> I have been involved with a BRI install using 3 x Draytek minivigor 128 > BRI > adapters and chan_mISDN. The draytek units use the HFCS-USB chipset, are > USB and take power from the USB interface. Each adapter will support PTP, > PTMP, TE and I think NT mode with a maximum of 8 adapters (16 channels) > per > server. The TA's themselves cost $71 inc GST which is the most cost > effective BRI / multi BRI solution I have found in Australia to date.
Wow! I wish you had spoken up sooner :) I used to try and avoid usb, but the linux usb stack and general usb implementation of hardware has improved a lot in recent years. I might try and get a couple. The vISDN web site says that their hfc usb driver is under development, but there seems to be a bit of code there so maybe it's already working... > I have one in production for about a week, however chan_mISDN is still > listed as experimental at this time. Initially with FC4 and the default > FC4 > kernel the server used to lock up solid about once every 24 hours. It has > been suggested to us that people using kernel 2.6.14 or higher do not > experience these problems so we rebuilt the server with the new kernel and > put it in yesterday. We should find out in a couple of days if this has > fixed the lockup problem. This is a USB shortcoming, is the lockup occurring in the USB hardware (eg you have a faulty mainboard), of of the many layers of the USB linux driver, the HFC usb driver, or the device itself. So many possibilities for failure. Things are better than they used to be though. > If we can't resolve it we'll stick in a Cisco > router to handle the BRI. Will the cisco router will do the BRI to VoIP, or are you working with data? > Anyhow, apart from the lockup problem, it does definitely work and if the > lockup is in chan_mISDN then you could use chan_capi on top of mISDN with > these adapters. I have a server in production elsewhere using the Fritz! > card with mISDN drivers and chan_capi for over a year. > > So, if you have have the ability to do some testing then definitely have a > play with these Draytek adapters. I got mine from Netbro in NSW. Note > that > it is only the currently available minivigors that have the HFCS-USB > chipset, older ones on the secondhand market and eBay most likely use a > Winbond chipset. Thanks for the tip. > As for aesthetics, I was concerned that from the customers viewpoint it > might look dodgy, as if we are using the equivalent of external modems to > connect the PBX to the pstn, however the units are quite small and have a > business feel to them. They look sorta like an ADSL line splitter and > cabled neatly look quite professional. Nice to know. I think that was sort of my perception too, that USB is a 'baby' interface that is useful for plugging in toys like mice and cameras, but nowadays we are selling systems to clients with HP USB DAT72 drives on them, and there are no issues (except that all DAT drives are pieces of crap, but that's nothing to do with the interface, and now we can swap them out without taking the server down!), and USB harddisks are widely used as an easy way to move large amounts of data around. Thanks again for speaking up, I might get a couple and start playing. James _______________________________________________ --Bandwidth and Colocation provided by Easynews.com -- Asterisk-Users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
