I'm looking to use Asterisk to replace my current PBX system. I'm in Australia so I need to use Austel approved equipment. My plan is roughly as follows: - Get a box with a suitable card and install Asterisk - Connect our existing PSTN lines to the Asterisk box - Get suitable softphones/ip phones to connect to the Asterisk system - Route all intra-office calls over our VPN - Route all other calls out to the PSTN - Route all incoming calls from PSTN as required I have four lines and it seems like the Voicetronix OpenLine4 card (http://www.voicetronix.com.au) is suitable for a setup like this. I'm after war stories and any hints and tips from anyone who's setup a similar system in Australia. What hardware do you use and/or recommend? What are the pitfalls and gotchas that you've come across implementing an Asterisk system? Are there any Australian case studies you can link me to? Thanks in advance!
intent wrote:>I'm looking to use Asterisk to replace my current PBX system. I'm in >Australia so I need to use Austel approved equipment. My plan is roughly >as follows: > >- Get a box with a suitable card and install Asterisk >- Connect our existing PSTN lines to the Asterisk box >- Get suitable softphones/ip phones to connect to the Asterisk system >- Route all intra-office calls over our VPN >- Route all other calls out to the PSTN >- Route all incoming calls from PSTN as required > >I have four lines and it seems like the Voicetronix OpenLine4 card >(http://www.voicetronix.com.au) is suitable for a setup like this. I'm >after war stories and any hints and tips from anyone who's setup a similar >system in Australia. What hardware do you use and/or recommend? What are >the pitfalls and gotchas that you've come across implementing an Asterisk >system? Are there any Australian case studies you can link me to? > >Thanks in advance! > >_______________________________________________ >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 > > >Any hardware that is connected to the Australian telephone network has to be A-Tick certified. We do asterisk installations professionally in Australia and my best advice would be a) before rolling anything out test it on a small scale, rest is just scaling. b) If you are planning to use SIP make sure you configure it properly to work with NAT. SIP has a lot of issues with NAT. The alternative is using IAX but the IAX deskphones arent as feature rich as the SIP phones. Also take into account the cost of deploying IP phones. c) Last time I checked TDM400P wasnt A-Tick certified but things may have changed. you can check with the australian suppliers http://www.austechpartnerships.com. If you have 4 lines this card (TDM400P) will be ideal for you. d) Make sure your asterisk server has a decent UPS attached to it. ;) e) Make sure any SIP hard phones you use have power over ethernet or if they dont you have proper outlets to plug in the phones at each desk. f) look into agents and queues for incoming calls. regards Kavit
>b) If you are planning to use SIP make sure you configure it properlyto work with NAT.>SIP has a lot of issues with NAT. The alternative is using IAX but theIAX deskphones>arent as feature rich as the SIP phones. Also take into account thecost of deploying IP phones. Intent wrote that he is running vpn's inter-office in this case NAT is not an issue, I do the same thing with 5 offices interconnected with Ipsec tunnels using traffic shaping for best effect, no NAT'ing is needed at all. Also the grandstream phones are SIP and AIX, the new GSP-2000 is only going to be about $180aud so is cheaper then your standard digital phone extension and you just use the old snom220 with the extra line board, or the alcatel which is very nice as well for reception, and if you use a sip phone that supports AIX its not hard to set them up to fail over to another offices asterisk box if something goes wrong, the traffic over the vpn won't be that big with AIX, 28kbit per call if I remember right.>c) Last time I checked TDM400P wasnt A-Tick certified but things mayhave changed. you>can check with the australian suppliershttp://www.austechpartnerships.com. If you have>4 lines this card (TDM400P) will be ideal for you.No it still isn't certified but I have several running 4 PSTN's through, except when running the rev h cards which you have to do a code hack to make work (unless they fixed it in the latest zaptel), but if you can't get it working digium support will help out.>d) Make sure your asterisk server has a decent UPS attached to it. ;)Oohh hell yeah this is a big necessity, get one that is supported by linux (most are these days).>f) look into agents and queues for incoming calls.Yeah there are a few telcos out there that support IAX over the net, they all have different ways of charging you for the calls its rather annoying as its like comparing apples and oranges. Gotta work out what sort of phone calls for how long you are going to do to work out which provider to route through (it doesn't cost anything really to hook up for more then 1 and then work out what calls to route through whom for best cost). Hope this helps intent. James