Tom, If you shop around you should be able to find either new Polycom 320's or perhaps some used or refurbished Polycom's or Cisco's for very reasonable prices. I'd suggest contacting a reseller and telling them you're looking for used or refurbs. I know I've gotten some open box IP 320's for around $70 US (with full warranty).
Of course you may need new wiring and POE switches but the time you'll save in the long run will off-set any cost difference. I'd think the net5501 should be able to handle the 8 channels without a problem. I don't have a T1 card, but I do have that same Rhino card with 5 dual fxo's and two dual fxs's on a net5501 working flawlessly. Darrick Tom Chadwin wrote: > Thanks for all the advice, everyone. > > Noted the FXS power issue. As for cost of channel banks versus PCI > cards, I was looking rather at something like the Rhino board: > > http://www.voipon.co.uk/rhino-r24fxxec-24-port-analog-pci-card-base-board-wec-p-568.html > > Fully loaded with 12 x dual FXS, that works out at under £1000 (= ca > $1370). However, given the interrupt problem, I can see this is not > going to work. Three channel banks is going to work out about the same > price as 60 SIP handsets, so I still have to make my mind up. Not > finding the Draytek 24-port ATA for sale in the UK, but would be > interested how that compares in price. > > I also wondered about possibly having mutiple asterisk boxes - say, > one per 24-port FXS PCI card, but again, the price is probably going > to end up being about the same. > > Thanks also for the advice re: the net5501 and PRI. I should clarify - > although the office has a PRI, it has only 8 channels. Does this mean > the 5501 might be able to handle it, or is it still too much? > > Thanks again > > Tom > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > This SF.net email is sponsored by: > SourcForge Community > SourceForge wants to tell your story. > http://p.sf.net/sfu/sf-spreadtheword > _______________________________________________ > Astlinux-users mailing list > Astlinux-users@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/astlinux-users > > Donations to support AstLinux are graciously accepted via PayPal to > pay...@krisk.org. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This SF.net email is sponsored by: SourcForge Community SourceForge wants to tell your story. http://p.sf.net/sfu/sf-spreadtheword _______________________________________________ Astlinux-users mailing list Astlinux-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/astlinux-users Donations to support AstLinux are graciously accepted via PayPal to pay...@krisk.org.
