[Asterisk-Users] Is Asterisk ready for "real" use?

[Adam Goryachev]

> On Wed, 20 Aug 2003, Scott Lambert wrote:
> > On Wed, Aug 20, 2003 at 12:13:07PM -0500, Dave Weis wrote:
> > > On Wed, 20 Aug 2003, Mike Ciholas wrote:
> > > > I am facing a move in two months to newly renovated space.  I
> > > > have to decide *this week* between:
> > > > A) Pull LAN and phone cables, prepare to move and expand our
> > > > "traditional" PBX (Panasonic KX-TD1232 and VPS200).
> > > > or
> > > > B) Pull only LAN cables, go VoIP, use Asterisk as PBX.
> > >
> > > Hedge your bets, pull two cables, and try asterisk.

Always pull more cable than you need, never pull 2 pair cable anymore, make
it cat5e at least with RJ45 connectors. It's going to be worth it in the
end!

Anyway, to answer the real question... today, If I needed to build a small
system based around X100P's and the TDM40B's, it would probably take a few
days to get it working the way that was required... (from installing linux
to having a working system might only be 3 hours though)...

I have a working, usable system based on asterisk CVS since Jan this year.
Initially it had really bad echo problems, and DTMF over voice problems, but
those slowly got fixed (disable DTMF on ISDN lines, and move from ATA186 to
TDM40B). I've had plenty of other issues, and the system still isn't ideal,
but it works for inbound/outbound calls, after hours call divert to my
mobile, etc... Occassionally it dies (some or all extensions stop working)
which sometimes requires a reboot (now that I think about it, haven't needed
reboots recently, maybe thats been fixed...).

Really, once I find a stable version, I stick with it and ignore asterisk.
When it crashes, I take the opportunity to do another cvsupdate, and hope
the problem has been fixed, or when I want a new feature, I do the same....
Recently I've done that for the AgentCallbackLogin feature...

So, I'd say go asterisk, but be aware you might need some time to get it
working the way you want, but the main thing is that over time, you will get
more than enough features to do whatever you like, and those features will
be very stable. Compared to any 'normal' pbx, you might get a bug fix
software update once in a while, but I doubt they give you a bunch of new
features for free each time :)

Regards,
Adam