[Asterisk-Users] I give up!!

Thu Oct 16 07:31:01 MST 2003

I have multiple installs, and while I would say I have experienced some of
the same problems, thankfully our results were'nt close to yours.

Perhaps the real problem was you did not do any lab work, we tested about 6
months before we did our first install. One thing we did wrong was started
changing too many variables too quickly, i.e. we used the tdm400p prototype
boards instead of equipment we had labbed it all on. If you lab it all at
your house first and really beat the crap out of it while you are labbing it
you will really improve your chances of success. Second, do not change
anything or deviate from the agreed upon proposal regardless of how much
pressue the customers puts you under (as long as you properly set
expectations up front). After the install and you have hit all of the goals
you and your customer agreed on (and all of those goals have been
successfully labbed at your house before you agreed to them) bill them, then
start adding features and making changed on an hourly rate.

The first install we had went pretty badly (we were using the prototype
versions of the wcfxs boards). The grandstream phones are also really really
crappy phones (echo is going to be damned difficult to get rid of on those).
I have only had asterisk crash on me a handful of times and I think we have
narrowed that down to leaving the console with debug on IAX and Zap up
remotely via ssh over a 24 hour period.

I hope you do try again, we have a growing customer base and once our
clients started to see the power of asterisk over their existing systems (we
still get the rare and strange problem) we usually get them to be pretty
loyal.

Besides it is people like us who are going to start getting rid of the
extremly f-ed up Bell System. Were on a mission, not just to provide cool
phone systems but to make voice communications monopoly free!

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "WipeOut" <wipe_out at lycos.co.uk>
To: <asterisk-users at lists.digium.com>
Sent: Thursday, October 16, 2003 10:04 AM
Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] I give up!!

> costas wrote:
>
> >This is a traumatic story. Maybe you can help the rest of us who are
making business decisions using *.
> >
> >Will you or client be looking at any other SIP alternatives?
> >Do you think any problems were with the phone sets themselves?
> >
> I would say a couple of issues were related to the phones, eg the
> consultative transfer..
>
> >
> >Again, sorry to hear of your troubles.
> >
> >---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
> >From: "Dave Alan Caruana" <david at melita.net>
> >Reply-To: asterisk-users at lists.digium.com
> >Date:  Thu, 16 Oct 2003 15:21:02 +0200
> >
> >
> >
> >>i've just lost $2000 dollars or so on my first commercial asterisk
> >>installation ..
> >>i'm running a PIV class server, three Digium Wildcard FXO cards, and
> >>10 Grandstream Budgettone SIP phones. The system was to be a PBX
> >>for a small company. After over 2 months of pissing about, the client
has
> >>had his fill of asterisk problems, and asked me to take my equipment
> >>out of the building. Obviously, I haven't been paid for anything.
> >>
> >>The problems I faced were the following :
> >>- initially a problem with asterisk crashing totally when there wasn't
an
> >>extension
> >> to ring .. though this was fixed in a subsequent CVS, it was causing
> >>downtime.
> >> the client has no unix knowledge, and a script I put in to kick in the
> >>asterisk
> >> when it shut itself down didn't seem to always work.
> >>
> >> it also reduced the quality of my subsequent callout requests to
something
> >>on
> >> the lines of "the phone server is crashed again" regardless of what the
> >>problem was
> >>
> >>- a dialplan problem, where one phone was ringing 10 seconds after the
> >>others,
> >>  at the client's request and they were hearing other phones ring and
> >>picking up
> >>  a non-ringing phone (ok, I can't really blame that on asterisk ..)
> >>
> >>- echo on the lines .. that after much fiddling around with
configurations
> >>went from
> >>  terrible to borderline acceptable. To people not used to digital
> >>telephony and
> >>  computer stuff, the echo was VERY annoying. They used to avoid the
phones
> >>  because they said people would not understand them.
> >>
> >>- no consultative transfer. The closest I got was to park the call, call
the
> >>other party,
> >> tell him "a voce" which line the call is parked on and then get him to
> >>pick up the call.
> >> This is, in my opinion, a very basic feature that is missing on
asterisk.
> >>The park/
> >> pick up sequence proved too difficult for the clients' secretaries to
> >>grasp.
> >>
> >>- I could not get G729 working properly (license paid up, G729 up and
> >>running). In
> >> the absence of a manual, the fault solving process was something like
"ask
> >>a question
> >> on the mailing list, get a few answers, go to the client, try it out,
> >>fail, go back home,
> >> send another question on the mailinglist" with about 48 hours for each
> >>iteration. I was
> >> also appearing a real chimp "expermimenting" stuff at the clients'
office.
> >>
> >>At this point I decided to cut my losses, retreive the equipment and
call it
> >>a day.
> >>When asterisk is well documented and released in stable releases, I will
> >>willingly
> >>consider it again. I would be willing to pay for a stable, documented
> >>version of
> >>asterisk. It is a lovely software, and to begin with I was very
enthusiastic
> >>about it.
> >>I do understand that the support community is helpful, but the current
> >>status of things
> >>limits asterisk to a hobbyist scenario or at least somewhere where there
is
> >>an engineer
> >>with lots of linux experience and patience online 24 hours to solve
problems
> >>as they
> >>crop up.
> >>
> >>If anyone would like a couple of second hand FXO boards, contact me. I
have
> >>already found a home for the grandstreams.
> >>
> >>cheers
> >>Dave
> >>
> >>_______________________________________________
> >>Asterisk-Users mailing list
> >>Asterisk-Users at lists.digium.com
> >>http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
> >--
> >Costas Menico
> >Meezon Software Corp
> >201-224-8111
> >costas at meezon.com
> >
> >--
> >_______________________________________________
> >Asterisk-Users mailing list
> >Asterisk-Users at lists.digium.com
> >http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
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