3com Solution 2

[3Sixty]

One of my colleagues has recommended a 3com solution but I have no idea of what I am looking for. I have some experience in other phone systems but know very little about 3com. Can someone tell me if it can have 300 extensions and if so can someone give me a budget price of what I should be aiming for so I do not get ripped off. I am in the UK. We are looking for 300 ip phones with voicemail and ISDN30

Thanks

Marshall

 

[engjohn]

3Com make great Voice solutions, but a little more info is needed to make a suggestion on price...

Do you require SIP?
Single or Multi site?
Redundancy in Call Processor?

Your best bet is to find a 3Com certified reseller in your area to do a site assessment.

That being said... Here is an estimate on prices in USD...
300 3102 Phones ~$60,000
300 Group2 Licenses ~$25,000
V3001R Call processor ~$10,000 (with RAID and 2PSU)
Expansion Chassis and ISDN Card ~$4000
Voicemail upgrade ~$8000

All said, Hardware around ~$110,000.00
These prices are estimates based on what I have seen... It does not include volume discounts, install, etc...

 

[3Sixty]

I am looking for a multisite solution with 5 small sites and 1 centralised site. I would like to have some form of unified communications. I have seen that alot of the phone systems can interlink with outlook and determine if you are in a meeting etc.

There would be Sip requirements.
Redundancy would be ideal but again price might determine this requirement.
I would like some form of fallback for the small sites.

Thanks
Marshall

 

[engjohn]

Well remote site survivability will require more hardware and more $$

Do you have SIP equipment that you want to integrate, or want to do SIP trunking? Otherwise, 3com's native protocol might work and save you money.
When upgrading to SIP on an NBX you can no longer use the integrated voicemail and require their IP Messaging server.

The VCX Line is SIP native, but is also more expensive.
The VCX Connect 100 is the base model which is around $5000 I believe with support to 25 phones and mailboxes. It also supports redundancy.

To have remote site survivability, you will need a Network Call Processor at each site.

There are many software packages to integrate with the 3com voice systems. It sounds like the 3com Presence Module would give you what you are looking for.

There are so many different options and ways to solve your needs that you should contact your local 3Com reseller to come onsite and give a demo of the equipment. Most should have demo systems that will give you a look and feel of the system.

The 3Com system is a great system and can do everything you want...

You can always post info on the quoted system for review...

 

[3Sixty]

Thanks again John

 

[cyberspace]

What platform does your servers run on?

Aswell as VCX Connect, VCX can also be ran on IBM's System X servers and also on System I.

If you have an existing System I then spare capacity can be utilized if there are enough resources.

VCX runs on Linux (it's a hardened red-hat kernel, aptly named vcx-linux.

You could run this on a virtualized platform or on a dedicated box.

Are you wanting to run 300 phones on a single ISDN 30? You need to take concurrent calls into consideration, and also the WAN links between sites.

3Com's VCX is fully backed by IBM.

'When all else fails.......read the manual'

 

[cknipe]

I would definately go VCX over NBX....that is unless you are a Multicast Routing Expert. Biggest flaw of the nbx in my opinion is its use of multicast. Multicast are tough to manage in a WAN environment.

 

[engjohn]

It does take special routers to handle the multicast, for remote offices on the NBX but it is not that difficult to manage. The router needs to support Multicast routing and PIM DM.

easy cheap setup, 2X 3036 routers ~450.00 each
Setup a GRE tunnel and encapsulate in IPSec.
And you could get away without IPSec, and just use GRE if you are not worried about security...
You just need the high encryption firmware.

Takes me about 15 minutes to setup the 2 routers for GRE or GRE/IPSec.

 

[cyberspace]

That sounds interesting engjohn.

Do you have any links to documentation for that? Because that could be very handy in my job!

'When all else fails.......read the manual'

 

[engjohn]

Below is a working config for one of my setups. The IP address on the tunnel does not need to be real (1.1.1.1 LA - 1.1.1.2 remote) it is used by the tunnel to forward traffic.





#
#3Com Router Software Extended_V2.41.00.P01
#
sysname LosAngeles
#
configure-user count 2
#
clock timezone Pacific minus 08:00:00
#
firewall enable
#
multicast routing-enable
#
DNS resolve
DNS server 66.75.160.15
DNS server 66.75.160.16
#
web set-package force flash:/http.zip
#
radius scheme system
#
domain system
#
local-user admin
password cipher <YOUROWNENCPASSWORD>
service-type telnet terminal
level 3
service-type ftp
#
ike proposal 1
encryption-algorithm 3des-cbc
dh group2
sa duration 3600
#
ike proposal 2
encryption-algorithm 3des-cbc
dh group2
authentication-algorithm md5
#
ike dpd keepalive
interval-time 5
time-out 3
#
ike peer remote
pre-shared-key 1234567890
remote-name Remote
remote-address <REMOTE_WAN_IP>
local-address <LOCAL_WAN_IP>
dpd keepalive
#
ipsec proposal ipsecproposal
transform ah-esp
ah authentication-algorithm sha1
esp authentication-algorithm sha1
esp encryption-algorithm aes 128
#
ipsec proposal tran1
encapsulation-mode transport
esp authentication-algorithm sha1
#
ipsec policy ipsectunnel 10 isakmp
security acl 3003
pfs dh-group2
ike-peer remote
proposal tran1 ipsecproposal
#
traffic classifier NBX_Voice operator and
if-match acl 3000
#
traffic behavior NBX_Voice
queue ef bandwidth 512 cbs 1500
#
qos policy NBX_Voice
classifier NBX_Voice behavior NBX_Voice
#
acl number 2000
rule 0 permit source 192.168.0.0 0.0.0.255
rule 1 deny
acl number 2001
rule 0 permit source 224.0.1.0 0.0.0.255
#
acl number 3000
rule 0 permit udp source-port range 2093 2096
rule 1 permit tcp source-port eq 1040
rule 2 permit udp source-port eq 1040
rule 3 permit udp source-port eq 1025
acl number 3003
rule 0 permit ip
rule 1 permit icmp
acl number 3333
description External_Blocked_Ports
rule 0 deny udp destination-port eq tftp
rule 1 deny tcp destination-port eq 135
rule 2 deny udp destination-port eq 135
rule 3 deny udp destination-port eq netbios-ns
rule 4 deny udp destination-port eq netbios-dgm
rule 5 deny tcp destination-port eq 139
rule 6 deny udp destination-port eq netbios-ssn
rule 7 deny tcp destination-port eq 445
rule 8 deny udp destination-port eq 445
rule 9 deny tcp destination-port eq 539
rule 10 deny udp destination-port eq 539
rule 11 deny tcp destination-port eq 593
rule 12 deny udp destination-port eq 593
rule 13 deny udp destination-port eq 1434
rule 14 deny tcp destination-port eq 4444
#
interface Aux0
async mode flow
#
interface Ethernet1/0
description LAN
ip address <LAN_IP> <SUBNETMASK>
ip multicast-policy route-policy Voice
igmp enable
pim dm
#
interface Ethernet1/1
#
interface Ethernet1/2
#
interface Ethernet1/3
#
interface Ethernet1/4
#
interface Ethernet2/0
speed 10
duplex half
description INTERNET
ip address <LOCAL_IP> <SUBNETMASK>
firewall packet-filter 3333 inbound
nat outbound 2000
igmp enable
ipsec policy ipsectunnel
pim dm
#
interface Tunnel1
description GRE_TO_ATL
ip address 1.1.1.1 255.255.255.248
ip multicast-policy route-policy voice
rip version 2 multicast
source <LOCAL_IP>
destination <REMOTE_IP>
igmp enable
pim dm
#
interface NULL0
#
route-policy Voice permit node 1
if-match acl 2001
#
pim
#
FTP server enable
#
ip route-static 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 <GATEWAY_IP> preference 60
ip route-static <REMOTE_NETWORK> <SUBNETMASK> Tunnel 1 preference 60
#
user-interface con 0
user-interface aux 0
user-interface vty 0 4
authentication-mode scheme
#
return

 

[cyberspace]

thanks for that! very useful

'When all else fails.......read the manual'