VOIP - other than Linux

[Dave Peters]

Thank you Jack,


--Dave


--- On Tue, 11/16/10, Jack Coats <jack-rp9/bkPP+cDYtjvyW6yDsg at public.gmane.org> wrote:

> From: Jack Coats <jack-rp9/bkPP+cDYtjvyW6yDsg at public.gmane.org>
> Subject: Re: VOIP - other than Linux
> To: "Dave Peters" <gameslover987-/E1597aS9LQAvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org>
> Cc: "BLU" <discuss-mNDKBlG2WHs at public.gmane.org>
> Date: Tuesday, November 16, 2010, 11:06 PM
> Dave.
> 
> There are commercial PBX providers that don't use
> Linux.  If what you
> mean is you want
> a Windows solution, another list might be more
> appropriate.
> 
> Asterisk is the major player in the VOIP/PBX market place
> that has and
> supports OSS
> software.  And it doesn't have to use Linux, but
> Asterisk is easiest.
> You can check with
> Digium who sells phone interface hardware.
> 
> If you are planning to using it over a private network and
> you have
> very many phones,
> you can get routers that work well.  If you are
> planning on
> provisioning over the open
> internet, ... lots of luck, ... and it does work, just not
> well,
> largely due to many IP providers
> dropping priority information on your packets.  Some
> people have found
> by grossly over
> provisioning the bandwidth requirements, and reducing
> latency as much
> as possible it
> works reasonably well, but expect issues if you are going
> to do VOIP
> over the open internet.
> 
> If by not wanting Linux, you mean in soft phones, there are
> various
> soft phones that work
> on other systems as well.  Hard phones (personally I
> like Polycom, but
> they are pricey)
> are the more common way to go.
> 
> If you want to go with a good but high end provider,
> contact your
> Cisco sales droid, who
> will be willing to take a PO to do it soup to nuts or any
> part
> inbetween, including having
> their consultants built it for you.  All it takes is
> $$
> 
> I worked for a small white box type asterisk vendor that
> went out of
> business because
> the market just isn't there (folks that wanted buy systems
> 'for free'
> because the software
> is free, thus they assume your time is free too... grumble
> whine
> grumble).  To get phone
> network access we normally had a T1 brought in for the
> 'outside world'
> lines, and if
> the customer didn't need it all for analog voice, we took
> the data
> slices and used them for
> the voice channels in/out and sometimes internet data
> depending on the
> vendor on the
> other end and how we had it provisioned.
> 
> Asterisk is not an easy install if you are wanting all the
> bells and
> whistles to work the first
> time, but it does work.  And once it works it is VERY
> reliable, IMHO.
> Daily maintenance is
> not bad but it isn't something to be left to a part time
> clerk. (That
> is adding/change/delete
> phones and extension numbers, putting in and configuring
> automated
> attendant, call
> groups, etc, etc, etc.)  And when I was dealing with
> this a couple of
> yearen ago, the GUI
> maintenance was in its infancy.  Also depending on how
> many extensions
> you have, plan
> on adding an additional asterisk server per building or
> office and
> every time you get
> 100 or so extensions served by one server, it helps
> reliability and
> responsiveness to set
> up another server.  Asterisk servers don't have to be
> 'killer
> machines' but they need to
> be reliable, and make sure you over configure the UPSes you
> put them
> and the network
> equipment that serves your phone system equipment on ... if
> the power
> goes out and your
> equipment goes down, you have no phones.  I always
> liked to make sure
> that there was
> at least one POTS analog line that was served directly from
> the
> outside for security
> system, fax, etc.  ...
> 
> Oh yes, if you are putting in a PBX make sure your local
> emergency
> services and phone company sets you up with the procedure
> to update
> 911 databases.
> I worked for a bank, and a office called in with a robbery
> in
> progress.  We reported it to
> the police, so they surrounded our office building but not
> the office
> where the robery was
> taking place 20 miles away. ... after that we figured out
> how to
> update 911 with proper location...
> and yes, our people that reported it did tell them the
> correct
> address, but the emergency
> services reported only the 'automated' address to the
> police. ...
> Since you are running
> the phone systems it IS YOUR PROBLEM and duty to make sure
> it is right.
> 
> Sorry for preaching, but it was very embaricing for our
> bosses (I
> didn't work on phone sytems
> then, but some of my fiends did).
> 
> Sorry this is so long, but I hope it helps.
>