[Asterisk-Users] Re: T1 questions follow-up

[Jon Pounder]

> Tom, Thank you!  This was all hypothetical, because I'm trying to wrap my
> mind around the concept.  But you've made it much clearer for me.  I still
> have a few follow-up questions...
>
> 1a) Forget the hypothetical company now.  Let's say 6 outside lines were
> deemed sufficient, and there were 12 employee (i.e. inside lines).  Could
> I
> have the same Digium T1 card to service out and inside the company?

yes, its irrelavent what the channels within a channelized T1 do, but with
a pri is more complicated FWIW forget about PRI in Canada, no one seems to
want to offer it. With channelized you need a drop and insert channelbank,
fxs ports on the channels for extensions, and another T1 out from it with
just the 6 channels left you want for the outside lines.

Caveat - at least in Canada, 6 channels in a T1 is not worth it, go with 6
analog lines of whatever type you need fed to the appropriate channel bank
ports - DID and/or regular trunks, last time I dealt with it which has
been a while now you could only get inbound DID, so you need regular lines
to call out in addition. If you do find a cheap provider for sparse
populated T1's let me know, but a couple years ago you were paying $700
for the loop from Bell, and then whatever you actually wanted in it
(dsx's, FR, etc) on top of that.

I have a single t1 card and a 8x16 channel bank attached with 8 line ports
and 16 extensions


at least in Canada, ordering anything beyond a loop start trunk is not for
the weak of heart, you have to be sure of what you want, and don't take no
for an answer from anyone at the telco. You will probably have to go
through about 3 layers of call jockies before you get anyone who remotely
understands what you want. Then expect it to get done wrong the first time
they attempt it so allow lots of extra time. My personal tip - wear a
headset phone, take a washroom break and have a snack near you, then take
a deep breath and call, its going to take a while.

my all time record for repeated screwups and delays is provisioning frame
relay on a t1 took from an august order till march the following year till
everything was actually working correctly. Another hint - don't even
mention you know anything asterisk, or channelbanks or linux, or anything,
just say "my pbx" and play dumb, if they can't look something up on their
little scripts they just get all confused, and trust me you know more than
the people at the callcenter do.






>
> 1b) I'm fairly certain of this, but anything going outside, I could use
> the
> same T1 for receiving calls as for sending them, right? (not with the same
> channel at the same time, obviously, but I could use 2 lines incoming and
> 4
> outgoing, or 3 incoming and 3 outgoing, depending on the current
> situation,
> without reconfigurin the PBX?)
>
> 2) When you say a PRI is necessary for a Caller-ID name (as opposed to
> just
> number), I've looked around and I understand a PRI uses a T1 tunnel (24
> channels) but a bit more expensive.  Is this a fact, or is it something
> completely separate that I couldn't use with Asterisk? Or am I completely
> out in left field?

whether it sends name or number is a provider specific thing, it has
nothing to do with the capabilities of t1 channels, I use them to send
name and number all the time.


>
>> Yes, this will easily work via the T1. Your Provider will send the
>> DNIS information when the call comes in. Normally they provide the
>> last 4 or last 7 digits of the dialed number (Choose seven. We used
>
> Exactly what I wanted to know, thank you.
>
>> Yes, but you could use a Sangoma card, too.
>
> Will definitely take a look and compare.  Any pros and cons I should know
> that isn't obvious from their documentation?
>
>
>>> - Something (not sure what) on the outside to connect to those 72
>>> phones (3 T1 cards internally connecting to a wire panel, in turn
>>> connected to 60 phones?
>> 3.) Analog phones connected to a Channel bank, connected to a T1 card.
>
> Thanks.  I already knew about SIP and IAX, since I'm more of a computer
> geek
> than a telecom one that part means more to me :-) Channel bank is what I
> meant.
>
>
>> Well, experience, patience, and a working dialplan will all be
>> important! I would personally recommend a GUI configuration tool,
>> such as AMP, IPManager, or something of the like. This, of course,
>> depends on your preferences, though, so feel free to hand-code if you
>> so desire.
>
> I'm handcoding right now (I like learning the hard way so I can appreciate
> the GUIs after) but I'll definitely look into those.
>
>> For something like this as your first serious production install, you
>> might want to consider hiring a consultant.
>
> I'll certainly consider that when (I should say if) a real project does
> require me to do so.
>
>> No, but again, you might want to consider hiring a consultant before
>> you tackle something like this. At the very least, take it slowly as
>> I suggested above.
>>
>> Tom
>>
>> ------------------------------------
>> Tom Rymes
>> Cascade Link Systems
>> www.cascadelinksystems.com
>> (603) 375-1414
>
> Thanks alot Tom, it makes me feel more secure in considering Asterisk for
> jobs like this when there are helpful people like you around.
>
> Mike
>
> _______________________________________________
> --Bandwidth and Colocation sponsored by Easynews.com --
>
> Asterisk-Users mailing list
> Asterisk-Users at lists.digium.com
> http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
> To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
>    http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
>


Jon Pounder

   _/_/_/  _/    _/  _/       _/_/_/  _/    _/  _/_/_/_/
    _/    _/_/  _/  _/         _/    _/_/  _/  _/_/
   _/    _/  _/_/  _/         _/    _/  _/_/  _/
_/_/_/  _/    _/  _/_/_/_/ _/_/_/  _/    _/  _/_/_/_/


Inline Internet Systems Inc.
Thorold, Ontario, Canada

Tools to Power Your e-Business Solutions
www.inline.net
www.ihtml.com
www.ihtmlmerchant.com
www.opayc.com