[Asterisk-Users] Can Asterisk do the following for me ?

[Andrew Kohlsmith]

On April 24, 2005 11:58 pm, Lee Howard wrote:
> Certainly I can understand that Digium doesn't stand to make much money
> selling X100Ps at $10 each, and I can certainly understand them choosing
> to not sell them.  But, by the same token I cannot understand the
> community's interest in discouraging other folks from joining the
> community in the way that economically suits them best.

It has absolutely nothing to do with what "economically suits them best" -- it 
has everything to do with the fact that when you buy a clone X100P you DO NOT 
KNOW what you're getting.  The chipset may be the same but as you can clearly 
see from searching this very list, the hybrid circuitry (a crucial crucial 
part of the design) can be VERY different, and even if the hybrid's fine, 
there are subtle variations in the chipset that can bite you in the ass.

If you're just starting out with Asterisk, buck up and buy what is known to 
work and what is supported by Digium so that if the excrement DOES hit the 
air-conditioning you at least know your hardware's not at fault and there's 
someone who will log on to your system to help you fix it.  In fact, Digium 
doesn't even sell the X100P/X101P anymore because the TDM FXO module has a 
dynamic impedance hybrid (not automatic, you need to specify which telco 
standard you're wiring in to) and even a nice simple FIR filter you can tune 
to help eliminate echo and reduce noise.  It's simply a better product.

Once you know how things work feel free to buy whatever you want.  You'll have 
the understanding to know where to start troubleshooting if things go wrong 
and you won't be flooding the list and IRC with various "Waah, I gots echo,"  
"Waah, I can't gets me CID,"  "Waah, Asterisk sucks" messages.

Unless you know what you're doing (or are personally working with someone who 
does), buying the Digium stuff *IS* the most economical route.  You may get 
lucky but generally speaking you'll waste far more time and resources pissing 
about getting the clone card to work than you will if using something known 
to work.

This is along the exact same lines as those who come in here and post "I juxt 
heard abouts this Aestrix thing... whutz teh ABSOLUTELY BARE MINIMUM hardware 
I need to make this work?!"   Early optimization (monteary, hardware or even 
software) is teh suck.  It was the fall of the Roman empire, and it'll be the 
fall of your Asterisk empire if you're not careful.

-A.