Way OT, But Very Cool Tech Thing

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If any of you run a small business (or just want a free full featured phone system) there is a completely free PBX system called trixbox CE (www.trixbox.org) based on the Asterisk enterprise scale PBX application.

This is a full-featured PBX will all kinds of top-flite whistles and bells - voicemail to email, fax to email, call conferencing, video conferencing, web meeting, call parking, follow me, voice menu, music on hold (custom), etc., etc. etc. You configure with a web browser from any computer on your network.
I have it installed on a $25 733Mhz AMD Duron 256 Meg RAM thrift store machine and it runs 8 extensions in my law office with no problem whatsoever.
I have a remote extension set up on a "softphone" on my laptop. Check into the hotel, log onto wireless internet and BANG it's just like I'm at my office. My secretary can transfer calls to me. I can conference call, whatever. Same thing with my cell phone (though only one line so no conferencing).
I do all this on VOIP with a Broadvoice business account for $37 a month - Unlimited calling (2 lines) to US (50 states) Canada and some Carribean countries.
I set my mom up in FL with an extension... Now she can just pick up the phone, dial my extension #, and call me in VA over her broadband connection... For free.
The Grandstream GXP 2000 VOIP phones cost about 60 bucks each. So for under $500, I have a complete PBX system that would cost 5-8 grand elsewhere.
This system would be perfect for collaborating writers. All you need is broadband and some time to spend.

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]If any of you run a small business (or just want a free full featured phone system) there is a ... grand elsewhere. This system would be perfect for collaborating writers. All you need is broadband and some time to spend.[/nq]
Cool. We used a TrixBox Asterisk phone system at my last job (about 20 phones) but our owner's son set up a redundant dual-core server hooked up to traditonal T-1 trunks located at the local CO. (The idea was to sell the service to couple other businesses, so we had plenty of bandwith to do that and the system was centrally located.)
You must have fairly reliable Internet service there (wherever you are). I'm surprised that a 733mhz system works that well, but Linux can get an awful lot of use out of older equipment.
Thanks for the information.

RonB
"There's a story there...somewhere"

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]You must have fairly reliable Internet service there (wherever you are). I'm surprised that a 733mhz system works that well, but Linux can get an awful lot of use out of older equipment.[/nq]
Yeah, my internet service has been perfect for two years (Verizon Business DSL static IP 3 MBs down, 768 MBs up) here in beautiful downtown Lynchburg. 23 ms latency to the backbone and no jitter. This despite the fact that we have no fiber optic on the street and despite the fact that we do a third of the trip to the backbone in Northern Virginia by microwave relay.
Can't say the same for Broadvoice, which has been far less reliable (though very, very acceptable given the ridiculously low price they charge for unlimited business calling). I left one analog POTS card in the machine as a backup, connected to my POTS fax line, but I've never once had to use it in two years. I use two different ultra low cost VOIP providers as failovers for Broadvoice and I've had to use them every couple of months or so.
My AMD Duron machine doesn't do much computing work - it mostly just routes traffic. I don't use compressed codecs so the processor stays cool and unloaded. However, each uncompressed call takes about 90 Mbs, so if my business grows much bigger, I will be limited my internet bandwith.

My RAM is always maxed out, but I've learned that Asterisk just does that - it scales up to hog all your RAM no matter how much you have. I installed a gigabit ethernet card, but I think it's overkill. I could easily do twice the call volume I do on that hardware if I had more bandwith.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]My RAM is always maxed out, but I've learned that Asterisk just does that - it scales up to hog all your RAM no matter how much you have. I installed a gigabit ethernet card, but I think it's overkill. Â I could easily do twice the call volume I do on that hardware if I had more bandwith.[/nq]
That's Linux. It always takes "all the RAM" but you'll notice it hardly ever steps up the fan motors.
It looks like you know a whole lot more about Asterisk than I do. You may, or may not, be aware that you can get O'Reilly's book "Asterisk The Future of Telephony, 2nd Edition" free in PDF format part of the agreement when O'Reilly publishes it. (Suggested retail price is $45, but sells for $30 on Amazon.)
http://cachefly.oreilly.com/books/9780596510480.pdf

RonB
"There's a story there...somewhere"

Way OT, But Very Cool Tech Thing

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