asterisk users - Feb 2008 - Sangoma FXO EC vs Rhino FXO EC

Hi all, I am a huge fan of Sangoma cards after having many problems with
digium cards and then switching to sangoma cards and them giving me
excellent support with excellent results.
 
That being said, they are also alot more money than the Rhino cards and
my friend currently has 1 digium 4 fxo card in their system and they
need to add another phone line, plus they have echo problems and quality
problems from time to time.  So my plan was to get them a 4 port fxo
card with echo cancelling and use that for their 4 lines and use 1 of
the ports on the old digium card for the 5th line.
 
The sangoma 4 port fxo echo cancelling card is about $700 with shipping,
and for me to get a 6 port card would be close to $900 with shipping.
My friend cant afford the $900 card but it would be nice to be able to
get rid of the digium card completely since it works poorly and i dont
know if there would be conflicts with a digium card and a sangoma/rhino
card together, maybe irq issues...
 
So they told me about the rhino cards which are much more affordable and
have echo cancelling, $400 for a 4 port fxo card with echo cancelling
and $600 for a 6 port fxo card with echo cancelling.  These are much
more in my friends price range but I have never used rhino cards and
dont know how their quality is, how their echo canceller is, and how
they work with asterisk including if they work with zaptel natively or
need cumbersome drivers, etc.  Also if they are field upgrabable so you
can upgrade the firmware like you can with sangoma cards.  
 
So any help or experience would be great.  Sangoma will always be my
number 1 choice but when the money is tighter, it would be nice to have
a cheaper option IF the quality is the same.  I know they both have 5
year warranties but i have had so many issues with this asterisk install
from faulty digium cards, to echoy digium cards, to the dreaded snom 360
phones, to the even more dreaded gxp2000 phones, its been one night mare
and problem after another, i want to get things working great once and
for all and for a long time!  I am sure you all can understand that :)
So if i have to make my friend spend the extra or make due with 4 ports
+ using the old card for the 5th port, so be it.
 
Thanks!!
 
mike
 
 


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On Tuesday 19 February 2008 18:27:32 Michael J. Liberatore
wrote:
> Hi all, I am a huge fan of Sangoma cards after having many problems with
> digium cards and then switching to sangoma cards and them giving me
> excellent support with excellent results.
I would recommend that you give the Digium cards another shot.  There is
zero risk now, as Digium cards are now backed with a 5 year warranty and a
100% money-back guarantee:  Digium will make it work, or you get your money
back.

http://www.digium.com/en/company/riskfree-facts.php

-- 
Tilghman

Michael,

I'm very interested in helping you resolve any and all trouble you have with
Digium products. The experience you describe with our products not typical, so
I'd like to address them specifically.

My comments are inline:

----- "Michael J. Liberatore" <mike240se at
straightandnarrowinc.org> wrote:
> 
> I have noticed overall sound quality has increased 10 fold with the
> sangoma echo cancellation card but I had never tried hpec with the
> digium card.  I did try mg2 after fxotune and spending lots of time
> working out the levels and they still are unhappy with the call
> quality.
Yes, any decent hardware echo canceler would provide a significant improvement
over mg2 on difficult trunks. As noted already in this thread, Digium offers
software-based High Performance Echo Canceler (HPEC) and hardware-based echo
cancellation options. They're well worth the incremental expense when you
need reliable, high-quality echo cancellation.

Evaluating a Digium interface without hardware echo cancellation versus Sangoma
with hardware echo cancellation isn't really an even comparison, is it?  I
invite you to evaluate similarly equipped interfaces.  I'm confident that
you'll change your opinion about Digium's product performance.


> No I I have the TDM-04B, I was going by voipsupply.com, that's why I
> thought I had the latest, they don't have the tdm410.  
The TDM400 does not support on-board echo cancellation; the TDM410 does. For low
density analog, the TDM410 is an outstanding solution. Voipsupply's website
catalog isn't exactly up to date, but there are plenty of other reputable
resellers that would be eager to help you with the latest interface technology;
just visit <URL:http://www.digium.com/en/wheretobuy/>.

However, it sounds like you're reselling these to end users: have you
considered joining Digium's reseller program? You would enjoy many benefits
that would smooth your path to success, including special pricing with an
authorized Digium distributor. See
<URL:http://www.digium.com/en/ecosystem/resellers/> for more information.


> My issue is mainly that I bought all digium cards previously and have
> nothing but nightmares. Multiple cards died for no reason, 2 of them
> digium wouldn't warranty cause they were like 13 months old.  
That's troubling... even before the recent announcement of an expanded
warranty as part of our Exceptional Satisfaction Program, all Digium interface
cards carried a two year warranty. There's no way we would have turned you
away at 13 months. Or 15 months, or 18.

I went to investigate this and couldn't find any record of you contacting
Digium Technical Support. Did you use a different company name? Perhaps a
different representative of your firm contacted us. Are you confusing your
e-tailer's limited one-year return policy for Digium's warranty?  Even
if your webstore refuses a return, Digium will honor the product warranty.

Truly, the tired old reasons to avoid Digium -- IRQ-related headaches,
"motherboard incompatibilities," lack of hardware echo cancellation on
analog and single-span T1, etc. -- just don't stand up any more.
Digium's Exceptional Satisfaction Program signals a new standard of quality
and reliability in the telephony market. And our Technical Support team has a
great track record, often mentioned on this list. We're ready to work with
you to make your Digium Asterisk deployments a resounding success.

Sincerely,
rm
--
Rod Montgomery <rod.montgomery at digium.com>
Director of Services, Digium, Inc.