VOIP & Asterisk

[plexer]

Just installed a test asterisk box here using the iso from trixbox.org which is what asterisk@home is now called.

 

Also found an excellent guide on http://www.sureteq.com/asterisk/trixboxv1.2.htm which is easy enough to follow.

 

Ben

[TechMonkey]

Been thinking about this for a while, starting just an office PBX to play with and then seeing if we could change the school one over.

 

I can never quite work out the connections though. Coudl we plug it straight in to our phone socket and have it manage our extension number calls? & what do you need to connect it to the phone any modem or a special card?

[plexer]

To plug an asterisk server into a phone socket I believe you need one of these:

 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Its-Real-X100P-FXO-card-for-Digium-Asterisk-pbx-OEM_W0QQitemZ170028491418QQihZ007QQcategoryZ61841QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

If you are just using ip phones then you don't need anything to start with.

 

You can buy ata adapters that will turn a normal phone into a voip one and still allow the normal phone to connect to the pots system.

 

Ben

[Geoff]

It's designed to replace an old fashioned PBAX (in BT speak this is something called a 'Meridian'). If you have one of these lurking someplace (it's usually a grey box on a wall someplace with little blue lines on it) then Asterisk will work but you will need to buy a line card for your machine.

 

If you want to just plug it into a standard telephone line you can do that too but you'll need a different sort of card.

 

There's more info about the various combinations at the asterisk hardware page:

 

http://www.asterisk.org/hardware

[plexer]

Just an update for people on this I've been playing with the Trixbox installtion and I bought one of those X100P cards from ebay and have had a knightmare getting Trixbox to recognise it.

 

I found another bootable iso asterisk installation from http://www.xorcom.com/rapid/index.html and this installed the card no problems.

 

Setup of Rapid was basically just that rapid and it comes with different extensions preconfigured. Doesn't have as nice a web gui as the trixbox install but it does have webmin that you can install on it.

 

Ben

[Joedetic]

Is there any client software that you could use instead of IP phones?

 

Ie...if you just plug the box into the network you have VoIP working with client software and headsets on machines etc?

 

Or should I play with something else for that sort of thing?

[plexer]

No you can use soft phones I use x-lite from xten.

 

http://www.counterpath.com

 

Ben

[Joedetic]

Ah great... ta!

[CyberNerd]

Last night I posted about the wonders of Gizmo and benefits over skype.

Gizmo supports SIP, and therefore asterix.

 

http://www.gizmoproject.com/asterisk.html

 

http://www.gizmoproject.com/

[plexer]

Looks good.

 

I presume I need a different interface card to plug my asterisk into the pbx phone socket in my server room as with the X100P everytime I called the phone or tried to route an external call it just killed the phone.

 

Dunno if it's a digital PBX extension that the card doesn't work with or maybe wrong lead.

 

Going to try it at home on POTS.

 

Ben

[john]

you may find the phone your plugging it into in your server room is a digital extention. Try it on a Fax / Alarm line in your school and see what that does

[plexer]

Thats what I think hence

 

Dunno if it's a digital PBX extension

 

Dunno what card to use though to make it work.

 

Ben

[john]

an ISDN card perhaps as it may be an ISDN phone, I know mine used to be, or just swap it to an analogue extention. A good way of guessing is does the phone have a fancy LCD display on it or lights to indicate VM etc then if so its probably a 95% chance its a digital extention. If its some bashed up old BT handset on the end of a piece of wet string, it maybe you main PBAX is having a sulk

[plexer]

It's definately a digital extension when you say it like that as I have a sub master phone on the system.

 

Bought the asterisk box home tonight to try it on pots and I just left myself a voicemail on my mobile via x-lite on my laptop plugged into the asterisk box so the X100P does work fine.

 

Will have to see if we have any spare analogue extensions to plug it into, was hoping to use my server room one as I can get an outside line from there but not upstairs in my office so could then use a voip phone to dial out from anywhere

 

Ben

[john]

oooh, Sub Master Phone How Swankey (says me with his swanky IP phones ). Or you could just get a full on Cisco / BT / Alcatel IP phone system, the SMT and Governors will be like excellent call savings, and then when you say you wont need any more phone cabling installing again as its just pure network, no voice panels etc they will go YES YES YES lets get it

[plexer]

They upgraded the old pbx last year as the old one couldn't cope with the extra extensions required.

 

The head is quite keen on being able to contacted around site but doesn't want to use a mobile or radio so I'm thinking wireless voip but until designs based on csr's reference come out they are still expensive.

 

I'd like to have a phone I can use anywhere with wireless coverage though myself.

 

What IP system are you running?

 

Ben

[smileydman]

I remember an ISDX (digital PBX) system that had optional analogue ports on some of the digital handsets, to allow modems and faxes to be connected. Do your phones have anything like that ?

 

There was one good thing about analogue extensions, they were mostly industry standard and you could just plug any phone in.

 

Digital extensions are often setup for just that handset model and need to be reprogrammed if you move a handset, (or featurephones as I think they like to call them !!).

 

The link to the BT exchange may well be ISDN, but the extensions are probably proprietry. The ISDX I mentioned did have another handset with an ISDN-2 socket, but it was also optional.

 

How about you tell head you need a dial-up line for backup in the server room !

[plexer]

I'm pushing for a backup ADSL line next year so that may be the point where my VOIP system comes to fruition.

 

There's a socket on the bottom of my phone labelled "extra" which has a piece of plastic that can be broken off covering it that could be something.

 

Ben

[bossman]

The only part that the SMT and govenors will understand of that is "savings" anything else goes way above their heads. I have found this to be quite true in most schools.

[john]

I have an Alcatel OmniPCX Enterprise system, with a handfull of VOIP users. Its a great setup, as has been said though, extensions get programmed with data about the phone so it knows the terminal (or phone if thats what you prefer to call it), hot keys, how many program buttons etc.... so its quite knoledgable.

 

The Extra socket you mention is probably for a phone add-on such as Hot Keys, I know mine have one (think they are marked ACC) and they snap out and have a phone connector under it (RJ11 normally) but they are not for modems etc they are for expansion modules.

 

The Alcatel stuff have plug in modules that do fancy things such as give you an analogue line off a digital one, gives you a ISDN modem and phone off one, connect your PC to the phone for sharing a modem / data etc... Basically they do a lot of good stuff, but its pricey and is nothing much to do with me, I may use it and help out with it but its main setup is not done by me, done by those above me.

[plexer]

Yup figured out that was what the socket was in the end the receptionists have the same phone but with a key expansion module on it.

 

Our PBX is a Samsung Office Srv 500 which is IP compatible but needs extrea cards to support IP phones.

 

Ben

[john]

It may be worth pushing for the IP card for it as it does make savings when you think in new builds / expasnion etc you no longer need a voice panel for more extensions or to put standard sockets in (if you are still that way inclined). Also then it opens up the world to VOIP calls over your internet connection thus potentially savining money.