[Asterisk-Users] T1 Hardware Echo Can

[Rich Adamson]

Hey Brent,

> > If you only need a small number of fxo ports, pstn gateways in the
> form
> > of Cisco boxes, Mediatrix 1204, as well as many other products can do
> > that at a relatively inexpensive cost. The echo can function is built
> > into those boxes, which do work. Each comes with additional
> > considerations or issues however.
> 
> The mediatrix boxes do look good.  I'll have to consider for next
> project.

There are a couple of things to watch out for on the Mediatrix that
aren't well published. 
 - their only support is through their resellers, and most of those
   seem to be traditional pbx folks that don't have a background
   involving asterisk
 - they are highly focused towards 1104 to 1204 compatibility and
   toll bypass, and have little interest in ensuring rfc compliance
   or support for non-Mediatrix interfaces
 - all software upgrades/fixes are "chargable"
 - silly little things get in the way (eg, better have the same ring
   cadance on all four pstn lines attached to the 1204, or the 1204
   won't answer some lines)
 - excellent echo can functions, worked like a charm after spending
   a very large amount of time tweeking poorly documented technical
   parameters through a PC SNMP (only) management interface.

Rich