I just inherited a client that is using a Switchvox system. I normally install a CentOS based system with freePBX and some custom endpoint management stuff for Polycom phones. This Switchvox is making me feel a bit stifled. I am having nightmares of another recent encounter with Trixbox Pro. Can I really not ssh into this box? If I could is there anything useful that I might change without breaking things and/or endangering their warranty or support? Google seems to be very quiet about customer experiences with Switchvox. j
You appear to be quite correct on your Google analysis. From my light reading of Digium's description of Switchvox, it is pretty much "Asterisk for Dummies"; the sole interface and maintenance of the system is a web interface. The concept apparently is that Digium provides a running system "Out-of-the-box" and you aren't allowed to do anything to it except basic user, queue and extension maintenance. You could put in a second box just to handle the Polycom stuff if needed or even do a VM since it would be a SIP-only install; but then you probably know more about that than I do. -----Original Message----- From: asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com [mailto:asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Jeff LaCoursiere Sent: Wednesday, May 13, 2009 8:01 AM To: asterisk-users at lists.digium.com Subject: [asterisk-users] Switchvox I just inherited a client that is using a Switchvox system. I normally install a CentOS based system with freePBX and some custom endpoint management stuff for Polycom phones. This Switchvox is making me feel a bit stifled. I am having nightmares of another recent encounter with Trixbox Pro. Can I really not ssh into this box? If I could is there anything useful that I might change without breaking things and/or endangering their warranty or support? Google seems to be very quiet about customer experiences with Switchvox. j _______________________________________________ -- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com -- asterisk-users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
<html><body><span style="font-family:Verdana; color:#000000; font-size:10pt;"><div ><br></div><blockquote webmail="1" style="border-left: 2px solid blue; margin-left: 8px; padding-left: 8px; font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: verdana;"><div > I just inherited a client that is using a Switchvox system. I normally <br> install a CentOS based system with freePBX and some custom endpoint <br> management stuff for Polycom phones. This Switchvox is making me feel a <br> bit stifled. I am having nightmares of another recent encounter with <br> Trixbox Pro.<br> <br> Can I really not ssh into this box? If I could is there anything useful <br> that I might change without breaking things and/or endangering their <br> warranty or support? Google seems to be very quiet about customer <br> experiences with Switchvox.<br> </div></blockquote><br>I had a client who purchased a Switchvox AA350 (for about $7k). The box was plug-n-play and the endpoint manager for the Polycom phones worked flawlessly on the first try. The server hummed along for a year. One day the ISP changed out some equipment and suddenly there were double/missing DTMF tones, static and dropped calls. I spent quite a bit of time in email and on the phone with Digium trying to resolve the problem before we finally gave up. They blamed the ISP and the ISP blamed Digium. I didn't have the heart to tell the client that he wasted $7000 so I ended up swapping out the AA350 for a Dell GX745 with FreePBX. The basic installation of FreePBX exhibited the same problems on the Dell that we experienced on the AA350 which means the server itself probably was not the problem. After spending some time working with the sip trunk provider we were able to make some changes to sip.conf that resolved the issues with jitter and DTMF. The AA350 now sits idle in the closet. I will probably EBay the AA350 or use it for another client. <br><br>You will never catch me speaking ill of Digium. They sell an appliance that works great under ideal conditions. I am also thrilled that Digium continues to support Asterisk as an open source product. Unfortunately we live in an imperfect world and the lack of SSH control over my client's servers prevents me from recommending their server equipment. <br><br>Does this help?<br><br>David Walker<br>(602)410-3210 -0700GMT<br><br><div ><br></div><blockquote webmail="1" style="border-left: 2px solid blue; margin-left: 8px; padding-left: 8px; font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: verdana;"><div > </div> </blockquote></span></body></html>
On Wed, May 13, 2009 at 9:00 AM, Jeff LaCoursiere <jeff at jeff.net> wrote:> > I just inherited a client that is using a Switchvox system. ?I normally > install a CentOS based system with freePBX and some custom endpoint > management stuff for Polycom phones. ?This Switchvox is making me feel a > bit stifled. ?I am having nightmares of another recent encounter with > Trixbox Pro. > > Can I really not ssh into this box? ?If I could is there anything useful > that I might change without breaking things and/or endangering their > warranty or support? ?Google seems to be very quiet about customer > experiences with Switchvox. > > j >I have had many run-ins with SwitchVox. You can single user the box at boot up and create a new user with root privileges. From there, you can SSH the box and do whatever you would on a "regular" Linux box. This is a requirement as far as I am concerned, if you are going to be exposing the box to the world, which is not a "Supported" configuration. You may want to take the server down for a while and do a G4U clone before you mess with it though. -- Thanks, Steve Totaro +18887771888 (Toll Free) +12409381212 (Cell) +12024369784 (Skype)
Hey Steve, Steve Totaro wrote:> This is a requirement as far as I am concerned, if you are going to be > exposing the box to the world, which is not a "Supported" > configuration.I remember you talking about this before. Do they refuse to provide _all_ and _any_ support for the appliance categorically, if there is an SSH server running and/or it is accessible from an ordinary IP source network? Thanks, -- Alex Balashov Evariste Systems Web : http://www.evaristesys.com/ Tel : (+1) (678) 954-0670 Direct : (+1) (678) 954-0671 Mobile : (+1) (678) 237-1775