[asterisk-users] Sangoma vs Digium: (was Re: ping too)

[randulo]

On 10/5/07, Julian Lyndon-Smith <asterisk at dotr.com> wrote:
> I have looked at the recent threads regarding these two manufacturers,
> but there didn't seem to be much *technical* differences between the 2,
> it was rather more subjective - some people say Sangoma is better, some
> say Digium. And quite a lot of "you're spreading FUD" "No, you are" etc.

To all on this thread:

Buying a hardware piece for voip (or for anything) is like looking for
a spouse and soulmate. What will be your best choice may not be
someone else's best choice. You have all had experience debugging,
right? You know that every installation has a thousand variables, both
hardware and software, both human and electro-mechanical. Common
wisdom states that you shouldn't run several cards in one PC, yet I
have 2 X100P and one TDM400P, all early generation cards in one
PIII-800 box and they work fine. Even the zaptel diagnostics score
well! Of course, we have a low call volume, one of the many variables.

I am positive that no scientific measurement will allow you to make a
choice based on charts and reading. I was at the Axis camera exhibitor
stand a few days ago, and while I looked at the different cameras the
person there said immediately, if your customers want to test drive
any of these, let me know and we'll lend them one for a month.

A good retailer  of voip hardware would perhaps be able to do this for
you. Alas, I'll bet few of them can in reality. The only way to see if
hardware matches your needs and your very specific installation is to
try it. That means you'd either have to have a budget to test stuff
and hope to resell it, or find a reseller that is willing to let you
try a particular unit before paying for it or return it for credit if
it doesn't perfom as planned.

I am sensitive to the argument that Digium should get first
consideration for the reasons already  mentioned, but if another
choice has been proven significantly better, I don't think anyone at
Digium would rather you used their stuff if it was going to perform in
an inferior manner.