[Asterisk-biz] Epygi PBX and Asterisk

[Alex Epshteyn]

Hello,

If you are looking for an admin GUI for Astetrisk, I suggest you to give
Asterisk PBX Manager a try.

It is a Webmin module geared towards management of small/medium office PBXs,
has a simple and intuitive (or so we belive:) ) GUI, and comes with basic
configuration files that can be used as a starting point for a PBX.

Here are some screenshots http://www.thirdlane.com/screenshots.htm, you can
contact sales at thirdlane.com regarding pricing, demo, etc.

Thanks, Alex

> -----Original Message-----
> From: asterisk-biz-bounces at lists.digium.com
> [mailto:asterisk-biz-bounces at lists.digium.com]On Behalf Of Dan
> Iordanescu
> Sent: Saturday, February 12, 2005 2:15 PM
> To: Commercial and Business-Oriented Asterisk Discussion
> Subject: [Asterisk-biz] Epygi PBX and Asterisk
>
>
> Hello,
>
> I have recently started to work with a new company in the area of IP
> PBX. I am deeply impressed and I would like to let everybody know. The
> company is called Epygi, www.epygi.com. They sell special boxes, which
> deserve a detailed look. Like me, I'm sure business-oriented Asterisk
> people will be impressed.
>
> My business is selling, installing, maintaining etc IP PBXs on business
> premises. We all know how hard it is: first to educate people on the
> concept and limitless capabilities of such a system (see the earlier
> post VoIP Guide for Business People) and second the lack of a fully
> featured, user/admin friendly product. I sympathise with all people at
> the bleeding edge in this industry; when I hear their stories my scars
> itch.
>
> Epygi solves the CPE problem for an IP PBX system. Their boxes are fully
> featured (by Asterisk standards) and even more. Anybody tried the paging
> feature with Asterisk? Remember, we are only talking PBX functionality
> on customer premises here. Asterisk is an incredible system. If you are
> looking for billing, CDR processing, IAX/H323/SIP/ADSI conversion or
> database interfacing, Epygi is not the product for you. At some point I
> made plans to develop a user/admin interface for Asterisk, but it's not
> easy to do a commercial product. I tried others recommended on Asterisk
> lists, but for various reasons none of them was good enough.
>
> Epygi expands a lot on the concept started by Talkswitch. Just reading
> the Epygi website does no justice to the box. You have to either play
> with one or speak with an Epygi guy. The concept is having one or more
> boxes residing on customer premises. It can be controlled with a browser
> either from the LAN or Internet (IPSec tunnels for security). Epygi
> boxes connect either to the LAN or to the Internet. They have FXO or
> ISDN ports for the PSTN and FXS ports for POTS phones. SIP phones are
> obvious. On the Internet side they act as a full-blown broadband router
> (ADSL, G.SHDSL or Ethernet ports) doing statefull firewall, NAT, VPN
> IPSec tunnels etc.
> On the VoIP PBX side, if you install the Epygi box behind another NAT
> router it has STUN capability and the Outbound Proxy feature (used by
> FWD with the Jasomi solution). STUN doesn't always work from behind some
> symmetrical NAT routers, but the Jasomi solution works in all cases.
> As PBX features, you'll be blown away. There was nothing I could do with
> Asterisk that I can't do with this box; with no development work.
> Including fancy Voice Mail notification/checking and registration with
> multiple SIP services.
>
> Now let me point just a couple of more things that I found very
> important:
> 1. It comes with 3 detailed manuals: installation manual, administration
> manual and users manual. The users can drive it from either their phones
> or with the web browser (logging as their extension).
> 2. The product and distribution is designed with the international
> market in mind. There is a way to translate the voice prompts into any
> language (now available in English, German, French and Spanish). There
> is a support/training network which covers most countries. With
> Asterisk, I had customers in Europe reluctant to English voice prompts;
> not anymore.
> 3. Pricing? It's great. They have a choice of 5 boxes (including a SIP
> Conference Server) with different capabilities and upgrades. The
> cheapest RRP is USD595 for a box with 4 extensions and most expensive is
> RRP USD4295 for 64 extensions. The reseller/distributor discounts are
> pretty good too.
>
> As you can imagine I bought a box, played with it and loved it. Then I
> got involved in distribution in regions covered by my business. I now
> use Epygi boxes as CPEs. Asterisk server is in collocation sites for
> protocol conversion, billing or the other things where constant tweaking
> or customer access is not necessary.
> As SIP service, I use SipPhone, www.sipphone.com, which has free
> unlimited calls to PSTN in Australia and 5 calls, 5 minutes each, every
> day in 30 other countries (and growing). Good A-Z rates as well.
>
> If you want to know more either contact Epygi or I can give you details
> for who to contact in your area.
>
> Sorry for the long post. I hope you'll benefit from it as much as I did,
> Dan.
>
> _______________________________________________
> Asterisk-Biz mailing list
> Asterisk-Biz at lists.digium.com
> http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-biz
>