[asterisk-users] USA BRI -- any hope at all?

[Wilton Helm]

>Rather, can you tell me who claims to support what hardware, so I can confirm?

I don't have any notes on what I did.  It was a bunch of Google searches.  I seem to recall that Digium themselves made a two port BRI that would work.  Eicon has some well respected products that I am pretty sure are supported for NT1 (They are based in Canada).  Zyxel, I think does, also.  I didn't go that way because most were two or more ports and I only needed one and couldn't justify the $200 to $400 cost.

>I have no time for digging and experimenting, unfortunately. I expect that time will be >taken up entirely trying to install and configure asterisk.


That translates fairly straightforwardly into, "you have no time for Asterisk or Linux, its underlying operating system.  I can't imagine going down this path in any form without setting aside weeks of time for experimentation.  I've invested at least two person weeks to get Linux up and running and a small demo Asterisk install with no trunks and two SIP phones.  I think the payoff will be worth it, but the learning curve is steep.  If you are already capable of installing Linux from source code in your sleep, you mileage may very significantly.

>Okay, these are various driver protocols in the kernel/user space, right?

Yes,  Dahdi is tightly linked to Asterisk, the others are more loosely coupled.

>Since I haven't purchased anything, should I be analysing the rate and support for >development of these different protocols and informing my decision that way?

Based on the related posts today, it sounds like you should be looking at what dahdi can do and what drivers the board makers provide.  The other options are possible paths to a solution but no where close to turn-key.

>any solution that doesn't lease equipment from the provider conflicts to their bottom-line >interest, so I don't expect any help from them. Am I wrong in that?

I've been getting ISDN from QWEST for about eight years now at a combination of four locations.  The company has made a huge amount of progress in operations over that time.  The last two installs went off pretty much without a hitch.  The sales people tend to be weak on ISDN, and the I & R people are variable.  My best result has been with the guy in the CO that works ISDN circuits from the inside.  In our office, he's sharp and quite willing to give out his phone number to anyone who doesn't come across as an idiot for follow-up questions.  I wouldn't expect them to tell me how to configure Asterisk, but if they have a problem, or sales didn't write up the configuration correctly, he's been able to answer my question and change the CO programming on the spot for me.

Wilton
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