[Asterisk-Users] * Newbie installation advice

[Steven Critchfield]

On Mon, 2004-05-03 at 02:30, Jon Brandon wrote:
> On Mon, 3 May 2004, Steven Critchfield wrote:
> 
> > On Mon, 2004-05-03 at 01:06, Jon Brandon wrote:
> > >   * We will start with 6 PSTN lines
> > 
> > If you are going to start with 6 lines, you should decide how soon you
> > might upgrade. You then should look into the cost difference to get
> > either channelized T1 or PRI. You will be much happier with a T1 than
> > analog lines. Specifically look at how many people here fight with echo,
> > a T1 makes the risks of echo lower. It also becomes cheaper as the
> > number of lines go up than analog lines. At some point in your growth,
> > if you continue with analog lines, the telco will drop a similar Adit
> > right next to yours to break the T1 they bring in out to the analog
> > lines you order.
> > 
> Okay this is a great suggestion. Echo is not something I have not had to 
> deal with before. Is this a problem that would steer a person away from 
> this type of PBX.

Echo seems to be a problem with VoIP situations mostly. It also creeps
into analog PSTN links. It isn't a reason to not choose asterisk, but it
does require some thought. If you take a poll of us that have deployed
already, those who have analog on the PSTN side of asterisk seem to have
a worse time with echo than those with digital on the PSTN side. It
seems to be even worse when you put VoIP in the mix.

My office has been using asterisk with T1 for almost 2 years now with
little to no echo problems. 

You will also have better chances of making sure your fax machines work
if there is only one analog to digital conversion on your end. 

This is all reasons to see if you can justify the added costs of the T1
line, and just think, the time to turn up additional lines is fairly
minimal once you have the T1 line running.
 
-- 
Steven Critchfield <critch at basesys.com>