Voice Over IP

[powdarrmonkey]

I would use an internal FXS card in your Asterisk box, which provides a normal analogue phone signal to a device, just like the exchange does. But whereas humans are fairly forgiving about a little jitter or lag, faxes really really aren't, so I would maintain a separate, ordinary line for them wherever possible.

[Quackers]

Fax seems a bit hit and miss in asterisk with me. What you need is a Linksys ATA which the Fax machine plugs into and the ATA links to the PBX over IP.

 

 

I recommend an TE120P isdn 30 card or the new TE122P card for ISDN access.

 

If you need a SIP line drop me a PM and I'LL zip you some costs

 

 

Are you saying then get an Linksys ATA box and if it works it works, if not its best to do what powdarrmonkey monkey recommends and get an internal FXS card? or is it more to do with network traffic effecting if the fax works?

[powdarrmonkey]

Are you saying then get an Linksys ATA box and if it works it works, if not its best to do what powdarrmonkey monkey recommends and get an internal FXS card? or is it more to do with network traffic effecting if the fax works?

 

It's more preference - the ATA box is a bit like an external FXS converter. I prefer to get the data turned into an analogue signal ASAP in the data path when it comes to faxes, but it means running an ordinary phone line between Asterisk and the fax machine. uk101man presumably prefers to keep it on network cable so it's easier to move the machine later.

 

Given a choice though I'd still keep an analogue line totally separate from Asterisk for faxes. Sometimes it can work absolutely fine, but a little bit of echo or jitter on your signal can play havoc with it. You can tell Asterisk it's a fax line and it can handle them quite well, and you might be able to use QoS or something on your LAN but if the noise comes from upstream there's not much you can do about it (and by the time you find out you might already have spent money on hardware to make it work...)

[Quackers]

It's more preference - the ATA box is a bit like an external FXS converter. I prefer to get the data turned into an analogue signal ASAP in the data path when it comes to faxes, but it means running an ordinary phone line between Asterisk and the fax machine. uk101man presumably prefers to keep it on network cable so it's easier to move the machine later.

 

Given a choice though I'd still keep an analogue line totally separate from Asterisk for faxes. Sometimes it can work absolutely fine, but a little bit of echo or jitter on your signal can play havoc with it. You can tell Asterisk it's a fax line and it can handle them quite well, and you might be able to use QoS or something on your LAN but if the noise comes from upstream there's not much you can do about it (and by the time you find out you might already have spent money on hardware to make it work...)

 

Thanks, i'm cannot decide over this one as Server will be about 50 meters away from the fax, so part of me wants the linksys for ease, but its gotta work so another part says get FXS card...

 

 

Have you ever used the Fax to e-mail option in Asterisk? Does it work like the description says, simple e-mail's any fax that comes in?

[powdarrmonkey]

I don't use AsteriskNow so I haven't, no. Gives me an idea though: VoipTalk do virtual fax->email with a geographic (eg. 01789) number for a modest fee, which would take all the headache out of it for you

[uk101man]

Thanks, i'm cannot decide over this one as Server will be about 50 meters away from the fax, so part of me wants the linksys for ease, but its gotta work so another part says get FXS card...

 

 

Have you ever used the Fax to e-mail option in Asterisk? Does it work like the description says, simple e-mail's any fax that comes in?

 

From what I've been reading and my experience on the subject it seems to be hit and miss.

 

After spending a couple of week checking cabling, echo and anything else that could go wrong, I moved the client on to a hosted Fax 2 Email and Email 2 Fax.

 

Fax should have gone the way of the dodo a long time ago.

 

Rant over

Edited April 3, 2009 by uk101man

[NikChillin]

I did an office install with Asterisk and six extensions, including full cabling, in two days a few weeks ago. Route all calls over an internet gateway, so no expensive interface hardware.

 

Hi, I am looking into this myself as we are trying to cut costs, can I ask if this was expensive? What sort of running costs are involved? Have you got a separate setup for the Voip and the Internet? We are using the county as our internet provider but they will not open ports for Voip.

[ICT_Pro]

(disclaimer: I have no affiliation or benifit to be made from recommending voipon, it's just that that's who I and my clients use, so I know it well.)

 

Yes, dead easy:

 

1. Get an account with someone providing the IAX (Inter-Asterisk Exchange) protocol, and configure it in iax.conf in Asterisk (don't know how that translates into configuring it on AsteriskNOW, though).

2. Open the IAX port on your firewall

3. Voipon work on pre-pay credit, so buy some of that

4. Configure your dialplan appropriately

 

IAX uses just one port, so it's NAT-friendly, wheras SIP relies on arbitrary ports being opened across a wide range, so it's much less easy to deal with. In fact IAX was designed with this limitation in mind, so it does it extremely well.

 

Can you recommend cheap VOIP cheap credit provider for international calls? Thanks

[powdarrmonkey]

Hi, I am looking into this myself as we are trying to cut costs, can I ask if this was expensive?

 

Not really: £60 each for the phones, reused an old box for Asterisk, and £30 to port the geographic number to the VoIP trunk provider.

 

What sort of running costs are involved?

 

Just the call charges and internet connection.

 

Have you got a separate setup for the Voip and the Internet? We are using the county as our internet provider but they will not open ports for Voip.

 

This was for a small business, so no county involved. VoIP and normal traffic are all over one connection.

[powdarrmonkey]

Can you recommend cheap VOIP cheap credit provider for international calls? Thanks

 

Please read my post again, more carefully this time.