[Asterisk-Users] Considering Asterisk

[Martin Joseph]

On Mar 13, 2006, at 9:25 AM, Thomas Johnson wrote:

> We currently operate an MKC Communications Server for our small 
> company. We have 4 offices across Canada and calls to our toll-free 
> number are answered by our VOIP server and directed by the auto 
> attendant in the server office to the 3 satellite offices. This system 
> works well except we have intermittent quality of the calls, sometimes 
> losing connection altogether, but usually garbled speech etc. The 3 
> satellite offices are behind firewalls on adsl or cable high speed 
> connections. We cannot get much support from MKC and I wonder if 
> Asterisk would be a better system for this. Is this a problem because 
> of the wide geographic area being covered, and so more router hops?

Unfortunately as long as you are relying on the internet at large to 
deliver calls,  routing can be an issue.

There are things you can do to improve this, however.

1) Use a codec that is as compact as possible (usually G729),  less 
data to deliver means less chance of it being broken along the way.
2) Make sure your routes are as smooth as possible.  This might mean 
using the same ISP where possible and verifying there routing within 
there network is better then what you currently have.
3) If you are using "shared line" technologies (this can be with ADSL 
or Cable modem), usually going to a dedicated line can help.  Still 
there is no promise this will help.  Analyzing your issue is really 
step 1.

I am sure there are other ideas here on the list to help your 
situation,  but asterisk is not going to be a magical bullet for 
internet routing issues.

Asterisk is however MONDO flexible and can give you many options with 
regards to which technology you use to receive and call out.

Good Luck,
Marty