[Asterisk-Users] FXO cards

[Michael Rowley]

Hey,

Here is a quesion for you.  I am still battling with the phone system 
for my new buisiness.

6 incoming lines, 1 fax, DSL.  8 phones max, will provably start with 5 
to save money.

I was thinking of using Asterisk, but having difficulty finding 
appropriate buisiness phones.  The Mitel 5055 is the best one I have 
found, but the price seems to be about 400$ per phone.  $2K, plus a 
500$ server, then how to get the 6 B1(pots) lines into it.

I had thought of using a channel bank, but what a pain in the ass that 
is becoming.  For one, they are expensive, and I then have to buy the 
T1 card for the phone server.  I though, why not go with an FXO card.  
I wish there was an X400P card with 4 ports on it, but, que sera.  I 
can get them for 100$ apiece, or $50 for the knock offs on ebay, but 
that means 6 pci slots.  Not easy, I could use one of the pci extender 
boxes, but now I am worried about conflicts.  Or dialogic analog 4 or 
12 port cards for about 1500 to 1800$.  :(  This is getting expensive.  
Part of the idea was to save some money.  The other part was to use 
open software as much as possible, and support the FOSS community where 
ever possible.

Here comes the question, wait for it :)

Has anyone had success with the dialogic 4 port cards, running 2 of 
them in a server with * in a buisiness environment as stated above.

I am begining to think that I may be better off just going with a 
proprietary system and cough up the 6K and get it over with.   There 
are a couple of solutions that will share the cat5 cable, that's 
something.

Any ideas?  Suggestions?  Does anyone know of a solution provider out 
there who will be able to set this up for me for the 6K the phone 
system is going to cost me anyway?


Michael Rowley MD
FP