[asterisk-users] 64 analog phones

[Colin Anderson]

>Were those people -- who, unlike me, had done it and had problems -- wrong?

There are more variables than the Digium card itself. Things like bus
design, chipset etc all come into play. I've noticed that there is a
concerted effort with Asterisk implmentors to often roll out Asterisk in a
white box clone with a $129 integrated motherboard in an effort to drive
down the cost which (IMO) is foolish. Why would you (not you, but people)
spec a DL380G4 for a database server then turn around and use an ECS brand
motherboard for a telephony platform - a platform which by definition
requires sub-millisecond response time? Tier 1 boxes are *designed* for this
type of application and are engineered to conform to spec + safety margin,
wheras Taiwan clone boards are usually designed to roughly confirm to spec,
and that's all (notable exception: I have used ASUS motherboards for
Asterisk installs, and they all work flawlessly)

I've said it many times before on the list: It's trivial to make a crappy
Asterisk install. Anyone can do it. It's really, really, hard to make a
*good* Asterisk install. You need cross-discipline experience, a lot of
which is hard to come by in the closed, secretive telephony world. Tip o'
the hat to SHSU. I wouldn't touch *that* install with a space tether.