[Asterisk-Users] New PBX Help

[Roger Gulbranson]

On Wed, 2004-07-07 at 09:34, Mike Wagner wrote:
> Hi All,
> 
> We recently had an old office building burn down.  The office housed 
> maybe 20-30 people.  Only about 10 or so of those had their own 
> extensions.   We had a standard pbx from an area communications company, 
> and I'm not quite sure about what kind of phone lines were there, I only 
> know that their were actually 3 phone numbers, but everyone could get an 
> outside line if they needed to.
> 
> We're looking at moving to a new building, and I would like to use 
> Asterisk, because I feel it would be cheaper than purchasing a pbx.  Is 
> there any reccomendations as to how I might set this up???   Keep in 
> mind that I know next to nothing about pbx's and phone systems.
> 
> Any help is greatly appreciated.

Asterisk has a very steep learning curve, so you need to be prepared to
do a fair amount of research on your part.

The best places are Google and the Wiki
(http://www.voip-info.org/wiki-Asterisk).  Also check out the links on
the bottom of the page at http://www.asterisk.org/index.php?menu=support

For a small implementation, you can use the 4-port FXO module
(http://www.digium.com/index.php?menu=wildcard_tdm400p2) to get to 4
outside lines (FXO -- Foreign Exchange Office).  While it will cost a
bit more I think you will find SIP phones to be the best for use as
phones -- assuming you have a good office network to plug everything
into.

Note that your mileage may vary (YMMV) when asking newbee questions on
the mailing list.  The folks who are most knowledgeable tend to be a
little burned out on answering questions.  Make sure you have done your
research before asking a question.  In many cases the archives *will*
already have the same question and answer(s) in it and many responses
will tend to push you towards them.

Good luck.  Asterisk can handle your problem assuming you put the right
amount of effort into it.