asterisk users - Nov 2010 - Asterisk, VoIP and Samsung iDCS100

Hi,

Firstly, I'm new to Asterisk and am a system admin rather than a phone
engineer. I've googled and read around but haven't been able to answer
my questions sufficiently to buy hardware and get this thing set up.

Secondly, if I've missed vital information from what is below, please let me
know what.

Onward...:

So, what I'm trying to solve us remote working. We're a small company,
less than 10 employees, with a few of us moving to working from home. We have
VPN access to the office already set up. In the office we have a Samsung iDCS100
hooked up externally to a couple of ISDN/2 lines (BRI I believe these are
termed) and an analogue line. Internally we have standard Samsung extensions,
mostly digital though we do have an analogue extension card.

What I'd like to add on is the ability to hook up VoIP (SIP?) phones
(software, hardware) and have them treated by the Samsung as extensions. Then we
could transfer calls from the Samsung to the remote VoIP phones or have the VoIP
phones make external calls via the Samsung. We'd run the VoIP connections
over the VPN for security and minimise exposure.

I think (am unsure hence the questions) that this can be done in the following
ways:

1. Add analogue card(s) to the computer to run Asertisk and treat them as
analogue extensions in the Samsung. Statically route each extension to a VoIP
handset/user.

2. Add BRI card(s) to the computer to run Asterisk and somehow hook up the
Samsung.

3. Other ways? Would a digital extension card in the computer solve the
one-to-one analogue problem?

As you can see I'm lacking in a lot of knowledge here and need to ramp up
fairly quickly. Pointers are all I need really, I'm willing to learn and
read docs. The company we used to install the Samsung and cable up for us just
wanted to sell us a newer Samsung and were of no help.

If anyone has done something similar and can share the basic of how they did it,
I'd be eternally grateful. Specifically what's the best way hardware
wise of hooking up the Asterisk computer to the Samsung and in rough terms, how
do I configure it (the Samsung PBX especially).

What phone card hardware should I buy for the Asterisk computer to make this
work?

If I've missed docs where this is written up feel free to point me in the
right direction.

Thanks.

Ronny
-- 
Ronny Adsetts
Technical Director
Amazing Internet Ltd, London
t: +44 20 8607 9535
f: +44 20 8607 9536
w: www.amazinginternet.com

Registered office: UK House, 82 Heath Road, Twickenham TW1 4BW
Registered in England. Company No. 4042957 


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On Tue, Nov 02, 2010 at 04:13:01PM +0000, Ronny Adsetts wrote:
>3. Other ways?
It all rather depends on what your proprietary system has been set up to do. (If
you didn't already have the Samsung box, you wouldn't need to buy one.)
Dedicated telephony hardware tends to be restricted in all sorts of perverse
ways to try to make you buy more from the same manufacturer; that'll be your
biggest problem.

Ideally you would be able to tell your iDCS100 "there are multiple VoIP
phones at this IP address", and connect to the Asterisk server over the
LAN. How you would go about that, I have no idea; I suspect "SIP IP
Trunking" is what Samsung calls this feature. The more work you can  shoft
onto the Asterisk server, the cleaner this will all be.

In this scenario, the Asterisk server just has a normal network card in it, and
you shift all your VoIP traffic over the LAN and VPN.

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On Tue, 2 Nov 2010, Ronny Adsetts wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Firstly, I'm new to Asterisk and am a system admin rather than a phone 
> engineer. I've googled and read around but haven't been able to
answer
> my questions sufficiently to buy hardware and get this thing set up.
>
> Secondly, if I've missed vital information from what is below, please 
> let me know what.
Throw away the Samsung and go for a pure Asterisk solution.
> Onward...:
>
> So, what I'm trying to solve us remote working. We're a small
company,
> less than 10 employees, with a few of us moving to working from home. We 
> have VPN access to the office already set up. In the office we have a 
> Samsung iDCS100 hooked up externally to a couple of ISDN/2 lines (BRI I 
> believe these are termed) and an analogue line. Internally we have 
> standard Samsung extensions, mostly digital though we do have an 
> analogue extension card.
With lots of remote workers you need a hosted solution - that'll save your 
office ADSL line b/w when the remote workers make/take calls.
> What I'd like to add on is the ability to hook up VoIP (SIP?) phones 
> (software, hardware) and have them treated by the Samsung as extensions. 
> Then we could transfer calls from the Samsung to the remote VoIP phones 
> or have the VoIP phones make external calls via the Samsung. We'd run 
> the VoIP connections over the VPN for security and minimise exposure.
That's the hard way. Just scrap it and replace it completely.
> I think (am unsure hence the questions) that this can be done in the 
> following ways:
>
> 1. Add analogue card(s) to the computer to run Asertisk and treat them 
> as analogue extensions in the Samsung. Statically route each extension 
> to a VoIP handset/user.
So incoming via ISDN, Samsung converts to analogue, PC converts to VoIP 
and then out again - it'll work (maybe), but it's a huge waste of 
resources.
> 2. Add BRI card(s) to the computer to run Asterisk and somehow hook up 
> the Samsung.
Do-able. Connect Asterisk to your ISDN2, then host the Samsung off the 
asterisk box. But then, might as well dump the Samsung and just put VoIP 
phones on everyones desks.
> 3. Other ways? Would a digital extension card in the computer solve the 
> one-to-one analogue problem?
Just throw it out.
> As you can see I'm lacking in a lot of knowledge here and need to ramp 
> up fairly quickly. Pointers are all I need really, I'm willing to learn
> and read docs. The company we used to install the Samsung and cable up 
> for us just wanted to sell us a newer Samsung and were of no help.
Precisely - they want to tie you into a 7-year contract rather than let 
you be free and easy.

Personally, I'd run a 2nd BT line in, put ADSL on it and use that for 
VoIP, then port your lines into VoIP. Even better would be to use a hosted 
service - especially for that number of staff and remote staff. No faffing 
with VPNs either.
> If anyone has done something similar and can share the basic of how they 
> did it, I'd be eternally grateful. Specifically what's the best way
> hardware wise of hooking up the Asterisk computer to the Samsung and in 
> rough terms, how do I configure it (the Samsung PBX especially).
Really, just think about replacing the lot. It will save you endless 
headaches and sleepless nights in the long-term.

If you want to DIY it, it's less than ?1000 of hardware including the 
Linux box to run it on. Or you can buy a pre-built solution, or go hosted, 
or "get a man in" to do it for you - although you'll likely end up
paying
more, but at least you'll get support. Porting the numbers and dumping 
both the ISDN2 and Samsung will save you money in the long-run though.

Gordon

Hi!
> > 2. Add BRI card(s) to the computer to run Asterisk and somehow hook 
> > up the Samsung.
>
> Do-able. Connect Asterisk to your ISDN2, then host the Samsung off the
> asterisk box. But then, might as well dump the Samsung and just put
> VoIP phones on everyones desks. 
If you decide to go down this route: You would need a 4-port ISDN card 
(since 2-port ISDN cards are hard to come by) in order to allow for 
direct bridging of ISDN-ISDN calls IF you want to operate an anlog fax on 
the Samsung. "direct" here means that the call will not travel through
the Asterisk core.

Side note: Stay away from solutions that use mISDN, instead go with 
Zaptel (DAHDI), Woomera or CAPI.

Another way to go is to use an external ISDN gateway (Patton, for 
example), which will spare you from a lot of kernel & driver update 
headaches in the following years.

If you are planning on moving an anlog to an Asterisk-only solution on 
medium term, then consider to a) keep the Samsung for fax operation, or 
b) look at an ISDN card that has an option to sync an anlogue telephony 
card of the same vendor to the clock of the ISDN card (typically using a 
special but simple card-to-card cable).

Philipp