[Asterisk-Users] New PBX Help

[Jay Milk]

Mike,

My requirements were similar -- a small-scale, fully featured PBX.  If
you have a reliable, high-speed internet connection in the new building
(business-class DSL or better, full-T1), you may want to go with
all-digital phone lines.  For your extensions you could either use
IP-Phones (from $100 up, depending on features), or FXS devices such as
the Sipura SPA-2000, which offers two analog phone ports on each $100
device.  The phones you connect to it would be regular analog phones
(even cordless), so they shouldn't be too expensive.  If you need fancy
screen-phones like a $100 Aastra 390, you might want to take a second
look at $150+ IP Phones.

I spent less than $300 on the server: $110ish for a CPU/Mobo combo with
a Celeron 2.7GHz, $30 for a small case and power supply, $40 for 256MB
RAM, $100 for an FXO card from Digium (for my one analog line), and a
freebie 10MB harddrive I had sitting around -- or get a new 30MB for
$50.  I spent another $300 for three Sipura SPA-2000s giving me six
extensions, and I already had all my phones.  Cash cost was under $600.

What I got was a "transparent" phone system -- the wife doesn't know
it's there, as long as she dials all 11-digit numbers (this makes
re-dial easy, because you don't care about the area code!) for outgoing
calls.  It automatically uses the least expensive line based on the area
code (properly configured), and knows to use the PSTN line for 911
calls.  Conferencing, call-parking, CDR, Voicemail and MOH are of course
included and limited only by your hardware.  We also have six incoming
lines -- two Broadvoice "unlimited state" lines as well as one "BYOD
light" plan; one Vonage "hardline" which is not connected, but rings on
a Vonage Softline right into our phone system.  Plus the old PSTN line
for emergencies.

So, if you compare cash-based value, the Asterisk system is clearly a
winner -- but cash is only part of the cost.  Be prepared to spend the
better part of a week configuring everything for the first time.  If
you're not too well-versed in Linux, add a week.  If you don't
understand VOIP or PBX talk, add a week.  (I had a working system,
including building the hardware, in about 6 hours, but spent at least
another 40 hours getting everything to work just right)

But hey, considering your email address, maybe you could make it a
class-project!

-JM


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mike Wagner [mailto:mike at woco-k12.org] 
> Sent: Wednesday, July 07, 2004 8:35 AM
> To: asterisk-users at lists.digium.com
> Subject: [Asterisk-Users] New PBX Help
> 
> 
> Hi All,
> 
> We recently had an old office building burn down.  The office housed 
> maybe 20-30 people.  Only about 10 or so of those had their own 
> extensions.   We had a standard pbx from an area 
> communications company, 
> and I'm not quite sure about what kind of phone lines were 
> there, I only 
> know that their were actually 3 phone numbers, but everyone 
> could get an 
> outside line if they needed to.
> 
> We're looking at moving to a new building, and I would like to use 
> Asterisk, because I feel it would be cheaper than purchasing 
> a pbx.  Is 
> there any reccomendations as to how I might set this up???   Keep in 
> mind that I know next to nothing about pbx's and phone systems.
> 
> Any help is greatly appreciated.
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> -Mike Wagner
> MCCESC
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