I have a Polycom 501 on my desk. My coworkers have the same phone. Asterisk plays nice with SIP, so it works fine on that front.
The webmin is a bit clunky, but otherwise it's a great phone. The speakerphone on it is _fantastic_, and it's cheaper than the competition. -CMP On 11/13/06, Brian Henning <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
I've been in touch with people at CDW, where we buy some of our enterprise-grade stuff (when we do buy such things). They don't seem to offer the Cisco 79x0 phones, but their "telephony expert" suggested the Polycom 501/601 phones, as units that are reasonably easy to use and work well with Asterisk. Does anyone have comments to make in favor or against the Polycom models? Cheers, ~Brian [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Brian, > > Asterisk is definitely enterprise ready but you have identified some of > the weak points below. Still, if you have a fairly static phone config > and just need basic phone apps, then Asterisk is easily do-able for the > average office. > > Paging is best done using an analog speaker system - which looks to > Asterisk like a simple Analog phone line. Other than that, you can use > the intercom feature available with Cisco 7940 or 7960 phones and just > setup a "conferencing" group that uses the intercom feature on all your > phones. It won't work perfectly, but it will work. > > If you think you need 24 lines then a PRI is the way to go. You'll get > CallerID and the cost is much cheaper for the setup and maintenance. > > If you go with POE switches, that will be more expensive than buying > power bricks for each phone, but you will get some nice honking Cisco > switching power that will vlan out your Voice traffic from your Data. > The cheaper solution is to get a Cisco 2924 XL-EN (that "EN" part is > *very* important) and bunch of power bricks. It cost would be about half > of that of going with a Cisco 3524-PWR > > The advantages of VoIP are tremendous, and installation is about half > the cost of a traditional service, but... it still ain't cheap. > > If you guys want an interrum solution (hosted VoIP), then look us up. We > would be happy to help you take you guys off your old PBX and move you > over to the world of VoIP. And if you need any Asterisk help, let me know. > > BTW: I've gotten several Kick-butt Asterisk servers from Cerient (Jason > Tower). The costs have all been around $2k (plus the Digium hardware), > and they would work great as and Enterprise Asterisk server for an > office of your size or larger. > > Jon Carnes > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Brian Henning <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Date: Thursday, November 9, 2006 12:20 pm > Subject: [TriLUG] Asterisk for the office > To: TriLUG <[email protected]> > >> Hi Y'all, >> Coming back around to the Asterisk topic again.. Now that we're >> looking at the possibility of expanding off-site operations, having >> a >> completely-VoIP office telephony solution is seeming more and more >> prudent. So I'm looking for some advice from folks who have >> deployed >> whole-office systems using Asterisk (as well as input from folks >> that >> have used non-Open-Source software). I've already thought of the >> following points: >> >> - Need a real butt-kicking server to handle as many as 24 inbound >> lines >> (using a Digium TDM2400), plus however many inter-office calls may >> be >> occurring (plus room for expansion). Right now I'm contemplating a >> Core >> 2 Extreme-based system. >> >> - In the absence of intelligent managed switchgear, need separate >> switchgear for 100bT for the phones. Possibly with PoE. >> >> - Need to have all the features of our existing PBX. General >> call-handling features are a cinch with * dialplan and >> applications, but >> I'm finding, in particular, the "page" or "intercom" feature seems >> to be >> more of a challenge in the VoIP world. Paging ability is essential. >> >> - Phones need to be simple enough that our folks can use them, but >> complex enough to handle things like paging. I've seen >> recommendations >> for the Cisco 7960 set. Price is a consideration, as our initial >> investment will be 30 phones. >> >> I'm also all-ears for other options. It'd be fantastic in $boss's >> eyes, >> I'm sure, if we didn't have to abandon the investment we've already >> made >> in our current Nortel MICS system. Unfortunately, so far the only >> way >> I've found to interface the PBX with an Asterisk system is via >> analog >> adapters. Icky, because of course then you lose a lot of the PBX >> features for the Asterisk users. >> >> Also, if there's anyone that would like to come visit our facility, >> evaluate our current system and our needs and make a quote, I'd be >> very >> happy to entertain it. >> >> Thanks a lot! >> >> Cheers, >> ~Brian >> -- >> ---------------- >> Brian A. Henning >> strutmasters.com >> 336.597.2397x238 >> ---------------- >> -- >> TriLUG mailing list : >> http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/trilugTriLUG Organizational >> FAQ : http://trilug.org/faq/ >> TriLUG Member Services FAQ : http://members.trilug.org/services_faq/ >> -- ---------------- Brian A. Henning strutmasters.com 336.597.2397x238 ---------------- -- TriLUG mailing list : http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/trilug TriLUG Organizational FAQ : http://trilug.org/faq/ TriLUG Member Services FAQ : http://members.trilug.org/services_faq/
-- Cristobal M. Palmer UNC-CH SILS Student -- ils.unc.edu/~cmpalmer TriLUG Vice Chair "There are many roads to enlightenment, and thus many roads back to the One True Debian" --crimsun -- TriLUG mailing list : http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/trilug TriLUG Organizational FAQ : http://trilug.org/faq/ TriLUG Member Services FAQ : http://members.trilug.org/services_faq/
