On Feb 12, 2007, at 7:13 PM, Stephen Bosch wrote:
Lee Jenkins wrote:
Stefano Corsi wrote:
[snip]
The nice things about GUI's in my opinion is that routine chores
such as
setting up extensions, dialing extensions, hunt groups, etc. are less
likely to contain scripting bugs or typos. The downside from what I
gather with many GUI's is that the friendly abstraction that
insulates
you from the nuts and bolts of scripting and configuration also
makes it
difficult to customize the dialplan in some cases.
It also makes troubleshooting problems a handful-and-a-half. And
woe is
you if you need kernel customizations to make your hardware work.
Not to start a flame-war, but I completely disagree. Troubleshooting
a GUI is much easier, given that you don't have to scout for typos,
transposed numbers, etc throughout the dialplan. With the GUI, you
have to double check the information that you input into the GUI, but
that's it. As for hardware, it should be no more difficult to get
Trixbox to play nicely with hardware than any other Asterisk install.
You may have to patch and/or recompile zaptel, asterisk, etc, but
that's no different than what you would have to do with a non-Trixbox
install. (and you really shouldn't have to in almost all cases)
I would say this -- if all you're ever going to use is VOIP trunks, by
all means use Trixbox. It's great for that. But if you're using any
kind
of PSTN hardware (TDM cards, Sangoma) just stick with straight
Asterisk.
Are you kidding? Sangoma actually has a version of Trixbox on their
site that comes bundled with their drivers already installed (see
http://wiki.sangoma.com/Trixbox-1xx ). All you have to do is
configure the card(s) in the same way as you would with any Asterisk
install.
I've just had my second go at Trixbox (version 2.0 now) and after
wasting a bunch of time with hardware problems, I'm going to
replace it
with a generic install.
I would suggest (hopefully politely) that you not blame your lack of
experience and ability on Trixbox. If you can get the Sangoma
wanrouter software downloaded and compiled, along with Zaptel,
Asterisk, libpri, etc, then you can certainly do the same on Trixbox,
because all you have to do is "yum search wanpipe" and then "yum
install" the modules and utils packages. Once installed, follow the
instructions on Sangoma's website to configure the card. If all else
fails, you can easily call for support from Sangoma. Even if you
choose not to use yum, it's just as easy to get a Sangoma board
working under Trixbox as it is for any other Asterisk install.
Here's another reason to seriously consider generic: the userbase is
larger, AND they're more likely to know what they're talking about
when
a problem does arise. Trixbox attracts a lot of amateurs who are
themselves new to IP telephony; that's why they choose it.
Valid point, but FreePBX (the program Trixbox uses for GUI Asteirsk
config) also has a large userbase, and a number of Trixbox problems
are not Trixbox specific, and can be addressed by the Asterisk
community as a whole.
Of course, you should take this with a grain of salt since I tried
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
(now TrixBox) for a total of 2 weeks before gutting it.
There is a good reason people don't stick with it for long.
Many people do not stick with Trixbox for long, and many others do.
The crux of the issue is this: FreePBX/Trixbox, and most other GUIs
will make it easier to get your system up and running, and they make
it easier to maintain it, make changes, etc. (I am defining "easier"
as "requiring less technical familiarity with the underpinnings of
exactly what is going on" as well as "less intimidating and error
prone since no manual editing of configuration files is required.")
On the other hand, emacs/vi/pico/whatevereditoryouprefer and the text
config files without a GUI are more difficult, but offer greater
flexibility.
Soooo.... it comes down to "Which is more important to you? Ease of
use for you and/or your clients (who may want to control adds/moves,
etc.) or greater flexibility and control?" Once you answer that
question, you can answer the question "Which is better for me?" The
correct answer to that question may very well be different for you
than it is for me. (and it may be different for you six months from
now than it is today.)
Tom
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