GrandCentral via Asterisk

Tue Jan 20 10:07:37 MST 2009

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 at obnosis.com> wrote:
From: Lisa Kachold <lisakachold at obnosis.com>
Subject: RE: GrandCentral via Asterisk
To: plug-discuss at lists.plug.phoenix.az.us
Date: Tuesday, January 20, 2009, 9:15 AM

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Yes,  I agree with jd at 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 at twingeckos.com
To: plug-discuss at 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 at 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 at 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 at twingeckos.com

To: plug-discuss at 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 at 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 at 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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