You could go all voip but I wouldn't recommend it unless you have a terrific internet connection... even then it isn't always as good as a land line except in my case where all of the land lines available are horrid (thanks Qwest!). 

Here comes the terminology overload.... :)

Inbound lines are called FXO and outbound ports are called FXS.  FXO ports receive dial tone from the phone company.  FXS give dialtone to devices such as a phone or fax.

Trunks are a block of lines.  Usually they come in on a PRI.  You can also have voip trunks that give you a set number of concurrent connections with the same DID (Direct Inward Dial) number.

To build an asterisk based system yourself you need a computer to run it on (1.5GHZ+ Intel/AMD with 512MB+ of ram, 80G+ hard drive), hardware to interface it with the PSTN (public switched telephone network) unless you're oing all voip, and the asterisk bundle such as PBXInAFlash or Trixbox.
Keep in mind that many TDM cards generate a ton of interrupt requests and if the irq it is using is being used by something else you can have all sorts of audio quality issues. 

From what you said below you'd want at a minumum 3 inbound (2 voice + fax) and at least 1 outbound (fxs) to plug in the fax.  The lower priced TDM cards that interface with the telephone network typically let you plug in 4 FXO/FXS modules; the more expensive ones have built in echo cancellation.

Most people use VOIP phones internally since they're relatively inexpensive $50-$150 (voipsupply.com) usually and allow you to make full use of the system's features but if you have the TDM hardware to plug them in you can plug in plain old phones too. 

I sell Rhino and Xorcom systems that come preloaded with a base install of Trixbox, Elastix, or PBXInAFlash and the hardware you need.  In both cases you still have to configure it yourself or have someone like me do it.
Xorcom comes configured in blocks of 8 FXO/FXS unless you go with the 2FXO/6FXS module and they don't mix that module with other things.
Heres a ball park for the server and hardware:
CerosMini-80GB + R8FXX-EC+2 Dual FXO + Dual FXS=$1,059.00+$125.00+$125.00 +$110.00=$1419
Xorcom XR1004 - 8 FXO/8FXS =$1,588 (up to 50 users and 12 concurrent calls)
Xorcom XR2004 - 8 FXO/8FXS =$2,173 (up to 300 users and 60 concurrent calls)

Im a reseller for voipsupply.com also.  Voip phones are priced by number of line appearances (how many calls you can make at a time) and features.
A cheap middle of the road phone (which I wouldn't recommend for a production installation) is the grandstream 2000: http://www.voipsupply.com/gxp-2000
For a little more you can get a decent voip phone like the Polycom 301/501/etc:http://www.voipsupply.com/ip-301-poe

I couldn't in good concience not mention the fire sale of voip phones/etc on ebay.... I just saved a client $1500 by buying his Cisco 7960 phones used on ebay.  You can pick up polycom phones for $50.  Keep in mind they often sell them without a power supply; if you have a POE switch that will power them then you're fine otherwise you'll have to buy an inline power adaptor for the phone.

JD
--
JD Austin
Twin Geckos Technology Services LLC
jd@twingeckos.com
480.288.8195x201
http://www.twingeckos.com


Katharine Hepburn  - "Death will be a great relief. No more interviews."

On Tue, Jan 20, 2009 at 10:07 AM, keith smith <klsmith2020@yahoo.com> wrote:


Okay, all this sounds really cool.  What would it cost a small business to set one of these up?

Say a simple 2 inbound lines, 2 outbound lines, and a fax.  3 or 4 simple handsets (What kind of handsets do you use?)  cost?

Is this strictly VOIP?  VOIP has shown to have lower quality the few times I have been exposed to it. 

My point of reference is 1992 or 1993 when one would buy an ATT or one of the many other small business phone switches for maybe $3,000 - $5,000.

Also someone mentioned buying a trunk.  What is the number of lines?

I get the feeling I'm looking at this through 15 year old technology and things have changes significantly.  For instance I worked at a place that had a trunk of about 100 lines as I recall.

------------------------
Keith Smith




--- On Tue, 1/20/09, Lisa Kachold <lisakachold@obnosis.com> wrote:
From: Lisa Kachold <lisakachold@obnosis.com>
Subject: RE: GrandCentral via Asterisk

To: plug-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us
Date: Tuesday, January 20, 2009, 9:15 AM


Yes,  I agree with jd@twingeckos.com:

I have been a Stromberg Carlson Central Office DCO Technician,  Senior Voice/Data Network Analyst for Nike, VOIP Engineer for AffinityVoipTelecom.com and Support Engineer Manager for RhinoEquipment.com
 
Asterisk can do a great deal all based on the configuration files in /etc/asterisk.
Fonality does not have deep technical support, rather providing cost based services and failing to fix breakage.
Since there are so many different applications of Asterisk, Trixbox, FreePBX this is a good place for profit for the entrepreneur.
Compiled sources is a better solution, obviously.
FreePBX is the magic behind the solution allowing a GUI to setup most of the user applications, testing and CMS.

All asterisk VOIP products can be a huge security issue, but the spyware was especially shameful.

This solution with PBXInAFlash is an EASY solution that will be able to provide a fine dialaround, voicemail, record all calls, Unlimited calls to home (from Cell provider) for dial around to get unlimited cell minutes from SIP trunk line, CMS, click to fax from Windows, etc. 

You can configure your autoattendant, provide even an outside line with a password, get a nice SIP signature for your email.  Call sip people, put a few VOIP Clients on your linux boxes and a nice hunt group (try grandstream ATA in bathroom, then call my Linux desktop, then my laptop. then my office phone, finally my cell phone) for any incoming call.  You can setup a DialAVOIP Technician line?  DialAClownJoke would be nice on the main menu?  Setup record all calls, then GabCast call to Cox Cable, or your Senator, or Bank in comedic ways?

www.Obnosis.com |  http://wiki.obnosis.com | http://hackfest.obnosis.com (503)754-4452
PLUG HACKFESTS - http://uat.edu Second Saturday of Each Month Noon - 3PM
Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 05:35:07 -0700
Subject: Re: GrandCentral via Asterisk
From: jd@twingeckos.com
To: plug-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us

The main reason I recommend PBXInAFlash over Trixbox is that
1. After the famous root exploit pre-installed spyware incident I don't trust Fonality.
2. They have a long history of delivering broken installs but have been getting better in the last year or so.
3. They say they're an open source project but don't really act like one.
4. Trixbox is RPM based , and PBXInAFlash uses Centos 5 but compiles all of the asterisk components from source (which is what you have to do most of the time to fix Trixbox).
5. Unlike a lot of other distributions PBXInAFlash doesn't try to hide that FreePBX is doing all of he real magic that those distributions taking credit for.
6. PBXInAFlash works reliably and doesn't have everything under the sun thrown in that you don't need.

That said, Kerry Garrison's tutorials are pretty good.
In either case if you want to learn start here:
http://dumbme.mbit.com.au/
http://dumbme.mbit.com.au/piaf/piaf_without_tears.pdf
http://dumbme.mbit.com.au/trixbox2/trixbox2_without_tears.pdf

JD
--
JD Austin
Twin Geckos Technology Services LLC
jd@twingeckos.com
480.288.8195x201
http://www.twingeckos.com


Emo Philips  - "I was sleeping the other night, alone, thanks to the exterminator."

On Mon, Jan 19, 2009 at 10:01 PM, Lisa Kachold <lisakachold@obnosis.com> wrote:
Yea Howdy!

Trixbox ala Kerry Garrison is a really easy PBX setup (complete with everything you need for an AutoAttendant, Voicemail, Fax, CMS, dial around and through apps)  that installs from an ISO:  http://www.trixbox.org/downloads
 
Kerry Garrison offers easy to follow videos here: asterisktutorials.com  - search for trixbox.

Simple setup How-Tos exist at voip-info.org

Course you can get a fine PSTN SIP trunk from axvoice.com for $9.99 a month or buy FX0 cards for a phone line (or lines).

You can buy a drop and dial asterisk based configuration from Jim Rhodes over at Rhinoequipment.com.

I think my name is still on some of the bash scripts for the Trixbox 2.0 release from contributions?

www.Obnosis.com |  http://wiki.obnosis.com | http://hackfest.obnosis.com (503)754-4452
PLUG HACKFESTS - http://uat.edu Second Saturday of Each Month Noon - 3PM

Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 13:19:24 -0700
Subject: Re: GrandCentral via Asterisk
From: jd@twingeckos.com
To: plug-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us


Asterisk is the engine that enables pstn/voip connectivity (think linux kernel).
Asterisk when bundled with other open source software can do all the things GrandCentral does and more provided you give it the connectivity it needs to do so (PSTN or voip).  A good place to start is with PBXInAFlash (pbxinaflash.org).

JD
--
JD Austin
Twin Geckos Technology Services LLC
jd@twingeckos.com
480.288.8195x201
http://www.twingeckos.com


Katharine Hepburn  - "Death will be a great relief. No more interviews."

On Mon, Jan 19, 2009 at 11:29 AM, Kurt Granroth <kurt+plug-discuss@granroth.com> wrote:
I know that there are some people on this list that use Asterisk a
decent bit.  Those that do... are you familiar with GrandCentral?  If
so, how do they compare?

http://www.grandcentral.com/home/features

I really like the control that something like GrandCentral gives you.
The ability to choose where you receive a call (home, cell, work, etc)
based on who is calling or when they are calling is a killer feature for me.

Alas, there are just too many potential gotchas with that service to
really commit to it other than as a play-thing (or as a number passed
out freely to businesses and warranty cards and the like).  What I would
like is that kind of control... but in a way that *I* control it all!

So no calls being routed through a 3rd party server; no voicemails
stored on their server; no need to upload all of my contacts to a search
company; etc.

Asterisk seems like it might be able to do all that... but who can tell?
 Their site is horribly disorganized and when you do find a "feature"
page, they spend all their time in an acronym frenzy.

So... does anybody know?

Kurt


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