[Asterisk-Users] Newbie hardware question

[Steven Critchfield]

On Thu, 2003-10-30 at 11:00, Just ME wrote:
> Hi,
> I have scanned through the archives of this list and found a number of
> question about hardware, but I just can not find the answer to my
> question.  I am new to phone systems, I got "drafted" to come up with
> a new phone system for our company (I guess they figure since I know
> computers I know phone systems as well :O).
> We have 5 analog (I guess they are called PSTN lines) lines coming in
> and 16 clients (telephones) in our office.  I am not worried about the
> minimum computer requirements because I have a couple of spare P4
> based servers with 512 megs of memory, but I need to know what cards
> should I be looking at using because I will run out of PCI slots if
> I use 4 TDM400P cards (for the clients) and 5 of the X100p (for the
> lines).  
> Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.
> Thanks


You will want either a T100P, or a T400P. Then you will want a channel
bank that is modular enough to add a FXO card to it. With 5 lines of
FXO, the Adtran units will be a good choice as they are in units of 6
lines. The Adit cards are 8 lines at a time. The Adtran unit would let
you get 18 extensions and 6 incoming lines on a single T1 interface. 

Both of these units can be bought on Ebay for relatively inexpensive
compared to new prices. Then you will either have to scour the net for
the FXO card, or go pay full price for it. 

Either way, this gets you down to 1 PCI card. If you go the route of a
T400P card, adding more service later will be less of a hassle. You
could also use it to do your network routing if you decide to go frac T1
for data and some phone service tacked onto the same T1 interface. This
could potentially even be a better route as you wouldn't need to find
FXO interfaces anymore. You would also get the benefit of using the new
software fax setup to get yourself on the way to unified messaging.
-- 
Steven Critchfield  <critch at basesys.com>