[Asterisk-Users] Starting from scratch

[Colin Anderson]

>(1) Any advantage of Centos 3 or 4?

It's my understanding CentOS handles threading somewhat better than FC. But
the big advantage is it's RedHat so you can leverage skills and tricks you
alrady use in RH. 

>(2) What phones would be best to get?

I've just bought 120 Snom 360's and the users like them very much, although
the list favorite seems to be Polycom. If price is no object, uber-cool
Cisco's. 

>(3) Any recommendation on a Dell server?  I was thinking a PE1850 
>because of the dual power supplies and hardware RAID in a 1U chassis.

Um, Dell has a storied (and mostly not positive) history with Digium
hardware:

http://www.google.ca/search?q=dell+site:lists.digium.com&hl=en&lr=&rls=GGLD,
GGLD:2004-23,GGLD:en&start=10&sa=N

Personally, I'd use a ProLiant except the one with the best bang for the
buck, the DL-380 G4 has a known problem (again) with Digium hardware. Also,
a lot of users have problems with 1U form factor and Digium cards because of
space constraints and lack of power connectors. If you have the rack space,
just get a 4U and be done with it. A lot of guys like Supermicro although I
don't have personal experience with them. 

If you want to white-box it, I'd look at an ASUS P4P800 in a 4U. You'd keep
the price down and the ASUS would allow you to mess around with / change /
disable on board hardware, which often times you cannot do with a Dell. 

Bet bet, (for Dell) if you are using Digium hardware is to get a Dell
recommendation from Digium presales themselves. 

>(4) If I get outside sales agents working from home, what would be a 
>good phone for them to get to hook into our system as a local extension?

Again, I like the SNOM's since they are NAT - friendly (I do NAT-to-NAT with
a 360 and it works no problem) although the XTen soft phone works fine if
there is a decent sound card in the PC and you are using a proper noise
cancelling headset. And, it's free. 

hth