[Asterisk-Users] Asterisk hardware for new office suggestion

[Rich Adamson]

Simone wrote:
> Hi list,
> I am in the process of setting up Asterisk for a new office and since 
> this is going to be my first "real" installation I'd appreciate some 
> advice on the hardware from the real world. We will have 8 channels 
> (still not sure if 4xISDN2 or ISDN30 8 channels, but I will definitely 
> go for a Digium card with echo hw cancelation) and a DSL 2mbit line (QoS 
> on the switch and firewall?), to be configured for both traditional and 
> VoIP usage . I was looking at the Xorcom TS-1 server and I was wondering 
> if you would recommend it for a 30 employees office or if you'd rather 
> build it on a "normal" server (would a double PIII 1Ghz be enough), and 
> also if you could give a suggestion on the phones (we will get an HP 
> Gbit switch PoE).
> Thanks, any hint really appreciated

Would suggest digging around the wiki as there really is a lot of useful 
info that would help you.

I don't have any isdn stuff, so can't comment on that.

QoS on the switch in a small office is not likely to do anything useful. 
It may help some on the firewall, but it really only impacts outbound 
packets, not inbound. A rather inexpensive way around all that is to 
simply implement a second dsl link used only for voip.

The size of the * box is more oriented around number of simultaneous 
calls and other apps running on the box.  E.g., if the 30 employees 
never place a call, a 600 mhz processor will be just fine. ;)

As I recall (which leaves accuracy questionable), several people have 
implemented a basic * system on old 600 mhz boxes. However, a call 
center with lots of call recording functions (etc) and high call volumes 
may require the largest/fastest processor money can buy.

There is no magic list comparing sip phone quality, features, etc. Lots 
of reasonably good comments on the wiki, but that's about it. Lots of 
"opinions", but keep in mind that what one person with soho-only 
experience considers good is highly likely to be rated poor by someone 
that supports a large corporate environment. Interpretations of 
"quality" varies dramatically based on each person's experience level.

An individual in a less developed country might consider a softphone on 
a PC high quality (compared to their existing telephony infrastructure), 
but another person in a more well developed country would not use a 
softphone in production if their life depended on it.

For sip phones, I'd suggest starting with identifying some basic 
requirements and go from there. For example, if you don't want to do any 
additional cat5 cabling, using a phone with two rj45's (internal 
ethernet switch) might be a requirement. Is speakerphone capability 
needed? How many extensions are truly needed at each desk? Is intercom 
paging required (to individual sip phones)? Is the key system emulation 
of a busy lamp field required? Is PoE truly required? If the answer to 
just those questions are a mandatory yes, you've just eliminated about 
80% of the sip phones on the market.

I'd expect you to find a need for two or three different types of phones 
somewhat oriented around high-quality (exec types), medium (average 
office worker), and lower quality (break rooms or occasional user).

And, don't overlook the differences between key systems and pbx's. If 
your customer is accustomed to an existing key system, they are likely 
to be very disappointed with a pbx unless you spend a fair amount of 
time up front educating the employees and managing expectations (way 
before deployment).