[asterisk-users] Analog FXO or IAX DIDS for new facility?

2009-07-23 Thread Stephen Fierbaugh (PBT)
I am a Linux sysadmin who has been tasked with developing the phone 
system for our nonprofit's new US headquarters building.  We cannot 
bring our legacy phone system with us, so I am building this completely 
from scratch.  I have already read Asterisk: The Future of Telephony 
and done a fair amount of googling.  I am completely sold on Asterisk, 
and the new building's phones will be a mix of SIP handsets and softphones.

I am confused about one thing:  Should we be getting a block of analog 
circuits from the local telco (probably ATT), connected to the server's 
FXO cards for in-bound and out-bound POTS calls; or should we get a 
block of DIDS numbers from one of the plethora of providers available 
over the Internet, and then have our server connect POTS calls by IAX to 
the DIDS provider?

We are unsure whether we are going to have separate numbers for everyone 
in the organization, or just 1 US phone number, with everyone in the org 
having their own extension number.  That probably largely depends upon cost.

We will have 75 people in the building.  We have no data on call 
patterns or usage (because our legacy system belongs to our current 
facilities host), but we currently have 4 lines for 35 people and on 
unusual occasions they all get busy.

An additional consideration is that we also have 300 other people 
scattered literally world-wide, and the next logical future step is to 
start providing VOIP links for them, as well.

Thanks in advance for your advice.  Any other suggestions, such as # of 
lines sizing info or reputable DIDS vendors (if that's the answer) are 
also appreciated.

-- 
Sincerely Yours,
Stephen P. Fierbaughstep...@fierbaugh.org
Pioneer Bible Translatorsstephen.fierba...@pbti.org
Pronounced: Fire as in hot, Bah as in humbug!

 John 3:16 in over 3,000 
languages.


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Re: [asterisk-users] Analog FXO or IAX DIDS for new facility?

2009-07-23 Thread Danny Nicholas
My .02 - IAX may not be an option and is probably not a good one if it is.
It requires a good bit of overhead to work reliably and well.  You won't go
wrong using SIP DID's, but if you use Analog FXO, I'd go for an 8 or 16 port
card and make sure you get the card away from any existing IRQ's, especially
the RAID one.  If you went SIP DID instead of FXO, this would make putting
your world-wide folks in an easier task.  IMO a pretty good rule-of-thumb is
that a line for every 8 folks will generally work pretty well, with a
minimum of 3 lines.

-Original Message-
From: asterisk-users-boun...@lists.digium.com
[mailto:asterisk-users-boun...@lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Stephen
Fierbaugh (PBT)
Sent: Thursday, July 23, 2009 9:52 AM
To: asterisk-users@lists.digium.com
Subject: [asterisk-users] Analog FXO or IAX DIDS for new facility?

I am a Linux sysadmin who has been tasked with developing the phone 
system for our nonprofit's new US headquarters building.  We cannot 
bring our legacy phone system with us, so I am building this completely 
from scratch.  I have already read Asterisk: The Future of Telephony 
and done a fair amount of googling.  I am completely sold on Asterisk, 
and the new building's phones will be a mix of SIP handsets and softphones.

I am confused about one thing:  Should we be getting a block of analog 
circuits from the local telco (probably ATT), connected to the server's 
FXO cards for in-bound and out-bound POTS calls; or should we get a 
block of DIDS numbers from one of the plethora of providers available 
over the Internet, and then have our server connect POTS calls by IAX to 
the DIDS provider?

We are unsure whether we are going to have separate numbers for everyone 
in the organization, or just 1 US phone number, with everyone in the org 
having their own extension number.  That probably largely depends upon cost.

We will have 75 people in the building.  We have no data on call 
patterns or usage (because our legacy system belongs to our current 
facilities host), but we currently have 4 lines for 35 people and on 
unusual occasions they all get busy.

An additional consideration is that we also have 300 other people 
scattered literally world-wide, and the next logical future step is to 
start providing VOIP links for them, as well.

Thanks in advance for your advice.  Any other suggestions, such as # of 
lines sizing info or reputable DIDS vendors (if that's the answer) are 
also appreciated.

-- 
Sincerely Yours,
Stephen P. Fierbaughstep...@fierbaugh.org
Pioneer Bible Translatorsstephen.fierba...@pbti.org
Pronounced: Fire as in hot, Bah as in humbug!

 John 3:16 in over 3,000
languages.


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Re: [asterisk-users] Analog FXO or IAX DIDS for new facility?

2009-07-23 Thread randulo
On Thu, Jul 23, 2009 at 5:08 PM, Danny Nicholasda...@debsinc.com wrote:
 My .02 - IAX may not be an option and is probably not a good one if it is.
 It requires a good bit of overhead to work reliably and well.  You won't go
 wrong using SIP DID's, but if you use Analog FXO, I'd go for an 8 or 16 port
snip

I second what Danny said, go for SIP DID, there are many good
providers and you could even have local DID in different countires if
that made it easier for your correspondents. There are IAX providers
too , though if you have a compelling reason to use IAX. Go with a
solid, long running company on the DIDs.

/r

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Re: [asterisk-users] Analog FXO or IAX DIDS for new facility?

2009-07-23 Thread Paul Hales

In australia, I would usually suggest a mix of E1 and SIP for calls - it
doesn't cost any money to receive calls via E1, and redundancy is an
old, valuable friend of mine.

PaulH


Stephen Fierbaugh (PBT) wrote:
 I am a Linux sysadmin who has been tasked with developing the phone 
 system for our nonprofit's new US headquarters building.  We cannot 
 bring our legacy phone system with us, so I am building this completely 
 from scratch.  I have already read Asterisk: The Future of Telephony 
 and done a fair amount of googling.  I am completely sold on Asterisk, 
 and the new building's phones will be a mix of SIP handsets and softphones.

 I am confused about one thing:  Should we be getting a block of analog 
 circuits from the local telco (probably ATT), connected to the server's 
 FXO cards for in-bound and out-bound POTS calls; or should we get a 
 block of DIDS numbers from one of the plethora of providers available 
 over the Internet, and then have our server connect POTS calls by IAX to 
 the DIDS provider?

 We are unsure whether we are going to have separate numbers for everyone 
 in the organization, or just 1 US phone number, with everyone in the org 
 having their own extension number.  That probably largely depends upon cost.

 We will have 75 people in the building.  We have no data on call 
 patterns or usage (because our legacy system belongs to our current 
 facilities host), but we currently have 4 lines for 35 people and on 
 unusual occasions they all get busy.

 An additional consideration is that we also have 300 other people 
 scattered literally world-wide, and the next logical future step is to 
 start providing VOIP links for them, as well.

 Thanks in advance for your advice.  Any other suggestions, such as # of 
 lines sizing info or reputable DIDS vendors (if that's the answer) are 
 also appreciated.

   


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