Hello all, I'm new here and I'm interested in building a small PBX with asterisk at home. I have one single PSTN line and ethernet cabling in place. I already have fairly decent PC that I can use (AMD FX 8350 16GB of RAM and RAID 10 SATA disks). I make and receive 10 calls a day on average. I want 4 IP phones connected to the ethernet network. When there is a incoming call, all phones must ring and the first that takes the call makes the others stop ringing, but lets them available for internal calls. Given the requirements above, what's a cheap but working PCIe card / USB adapter I could buy for this kind of PBX? Do I need things like echo cancellation? Do I need FXS ports? Thanks in advance, Lucio.
Hey Lucio, You will need a FXS port. I would recommend setting up something like Cisco SPA3102. The SPA3102 can be found cheap on Ebay, and will be easy to setup in Asterisk. http://www.infoworld.com/article/2633694/data-modeling/your-pstn-and-you--linksys-spa-3102-and-asterisk.html Once the FXS is set up, it's just a matter of adding a ring group/pickup group: http://edoceo.com/exemplar/asterisk-call-groups Regards, Tim ---- On Mon, 15 Jun 2015 16:46:13 +1000 wrote ---->Hello all, > >I'm new here and I'm interested in building a small PBX with asterisk at >home. I have one single PSTN line and ethernet cabling in place. I >already have fairly decent PC that I can use (AMD FX 8350 16GB of RAM >and RAID 10 SATA disks). I make and receive 10 calls a day on average. I >want 4 IP phones connected to the ethernet network. When there is a >incoming call, all phones must ring and the first that takes the call >makes the others stop ringing, but lets them available for internal >calls. > >Given the requirements above, what's a cheap but working PCIe card / USB >adapter I could buy for this kind of PBX? Do I need things like echo >cancellation? Do I need FXS ports? > >Thanks in advance, >Lucio. > >-- >_____________________________________________________________________ >-- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com -- >New to Asterisk? Join us for a live introductory webinar every Thurs: > http://www.asterisk.org/hello > >asterisk-users mailing list >To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: > http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users >
On Mon, Jun 15, 2015 at 04:56:31PM +1000, Tim Groeneveld wrote:> > ---- On Mon, 15 Jun 2015 16:46:13 +1000 [Lucio] wrote ---- > >Hello all, > > > >I'm new here and I'm interested in building a small PBX with asterisk at > >home. I have one single PSTN line and ethernet cabling in place. I > >already have fairly decent PC that I can use (AMD FX 8350 16GB of RAM > >and RAID 10 SATA disks). I make and receive 10 calls a day on average.You could have used a system that is a bit less powerful. But anyway, I guess that those are not that expensive nowadays. For that kind of load, even a much smaller server would do.> > I > >want 4 IP phones connected to the ethernet network. When there is a > >incoming call, all phones must ring and the first that takes the call > >makes the others stop ringing, but lets them available for internal > >calls. > > > >Given the requirements above, what's a cheap but working PCIe card / USB > >adapter I could buy for this kind of PBX? Do I need things like echo > >cancellation? Do I need FXS ports? > > You will need a FXS port. I would recommend setting up something like > Cisco SPA3102.This is a slight confusion. The SPA3102 has both an FXS and an FXO port. What you need is an FXO port - a port to connect to the PSTN as a phone. An FXS port allows you to connect an analog phone. It is something you could have used for local extensions. But you already have IP pohnes.> > The SPA3102 can be found cheap on Ebay, and will be easy to setup in Asterisk. > http://www.infoworld.com/article/2633694/data-modeling/your-pstn-and-you--linksys-spa-3102-and-asterisk.html > > Once the FXS is set up, it's just a matter of adding a ring group/pickup group: > http://edoceo.com/exemplar/asterisk-call-groupsAgain, I guess you meant the FXO port of the device. -- Tzafrir Cohen icq#16849755 jabber:tzafrir.cohen at xorcom.com +972-50-7952406 mailto:tzafrir.cohen at xorcom.com http://www.xorcom.com
On Monday 15 Jun 2015, lucio at sulweb.org wrote:> Hello all, > > I'm new here and I'm interested in building a small PBX with asterisk at > home. I have one single PSTN line and ethernet cabling in place. I > already have fairly decent PC that I can use (AMD FX 8350 16GB of RAM > and RAID 10 SATA disks). I make and receive 10 calls a day on average. I > want 4 IP phones connected to the ethernet network. When there is a > incoming call, all phones must ring and the first that takes the call > makes the others stop ringing, but lets them available for internal > calls. > > Given the requirements above, what's a cheap but working PCIe card / USB > adapter I could buy for this kind of PBX? Do I need things like echo > cancellation? Do I need FXS ports? > > Thanks in advance, > Lucio.You need an FXO port for each exchange line, and an FXS port for each analogue telephone you want to connect to the PABX. (If you want to use proper hardware SIP phones, then you don't need FXS ports.) You can get inexpensive PCI / PCIe cards which accept up to 4 modules, either FXO or FXS, from the usual place online. They are drop-in compatible with Digium cards. I would never use one of those in a mission-critical, production environment, but they are fine just for experimenting with. -- AJS Note: Originating address only accepts e-mail from list! If replying off- list, change address to asterisk1list at earthshod dot co dot uk .
On Mon, 15 Jun 2015, lucio at sulweb.org wrote:> I'm new here and I'm interested in building a small PBX with asterisk at > home. I have one single PSTN line and ethernet cabling in place. I > already have fairly decent PC that I can use (AMD FX 8350 16GB of RAM > and RAID 10 SATA disks). I make and receive 10 calls a day on average. I > want 4 IP phones connected to the ethernet network. When there is a > incoming call, all phones must ring and the first that takes the call > makes the others stop ringing, but lets them available for internal > calls. > > Given the requirements above, what's a cheap but working PCIe card / USB > adapter I could buy for this kind of PBX? Do I need things like echo > cancellation? Do I need FXS ports?I don't know this 'translates' to Italy, but this is what I would advise somebody in the US to consider, assuming you have a reliable Internet connection. 0) I hope you mean you want to run Asterisk at home instead of 'Asterisk at Home.' A at H was an ancient distribution from around 2005. 1) Rent a DID (a 'PSTN number') from a reputable SIP provider. This eliminates the need for a PCI/USB interface and you won't disrupt your 'business' while you figure out how to configure and test your Asterisk server. In the US, you can rent a DID for about $1.50 per month and about a $0.01 per minute of 'talk time.' For 10 calls per day, this should beat the hell out of a 'landline' monthly standing fee. In the US, it costs less than $20.00 to 'port' your existing number if you are really in love with it. 2) Ditch the 'room warmer' and find something really small and cheap to run. I live in San Diego and we pay $0.32 per kWh. I'd guess running your rig would cost me $50.00 to $100.00 per month just in electricity -- and probably that much again in the summer for additional Air Conditioning. Take a look at Soekris net4801. It's pretty old (but very reliable) and it's CPU will limit you on what OS you can run, but it will give you an idea of how small (and cheap to power) an 'Asterisk server' capable of handling a couple of simultaneous calls can be. For a more modern server, look for something small and cheap based on something like an Atom processor. Maybe a used laptop. If the battery is still good, you've solved your UPS problem as well. Although, if you lose power, you've probably lost your Internet connection as well so you could only make calls between extensions. 3) For the IP phones, check out ebay.com. Last year, I picked up 3 Polycom SP 501's for $20.00 each. A little dated, but a great phone. -- Thanks in advance, ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Steve Edwards sedwards at sedwards.com Voice: +1-760-468-3867 PST Newline Fax: +1-760-731-3000
On Mon, 15 Jun 2015, Steve Edwards wrote:> Although, if you lose power, you've probably lost your Internet > connection as well so you could only make calls between extensions.And you would lose the Italian equivalent of 911. In the US, everybody over the age of 6 has a cell phone stapled to the side of their head, so it is kind of a 'non-issue' :) -- Thanks in advance, ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Steve Edwards sedwards at sedwards.com Voice: +1-760-468-3867 PST Newline Fax: +1-760-731-3000
> I don't know this 'translates' to Italy, but this is what I would advise> somebody in the US to consider, assuming you have a reliable Internet > connection. > > 0) I hope you mean you want to run Asterisk at home instead of 'Asterisk> at Home.' A at H was an ancient distribution from around 2005. > > 1) Rent a DID (a 'PSTN number') from a reputable SIP provider. This > eliminates the need for a PCI/USB interface and you won't disrupt your > 'business' while you figure out how to configure and test your Asterisk > server. > > In the US, you can rent a DID for about $1.50 per month and about a$0.01> per minute of 'talk time.' For 10 calls per day, this should beat thehell> out of a 'landline' monthly standing fee. > > In the US, it costs less than $20.00 to 'port' your existing number ifyou> are really in love with it. > > 2) Ditch the 'room warmer' and find something really small and cheap to > run. I live in San Diego and we pay $0.32 per kWh. I'd guess runningyour> rig would cost me $50.00 to $100.00 per month just in electricity -- and> probably that much again in the summer for additional Air Conditioning. > > Take a look at Soekris net4801. It's pretty old (but very reliable) and > it's CPU will limit you on what OS you can run, but it will give you an > idea of how small (and cheap to power) an 'Asterisk server' capable of > handling a couple of simultaneous calls can be. > > For a more modern server, look for something small and cheap based on > something like an Atom processor. Maybe a used laptop. If the battery is> still good, you've solved your UPS problem as well. Although, if youlose> power, you've probably lost your Internet connection as well so youcould> only make calls between extensions. > > 3) For the IP phones, check out ebay.com. Last year, I picked up 3Polycom> SP 501's for $20.00 each. A little dated, but a great phone.I gotta agree with most all of this. Asterisk has been shown to run on a Raspberry Pi and the Raspberry Pi 2 and will handle a few simultaneous calls. Another resource is http://www.plugpbx.org/ For home use, I would think either would be a good low power way to run Asterisk. Unless you just really need the land line, ditch the analog line and go voip from start to finish. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://lists.digium.com/pipermail/asterisk-users/attachments/20150615/6b103c69/attachment.html>
lucio at sulweb.org
2015-Jun-16 07:52 UTC
[asterisk-users] small pbx for the office [it was: small homebrew pbx]
Steve Edwards wrote:> 0) I hope you mean you want to run Asterisk at home instead of > 'Asterisk at Home.' A at H was an ancient distribution from around 2005.Yes of course I didn't mean an ancient distro from 2005.> > 1) Rent a DID (a 'PSTN number') from a reputable SIP provider. This > eliminates the need for a PCI/USB interface and you won't disrupt your > 'business' while you figure out how to configure and test your > Asterisk server.That's not possible in many areas here in Italy, including the place where I live. The national Telco (Telecom Italia) owns the last mile almost everyehere and other companies do not invest money to bring their cables outside large cities. Telecom Italia does not offer data only plans to private customers in rural areas.> 2) Ditch the 'room warmer' and find something really small and cheap > to run. I live in San Diego and we pay $0.32 per kWh. I'd guess > running your rig would cost me $50.00 to $100.00 per month just in > electricityMy rig is already running a bunch of other things and it must stay powered for other reasons, so that's not an issue. However, your suggestions made me consider your solution not for me, but for a friend who is moving his office to a new place, hence the new subject of this message. For him, the requisites would be quite similar to what I need at home, except: 1. the whole thing becomes mission critical, he obviously can't accept random hangups of the telephony system at work 2. the calls in a day raise to about 50, but he still has only one POTS line with two numbers, one for voice and one for fax (ehm, yes, in 2015 in Italy someone still uses the fax...). However the faxes are rare and can be handled by the traditional fax machine he already owns. 3. I think he could actually move everything to SIP only, but I need to double check that with him to be sure, so I assume a "no" here for the time being 4. He already has the server, even more powerful than mine (some dual Xeon with 64GB of RAM and a bunch of Terabyes of RAID storage...) 5. there are 20 phones in his office, instead of the 4 phones at my home, but the model is the same (they all ring on incoming calls and the 1st off hook takes the call, while the others can still make internal calls) Now the question is: given the modified requirements above, is the linksys spa3102 a reasonable solution?
On 15/06/15 07:46, lucio at sulweb.org wrote:> Hello all, > > > Given the requirements above, what's a cheap but working PCIe card / USB > adapter I could buy for this kind of PBX? Do I need things like echo > cancellation? Do I need FXS ports? > > Thanks in advance, > Lucio. >I would get hold of some lower-power hardware, that system seems hugely over-specified for what you want to do. A raspberry pi & a Cisco SPA-3102 would be a good solution. Cisco don't make the 3102 any more but there are still plenty of them around. I believe Grandstream still make ATAs as well but I've never thought very highly of them. As others have said, it's an FXO port you need. You want to avoid transcoding on low power hardware such as a raspberry pi so set everything for a codec such as g711a or g711u (Asterisk, the IP phones you use and the SPA3102).