[Asterisk-Users] Re: Some questions about Asterisk and reliability

[Anton Tinchev]

Gabe Bourque wrote:

> Hello Anton Tinchev,
> 
> I'm writing to you in hopes you can answer a few questions regarding
> Asterisk/Digium and it's reliability.  I saw your posting in the
> Asterisk mailing list (Re: [Asterisk-Users] Is Asterisk ready for "real"
> use?) and decided to write directly to you.  The reason being that you
> are one of only a few people who have mentioned that they actually have
> Asterisk running in a production environment and have for some time.  I
There are MUCH PPLS running asterisk on production enviroment. More than you can imagine.
> hope you don't mind me emailing you directly. If so, I apologize.
You're welcome.
> 
> I guess my biggest question is simply the reliability of Asterisk and
> Digium cards as a whole.  At the moment we are looking at implementing a
> production system using a quad fxs card and four fxo cards (more or
> less).  I'm aware of some of the issues with the fxs cards and the fact
> that a revised version of the card is due out sometime soon.  Have you
> had issues with these cards or the fxo cards?  How has your experience
> been with the hardware overall and its reliability?  For example demand
> on the pc, etc.
Don't use FXO cards at all. Just convert your lines into ISDN. Isdn cards
are cheaper and has more features. Any ISDN card that is supperted by isdn4linux
must work, but I recommend you "Sedlbauer" chipset based.
Digium FXS cards are great.
> 
> I have looked at Asterisk for a little while now and it's reliability
> isn't as much a concern as the hardware's but how have you found it's
> reliability, performance, and management?  
Management is great. Reability is great too. The is some issues only with
h.323, proprietary codecs...., but if you don't use h.323 and/or g.729 codec
everything is great. Performance? It depends of what are you doing.
But sub $200 ebay machine (brand pentoium 3 1G 256 Ram) is enough.
I running it under IBM 266 Pentium II/48MB with 4 ISDN channels (2 cards), 1 LineJack, some
incomming SIP calls from Cisco AS5350. For FXS(office phones) I use 1 Ata 186, 2 Audicodes FXO gateway (4 ports)
and several PCs with gnophone and headsets. No problems at all.
> 
> I'm also interested in some of the overall issues you've faced in
> running Asterisk in a call center environment.
Only configuring a kernel to get ztdummy.o module running (for MoH and conference).
Call queues works great. Only you need little hacking to get information from call queues to the agents.
(Agents a brainless peaples by default and it is hard to understand anything from text terminal :)).
If you wonna make bigger call center, just get T1 Trunk.
> 
> Thank you for your time.  It is greatly appreciated.
> 
> - Gabe Bourque
> 
> gabe at indosoft.ca
> 
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