[Asterisk-Users] Re: New PBX Help

[Jason Kawakami]

> Message: 2
> Date: Wed, 07 Jul 2004 09:34:42 -0400
> From: Mike Wagner <mike at woco-k12.org>
> To: asterisk-users at lists.digium.com
> Subject: [Asterisk-Users] New PBX Help
> Reply-To: asterisk-users at lists.digium.com
>
> 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.

Asterisk is a great low cost solution to small office telephone
communictions if you are interested in doing something different or special
for your phones.

After 10+ years in the telecom world this really is the first system that
could be called the last phone system you will ever need to buy.  I would
never put anything but Asterisk in any business that I had control of.

That being said, if your old system was set up 'square', meaning you had
line appearances on your phones and keys that represented features etc.,
Asterisk may not be the best choice from a user perspective or a cost
perspective.  Small KSU's like panasonic or comdial are inexpensive enough
to buy and get the feature set you need for about the same cost of
server/digium hardware.  Then there is the installation and maintenance of
the new system.  you state that you know nothing about phone systems, what
about Linux? do you want to keep it that way?  If so, Asterisk probably
isn't the best choice for you.

Good luck


Jason Kawakami

Optellabs
>
> Any help is greatly appreciated.
>
> Thanks!
>
> -Mike Wagner
> MCCESC