Miles, I am not sure someone will really help you for 50 USD :)
1. Anyway, be sure, the hardware VoIP phone (SIP or better IAX2) is much better than any softphone. At least you can count on commercial codecs, like G.729 with the hardware phone. The simplest way to check this is to personally try and compare :) I recommend to use low-cost IAX2 hardware phone (the price is around 50 USD) because there may be some NAT issues with SIP clients in some countries. 2. If you are looking for most flexible and cheap solution - make a try to find DID providers in these countries you are interested in. The price for DID is about 5 USD/month each, which is surely cheaper than hosting own equipment and paying telco's monthly fees in every country. This will solve the internet connectivity too, so you may count on better quality. 3. Easiest way to track the connected clients is if you use Asterisk Realtime and just query the database (say MySQL) when you need. 4. Best is to use own dialing plan and own extensions. Then you can map the real DIDs just like you wish. ----- Original Message ----- > < Miles Keaton> >> QUESTIONS: >> >> - Each work-at-home person should only need a headset + softphone >> software on their PC, right? (Is the software audio quality as good >> as separate hardware SIP phones now, if run on a modern-speed PC? >> Recommendation for best?) >> >> - To have land-line (incoming) phone numbers in a country, should we >> have an Asterisk server in that country? A rack-mount server in a >> telco/colo center, that receives the calls in on a Digium card then >> SIP-routes them out to the work-at-home SIP phones? (I'm assuming it >> shouldn't be all-one-central server, since calls from Australia to >> Australia would actually be crossing the ocean twice, reducing call >> quality.) >> >> - Can Asterisk report-back IAX-softphone availability, without needing >> to pass a call? So our website can say how many agents are available >> (in which countries) to take their call now? >> >> - Is there a better way you'd recommend setting up phones for the >> "SITUATION" described, above? Since there is no legacy phone number >> or contract, it could be 100% VoIP. >> >> >> Thanks! >> >> _______________________________________________ >> >> Sign up now for AstriCon 2007! September 25-28th. >> http://www.astricon.net/ >> >> --Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com-- >> >> asterisk-biz mailing list >> To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: >> http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-biz >> >> > > > _______________________________________________ > > Sign up now for AstriCon 2007! September 25-28th. > http://www.astricon.net/ > > --Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com-- > > asterisk-biz mailing list > To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: > http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-biz > _______________________________________________ Sign up now for AstriCon 2007! September 25-28th. http://www.astricon.net/ --Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com-- asterisk-biz mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-biz
