Some newbie asterisk questions

fitzrik1

Hi there,

I'm looking at possibly setting up an asterisk server as a pbx for my uncle's business.

I've never set one up before and have a couple of questions.

It will be functioning mainly as a standard pbx connecting to eircom. VOIP will be nice as an extra but will not be the primary function.

Eircom will be providing an isdn line for two phone lines. There will be a separate dsl line for internet.

Does teh isdn effectively give two normal pots lines? Can I ignore the fact that it is isdn and just assume two analogue lines? Do i therefore need two fxo cards in the server?

On the office side there will be 3/4 phones. Do i get voip phones like the snom 320? Do I then just plug these into the network? Is there any reason to get an fxs card/ports? Am I right in thinking this is for analogue phones and therefore in this case not needed. When would one need analogue phones?

Hopefully I'll get some answers. Thansk for reading this far

Richard

joePC

You should downgrade the ISDN to 2 standard PSTN lines.

Get yourself a Digium TDM02B 2x FXO

The Snom 320 is a good phone, I'd also recommend the Polycomm 501 and some cisco models.

The phones use SIP to connect to the asterisk box so a standard LAN connection.

Are you doing a vanilla asterisk or are you using a distro?

fitzrik1

Thanks for your reply Joe

Why do I have to downgrade the ISDN? Why do eircom do that anyway? Would the two normal lines cost more?

I'd use a distro. I guess trixbox looks likethe best bet with asterisknow still being in beta.

Thanks again for your answers

joePC

You could get an ISDN card for your asterisk box but there
expensive and are hassle you dont need.

Downgrading the ISDN to 2x PSTN shouldnt be an issue but it may cost a little extra per month.

Trixbox is getting more & more stable just make sure your hardware is 100% compatable with CentOS / RedHat - especially your RAID controller.

Good luck you will learn alot doing this.

fitzrik1

Thanks again Joe. I'll have a look at it.

Jackz

DEFF avoid the hastle and expense of a BRI card if you are only going to require two lines in the near future. I was unlucky in that my asterisk setup required a set of DDI's over ISDN to be configured on the server. If the only thing you are doing over ethernet is connecting to the phones your life will e all the more easier no messing with nats port forwarding etc to connect to the voip service. Accessing the server from home using softphones, hardphones and the e61i to use the VOIP and ISDN Trunks is fantastic since we contact the US so much. Also we used the Snom 320 phones and they have been great so far still exploring features and ways of setting up phonebook as time goes on.