[Asterisk-Users] PCI-PRI cards - what to buy????

[Scott Laird]

On Apr 8, 2005, at 9:12 AM, Maik Hassel wrote:
>
> Hello everybody!
>
> Does anybody have any recommondations for single port PRI cards that 
> work tohether with Asterisk? I have a system running using orinary 
> analog lines right now and we are thinking of switching over. I have 
> no idea what a "good price" would be or "what to pay attention to" 
> when buying a card (okokok - I know the linux side of course).

For one PRI, you really only have two choices.  You can either get a 
TE110P from Digium or an A101 from Sangoma.  They both list for $600 
US, although the Sangoma may be available for less from resellers.  The 
cheapest price that I've seen is $450 from Soekris, but it's unclear if 
they'll sell the A101 by itself, or only bundled with their hardware.  
Most other vendors want around $550 for the card.

There was a review of Sangoma's 4-port A104 card here a day or two ago. 
  The general gist seems to be:

1.  Sangoma's hardware is better-built, compatible with more hardware, 
and more capable.
2.  Digium's Asterisk drivers are better.

The Sangoma card has problems with voice on non-PRI T1, but they've 
been very responsive to people's techsupport requests.  I have a 
Sangoma ADSL card and I can vouch for their techsupport people--they're 
fast and they know what they're talking about.  It sounds like Sangoma 
really wants their cards to work well with Asterisk, and are being very 
responsive to bug reports.  I wouldn't be too worried about using the 
A101 with a PRI, as long as you have a few weeks that you can spend 
shaking out bugs and configuration issues.  Long-term, it'll probably 
work better then the Digium card.

Digum funds most of Asterisk's development, and they mostly do that by 
selling PCI cards like the TE110P.  So, it goes without saying that the 
drivers for Digum's T1 cards are pretty solid.  Unfortunately, some of 
their hardware has compatibility problems with some motherboards, 
including newer Dell and HP servers.  They're also prone to frame slips 
and have extremely tight timing margins.

Supporting Digium is important for Asterisk's growth and development, 
but the Sangoma's hardware seems to be much more solid.  Google for 
'site:lists.digium.com sangoma', and you'll find the long discussion 
that's been going on on this topic.


Scott