Mostly cost related, and preparing for the future. I currently run Asterisk on a solid state embedded server. So I do have asterisk on a separate machine for now.This server cost about $300. (But I assembled it from spare parts)
My other reason is routers are getting more and more powerful, so it seems natural that they will be able to do more in the future. I expect PBXs on the router to become more popular in the future and would like to prepare for this in advance. My router and PBX are on a UPS, and limiting their power usage could be beneficial. Another option is something like PlugPBX (Asterisk on a sheevaplug). This would cost about $120. This seems like a good solution for people who want a separate server for their PBX, but still want power savings and low cost. I've been looking at moving asterisk to my router for a while. But only recently does it seems these routers have enough power to handle small asterisk installations. In general Voip does not require a lot of power unless, you're doing echo cancellation, playing audio files (esp MP3s), recording calls, doing conference calling, or transcoding. A simple SIP connection requires very little processor usage. So a small home office can almost run from a router these days. I've been considering perfecting my setup then offering to setup home offices as a service. My home office phone bill has gone from ~$65/month to ~$8/month. That's a $684 per year savings on a $100 router that most people need anyway. My current setup gives me unlimited channels. I can have one person on hold, while I speak to another, with someone else leaving a voicemail that gets sent to me via email, and 3 people having a conference call, with someone else using their extension. Its basically a profession office solution for cheap. I'm going to post some pro-tips on this in the future. -Curtis. On Thu, 2010-12-09 at 11:42 -0500, Patricia Campbell wrote: > Hi would you svp let me know why you would want to run asterisk on a > router versus a server, other than the obvious no extra box needed? > > > Thanks > > On Fri, Dec 3, 2010 at 11:23 AM, Curtis Monroe <[email protected]> > wrote: > I researched a number of routers before I settled on this one: > http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Asus_RT-N16 > > > It's got a lot of memory ( 128MB RAM, 32MB Flash ) so you can > run > asterisk and other larger applications. > > It's got a good processor, 480MHz, (overclockable to 533MHz, > with > instructions to hack in a fan). I have not overclocked mine. > > The downside is that it is not dual-band, the chipset is > dual-band, but > it does not have the 5GHz radio inside. So you are stuck using > the > 2.4GHz spectrum that may contend with other devices and > routers. This is > not a problem for me as I'm only using 802.11G, and just got > the router > to handle QOS for my Bell FIBE25, (My WRT45GL did not have the > horse > power to do QOS at 25MBps). > > Price is reasonable: $105 cash at Microbytes: > > http://www.microbytes.com/computer/ordinateur/product_info.php?products_id=33676 > (be sure to call and reserve one before going to the store, as > they > don't seem to have many in stock) > > Enjoy, > -Curtis. > > > > On Fri, 2010-12-03 at 09:30 -0500, Jeremy wrote: > > Can anyone _confirm_ a router being sold these days with > a/b/g/n > > capabilities that supports DD-WRT? > > > > It is a real mess to try and figure out which will, > especially with the > > differences in -CA models, and the fact you can't see the > revision of > > the model without going and opening a box usually. > > > > On the same note, am willing to trade a brand new D-link > DIR-655 N > > router for a WRT54G(L) that will support dd-wrt :) This is a > good deal > > if you don't care about flashing your router and you want to > upgrade > > from ye olde blue box. > > > > Jeremy > > _______________________________________________ > > mlug mailing list > > [email protected] > > > > https://listes.koumbit.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mlug-listserv.mlug.ca > > -- > Curtis Monroe > Wk: 514-316-8487 x230 > > > _______________________________________________ > mlug mailing list > [email protected] > > https://listes.koumbit.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mlug-listserv.mlug.ca > > > > > -- > ___..___........__.......__ > ...|....|__/....|...|......|...|__| > ...|....|.....\...|...|__..|...|....| > > "You must be the change you wish to see in the world." Mohandas K > Gandhi > -- Curtis Monroe Wk: 514-316-8487 x230 _______________________________________________ mlug mailing list [email protected] https://listes.koumbit.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mlug-listserv.mlug.ca
