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Version of Asterisk 1

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Sympology

Sympology

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Jan 6, 2004
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Totally new to Asterisk and I'm looking to integrate with exisiting setups.

We mainly use Verticals Televantage, but it has shortcomings (no T.38, poor followme) etc etc.

So looking at using Asterisk as a "fill" server, to do Faxes, central registrations (proxing), conferencing.

It will be pure SIP connected to Audiocodes Mediant 2000's for breakout to the PSTN.

However I'm stuck on the version to look at.
Trixbox (pro), AsteriskNow or just Asterisk.

I have virtually no Linux experience, but we have a few guys certifed in Red Hat who I could call on, but they are very busy, so ideally simple would be good.

Also does it store the database in a file? That way could I back up the file and do quick image restores if required?

I know it may be apples and pears, but I want simple to use, but expandable if required.

Thanks in advance,
Stu..

Only the truly stupid believe they know everything.
Stu.. 2004
 
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If you are not good with Linux but still want to use Asterisk I would have a look at Trixbox CE. It is pretty easy to configure through it's web based management interface (FreePBX) and has many other features including ARI (Asterisk Recording Interface) for web access to voicemail and recorded calls, and Web-Meetme for conference management. You shouldn't have to logon directly to Linux for too much if you use this.

It's also been around for quite and is pretty mature a product. It keeps all of it's configuation in a MySQL database so you can backup Trixbox by backing up this database. Infact Trixbox can be set to back itself up and you can just take a copy of the tar file created by it's backup routine.

I use Trixbox myself and it works very well.


Lee Mason
Optimal Projects Ltd
 
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I would agree with the above posting. The other option which is gaining some ground is Elastix. Similar to Trixbox, but adds a fax server and call center module.
 
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We use the latest version of elastix with no problems. I have recently looked at trixbox, but im not going to be switching. Elastix has a lot of features that trixbox doesnt, and elastix also has a Collaboration server built-in and our employees love it because its easier to communicate in the office now.

Wm. Reynolds
Premise Communications
Texas Public Safety Solutions


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Ok I may take a look at these.
I like the idea of an inbuilt fax server, but another question.
Is one better for scaling up and clustering (I've read it's pretty hard to do).

Initially we may have just 50 or so users, but as we have a total of 2000 employees we may have to do some trickery.

The future may be.

1500 or so based centerally (or on high speed MAN), then the other in offices of varying sizes. These will be independant offices (own ISDN's in), but would be nice if personal status (out of office etc) could be seen across all sites. Is this sort of thing possible?



Only the truly stupid believe they know everything.
Stu.. 2004
 
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The scalability comes with Asterisk itself. You could in the future split the system so that certain jobs are handled by certain servers. This can be implemented by switching servers in the dialplans and having trunks between the servers.

For example, your T1/E1 lines could be handled by one or two frontend servers. Phones might registered to a couple of backend servers (or you could use SER - SIP Express Router - for purely SIP phone traffic). You could move voicemail off onto a separate Asterisk server and even have a separate conference bridge server. It's all possible with Asterisk.


Lee Mason
Optimal Projects Ltd
 
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A lot of redundancy can be built into the server itself. Power supplies and mirrored hard drives etc. If you are connecting multiple Asterisk based systems together, I do not believe you will see an off hook status between sites, but if a couple of phones are remotely connecting to your local Asterisk server, yes, no problem.

There are threads talking about Asterisk on a cluster, but have not really followed up on it.
 
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Sounds good, have to start looking into it....



Only the truly stupid believe they know everything.
Stu.. 2004
 
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Not well at all. We have just bought 2 new company's out, closing one site, merging two others,relocated 4 deppartments, moving a major department to a different floor. So for the next few months, all hell is breaking loose.
Shame was hoping to get my teeth into it!

Only the truly stupid believe they know everything.
Stu.. 2004
 
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If using PoE Switches, check out the max load. Many Cisco ones I've found don't provide enough power for a busy system, so (although I tend not to deploy them), I've found inline power much better.
We've used these before and they are pretty solid.

Only the truly stupid believe they know everything.
Stu.. 2004
 
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It can depend on the endpoint. I know we specc'd up several Cisco's and they wern't up to delivering the power to 48 Aastra 9133i's / Switch.

Only the truly stupid believe they know everything.
Stu.. 2004
 
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Polycom, Cisco, and Mitel are great ip phones. Aastra phones appear to be getting better, Linksys phones appear to be getting worse.
 
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We have now about 1000+ Aastra 9133i's in use. In 2 years we've had 3 totally fail on us. Some the firware screws up, but have recovered these no problem.
The sopmetime loose there configs which is a pain, but we can live with it.

We've found them to be about the most durable phones we've ever used.

Only the truly stupid believe they know everything.
Stu.. 2004
 
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