[Asterisk-Users] ISDN BRI hardware

[Steve Haehnichen]

-=> On Sun, 21 Sep 2003 14:43:47 -0700, "Mark Hagler" <pbx at hagler.org> said:

> Hi,
> Anybody have lots of experience with PCI ISDN cards and Asterisk?   I'm
> thinking of getting a BRI in my house to deliver more advanced signaling to
> my PBX (yes, I'm a geek :-)) but I've never played with isdn4linux.

I tried to do the same here, and it looks like there are quite a few
flavors of ISDN.  The least-supported in Linux seems to be "National"
ISDN (NI-1, NI-2), what I get here in North America.  I'm guessing
you're in the same boat, right?

> Is there any particular BRI card that works better with Asterisk
> than any other?

So far, I've tried Dynalink, HFC-S, and Fritz! AVM PCI.. none has
worked correctly with Linux/Asterisk, and I suspect it's an i4l
problem with National ISDN.  The incoming Caller-ID is always zero,
even though I can see the text right there in the SETUP messages.  So
far, I haven't been able to complete a call.

Others have had better luck with the CAPI drivers instead of i4l, but
most CAPI drivers are binary only and support only EuroISDN.

Klaus-Peter Junghanns suggested the "Eicon Diva Server BRI" active
card as having Linux CAPI drivers with NI-1 support.  Those cards are
not cheap.. $520 at TheNerds.net.

The Passive BRI cards are dirt cheap, under $5 on eBay, so I'm still
motivated to make them work.

> Also, can the BRI interface cards participate in conference, etc.,
> since they aren't a Zaptel interface?

I could be wrong, but I read one reference that said you can have
conferences so long as there is one Zaptel card in the machine
somewhere (for timing?).  You can use other cards for your trunk.  I'm
sure someone can jump in and correct me.

In any case, it sounds like we're trying to do similar things.  The
new low prices on ISDN BRI makes them very attractive here.  I
especially like getting the CallerID data before the phone rings, and
being able to bring up a call in milliseconds.

Asterisk is a great match to ISDN BRI, since we are only allowed one
phone handset per SPID -- two total.  Deploying more phones throughout
the house/office really begs for a small PBX like Asterisk and some
SIP phones.  That's the vision, anyway.

-Steve