so. Apparently most of them only come with three.
> > I was hoping to locate a motherboard that has five so I'll have
room
to
> > expand, but four will be great.
> >
> > Anybody knows if PCI express technology is compatible with
Wildcards?
> 
> --
> Steven Critchfield <critch@basesys.com>
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Asterisk-Users mailing list
> Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com
> http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
> To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
>    http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
> 
> --
> This message has been scanned for viruses and
> dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
> believed to be clean.
> MailScanner thanks transtec Computers for their support.

>> Why ???
>> if your wanting the pci 4 port fxo/fxs boards you should be looking at
>> a t1 card & channel bank, its less expensive & far superior
quality
> Simply because I'm afraid of buying a used channel-bank on ebay.
> Never seen one up close.
>
> I'm quite certain I can handle installing 4 PCI cards in linux better
> then I can figure out how to work with a channel-bank.
>
> Sure hope digium will pick up this gauntlet (provide a way to connect
> numerous analog phones to asterisk) like Cisco does with the VG248
I'd have to agree with the channel bank plan.  You don't even need to 
buy a used channel bank.  You can get a new Rhino for $1500:

http://www.channelbanks.com/

If you don't plan on getting a PRI, you can just get some TDM400's with 
fxo cards for your incoming lines, and a T100P for the channel bank.  
If you do plan on going with a PRI or partial PRI, you can get just one 
TE4XXP and have it handle all your outside lines and connect the Rhino 
to it for your internal phones.

> 
> I'd have to agree with the channel bank plan.  You don't even need
to
> buy a used channel bank.  You can get a new Rhino for $1500:
> 
> http://www.channelbanks.com/
I gather you've had experience with Rhino.

How does it work with Asterisk?
Does it provide all features? Caller-id, echo cancellation, how's the
voice quality? Transfer? Conferencing? Message indications?

In short, how good is it?

And of course, can you provide configuration samples or point to where I
can get help on setting it up?

thanks

Sorry, wrong subject on previous post.  D'Oh!
>> I'd have to agree with the channel bank plan.  You don't even
need to
>> buy a used channel bank.  You can get a new Rhino for $1500:
>>
>> http://www.channelbanks.com/
>
> I gather you've had experience with Rhino.
>
> How does it work with Asterisk?
> Does it provide all features? Caller-id, echo cancellation, how's the
> voice quality? Transfer? Conferencing? Message indications?
>
> In short, how good is it?
>
> And of course, can you provide configuration samples or point to where 
> I
> can get help on setting it up?
No, I haven't worked with one directly.  I guess the trick to getting 
it set up would be to get the right setup in zaptel.conf, and the right 
signalling in zapata.conf.  Here's what I fund in the WIKI for 
configuring a channel bank on a T100P:

In /etc/zaptel.conf:
???span=1,0,0,esf,b8zs
???fxoks=1-24
In /etc/asterisk/zapata.conf:
???signalling=fxo_ks
???context=blah
???group=1
???channel?=>?1-24

 From there, AFAIK, you should be able to use the channels it provides 
just like you would use the channels on a TDM400 or any other device.
>> dont forget these Rhino are *FXS ONLY*
>> CAC adit 600 or Adtran ta750 are usually more flexible (fxs/fxo)
>> AND dont forget if you get the dreaded echo you gonna want to budget
>> for a inline hartdware echo canceller
This is a good idea from TC.  If you got the ADIT 600, you could avoid 
purchasing multiple TDM400's.  Specify some of the channels from the 
channel bank as fxo's for your outside lines, and use the remaining 
channels for your internal phones.  Then you could just buy one ADIT 
600 and one T100P.

Found this supplier of OEM X100P - FXO PCI Cards on my travels:
www.goods2world.com

OEM X100P - FXO PCI Card priced at ?9.00



Adrian
-- 
Adrian Walker
adrian@digitaltraffic.co.uk



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