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<DIV dir=ltr align=left><FONT size=2>Hi everyone !<BR><BR>So here's my question
of the day ! I need to make a decision on whether or not to go to a voip
solution or configure an existing pbx (norstar) that my company has
available. We are a small startup. I'm wanting a solution that will
support up to about 200 people, with direct dial-in capability, up to about 30
concurrent phone calls and good voice quality. Right now I have an asterisk
deployment with about 15 people on it. We have sipura 841 phones. The biggest
issue currently is voice quality. lot of complaints there. I have a dell
650 poweredge (single processory system), with a digium tdm400 card and 4 analog
lines plugged into it.<BR><SPAN class=722055114-09022006><FONT face=Arial
color=#0000ff></FONT></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><FONT size=2><SPAN class=722055114-09022006><FONT
face=Arial color=#0000ff>[Kerry Garrison
sayeth] </FONT></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><FONT size=2><SPAN class=722055114-09022006><FONT
face=Arial color=#0000ff>The 841 is fine for testing but I would never put
one on a clients desk. The sound quality is bottom of the barrel. Combine that
with the TDM400 card and its a wonder anyone will use the phone system at
all. Move up to the Linksys SPA941 or SPA942 or the Polycom 501 and then
use a different interface such as the Mediatrix 1204 or a PRI and your
users will be singing your praises till the end of
time.</FONT> </SPAN><BR><BR>So here are my questions:<BR><BR>* Is asterisk
a good solution for my company ? or should I just install the traditional pbx
and look to move to asterisk in a couple of years ? (I personally would prefer
asterisk cuz I'm a unix person not a phone person so from a manageability
perspective i would love this )<BR><BR><SPAN class=722055114-09022006><FONT
face=Arial color=#0000ff>[Kerry Garrison
sayeth] </FONT></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><FONT size=2><SPAN
class=722055114-09022006></SPAN></FONT><FONT color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=722055114-09022006>Asterisk is a great solution for your company and you
will have many more benefits than the Northstar system. </SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><FONT size=2><SPAN
class=722055114-09022006> </SPAN><BR>* If I were to go to an asterisk
solution to support about 200 people with the requirements above what hardware
platform would you recommend ? I'm guessing I'd need a PRI line and a
different digium card? Also would a 1cpu poweredge dell be enough ? or would
that have to be upgraded too ? <BR><SPAN class=722055114-09022006><FONT
face=Arial color=#0000ff></FONT></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><FONT size=2><SPAN class=722055114-09022006><FONT
face=Arial color=#0000ff>[Kerry Garrison
sayeth] </FONT></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><FONT size=2><SPAN class=722055114-09022006><FONT
face=Arial color=#0000ff>You would want a beefier machine and at least one PRI.
Its not the number of people, its the number of concurrent phone calls. I see
businesses with 100 people and they average 5-7 concurrent calls and I have
clients with 15 people that average 12-15 concurrent calls.
</FONT> </SPAN><BR><BR>If anyone is running an environment similar to this
that can provide help I would really appreciate this. I'm having a hard time
making this decision and would love to hear anybody's experience in a real time
environment.<BR><SPAN class=722055114-09022006><FONT face=Arial
color=#0000ff></FONT></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><FONT size=2><SPAN class=722055114-09022006><FONT
face=Arial color=#0000ff>[Kerry Garrison
sayeth] </FONT></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><FONT size=2><SPAN class=722055114-09022006><FONT
face=Arial color=#0000ff>My largest install is approaching 55 users, with the
PRI and Polycom 501's they couldnt be happier. The system is on a nice 2.8ghz
XEON system with 2gb of RAM and at peak times the server is basically
idle.</FONT> </SPAN><BR><BR>Thanks again this list ROCKS!<BR>Nora
Lavelle<BR><BR><BR></DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>