Just a quick note to thank David for his presentation of Asterisk on the
Linksys WRT54GS platform at last night's meeting. This was my first
TAUG meeting, and it was great to see such a large turnout on such an
interesting topic. I'm looking forward to seeing David's handouts on
the web site.
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to stick around for the social part of the
event. I hope you all eventually made it over to Toby's and I'll assume
from the lack of messages this morning that it was a late night!
Not to take anything away from the concept, but I'm still a little
confused as to how placing the WRT54GS with Asterisk at the near-end for
one or two calls can save a lot of bandwidth compared to having the
Cisco phones connect directly to a hosted PBX server. I understand
installing Asterisk locally if you're running a large number of
phone/extensions at the home office, but otherwise, how is this an
advantage over a hosted Virtual PBX?
Is it the transcoding that helps?
Or maybe I'm just missing a basic understanding of how SIP works.. if
calling another extension, can the Cisco phones not re-invite themselves
to a shorter path between each other (i.e. without going through a
central server) once the connection is signaled?
Also, thanks David for the tip to use a 1-800 number as an "outgoing
extension" for users who doesn't have reliable Internet to use a VoIP
phone. That hadn't occurred to me. It's still cheaper than traditional
long distance; and to have the CID appear to be from the small business
in Toronto while you're lounging for a week at the cottage is priceless!
Cheers,
Sean.
