asterisk users - Aug 2008 - Asterisk connected to the PSTN vs. a commercial solution

Dear all, now I'm using an Asterisk 1.4.13 SIP server with 50 SIP users
and it works very well only in an intranet environment (no connections
to the PSTN world).

But in the near future, we have to plan a telephone system that works in
the intranet (voip) and also it must be connected to the PSTN public
network with a T1/E1 trunk, with 200 SIP users aproximately. So at first
I have to ways to do that:


1- Continue using Asterisk and adding a T1/E1 interface in order to
connect to the PSTN

2- Discard Asterisk and buy a commercial solution, because we have the
money


My questions are: does Asterisk work in the scenario I've described ????
What is the best solution you can recommend to me ???

Thanks in advance,

Alejandro

Hi Alejandro -
> Dear all, now I'm using an Asterisk 1.4.13 SIP server with 50 SIP users
> and it works very well only in an intranet environment (no connections
> to the PSTN world).
>
> But in the near future, we have to plan a telephone system that works in
> the intranet (voip) and also it must be connected to the PSTN public
> network with a T1/E1 trunk, with 200 SIP users aproximately. So at first
> I have to ways to do that:
>
> 1- Continue using Asterisk and adding a T1/E1 interface in order to
> connect to the PSTN
This is exactly what asterisk was designed to do.

> 2- Discard Asterisk and buy a commercial solution, because we have the
> money
>
> My questions are: does Asterisk work in the scenario I've described
????
Yes.  I've used it in just the way you describe in a number of
production environments with great success.

> What is the best solution you can recommend to me ???
Get what you WANT.  Both Asterisk and commercial solutions will
probably work well for you (just be sure to use quality hardware).
With asterisk you get great flexibility and expandability.  With a
commercial solution you get less of that, but you get to blame someone
else if the system fails.

Talk to management.  What do THEY want?  As has been discussed here
before, nobody ever got fired for buying Cisco, but that doesn't mean
Cisco is any better than any other vendor, including Digium/Asterisk.
Find out what the needs of your company are and get the system that
best fits those needs.


- Noah

Asterisks greatest strength is that it's a highly flexible platform that 
let's you pretty much do anything.

It's downside, is that it's a highly flexible platform that let's
you
pretty much do anything.

In other words, the quality of what you are trying to do depends on the 
quality and volume of the development and testing.

If you want something that just works and if you want somebody to be 
willing to answer the phone and fix the problems that _will_ happen, 
then I recommend looking at the commercial products. Ironically, many of 
those commercial products use Asterisk. That's okay. The key is that 
they have vetted and developed it for you.

The reason I bring this up, is that asking if Asterisk "supports T1/E1 
interfaces to do PSTN" implies that you might not have done a lot of 
research. You have a lot left to go if you want to roll-your-own 
solution. Please forgive me if my impression is wrong about this.

John


Alejandro Cabrera Obed wrote:
> Dear all, now I'm using an Asterisk 1.4.13 SIP server with 50 SIP users
> and it works very well only in an intranet environment (no connections
> to the PSTN world).
>
> But in the near future, we have to plan a telephone system that works in
> the intranet (voip) and also it must be connected to the PSTN public
> network with a T1/E1 trunk, with 200 SIP users aproximately. So at first
> I have to ways to do that:
>
>
> 1- Continue using Asterisk and adding a T1/E1 interface in order to
> connect to the PSTN
>
> 2- Discard Asterisk and buy a commercial solution, because we have the
> money
>
>
> My questions are: does Asterisk work in the scenario I've described
????
> What is the best solution you can recommend to me ???
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Alejandro
>
> _______________________________________________
> -- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com --
>
> AstriCon 2008 - September 22 - 25 Phoenix, Arizona
> Register Now: http://www.astricon.net
>
> asterisk-users mailing list
> To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
>    http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
>
>