[Asterisk-Users] Mediatrix 1204 help please.

[Rich Adamson]

> OK we need some help in setting up a good wiki-info page for setting up the Mediatrix 
1204 to work with asterisk.  If anyone has
> set these unit's up and have them working please post your settings here so we can 
create a page on the wiki. These unit's are
> being sold to be used via sip format with asterisk and there is no real information 
on getting them working.  At present there one
> of the worst I have run into to get correctly working. These are very expensive and 
some of us can't afford to send them back for
> a restocking fee. 
>  
> If someone working with Mediatrix has a white paper on getting these unit's working 
please let us know the link for it.  It would
> be very helpful for many asterisk users.
>  

If you search the -users archives, you'll see where a couple of people
have made them work. I believe there was at least one posting reflecting
a working config.

I did an eval on the 1204 in early 2004, but did not care for the way
it interfaced with asterisk. The 1204 was really intended to interoperate
with the 1104 as a toll bypass box.

I was able to make it work and the audio was excellent with no echo
whatsoever. Key items (in early 2004) included:
- the 1204 does not have any sip register functions. One must configure it
  (and asterisk) to work with static IP addresses (instead of relying on
  the registration process).
- calls from asterisk "to" (or through) the 1204 are treated as a group
  and the 1204 chooses the first available pstn port for all calls. If you
  want to direct a call to a specific port, one has to jump through hoops
  to force a CallerID (from asterisk) and then program 1204 to look for the
  callerid (which is then used to match a port number). Not cool.
- programming the 1204 could only be done via snmp, and the snmp facility
  provided only ran on Windows. Each firmware upgrade to the 1204 required
  a new snmp implementation as the mib variables constantly changed. The
  snmp community string (eg, password) could not be changed from public,
  therefore exposing the 1204 to the internet would be a major security
  risk. (If you know snmp extemely well, you can use the mib definitions
  within a linux system to program the box, but you better be very good
  at snmp to do that.)
- Support for the box is only offered through resellers, and their typical
  resellers are those firms reselling traditional pbx's. A fair number of
  those don't have a clue what voip is about and even fewer can spell
  asterisk.
- All firmware upgrades are chargable regardless of what problem might be
  found. The upgrade charge was very high (something like $500 in 2004).

Given the above (in 2004), the risk associated with using the 1204 was
far to great and I returned the unit for full credit. (The eval was arranged
through Mediaxtix sales rep even though the unit came from a reseller.)

I've not touched or seen the 1204 since early 2004, so can't help any more
then what is stated above. The product may have improved since then, but
I don't have clue what might have changed.