Advanced VoIP Setup: Will Asterisk Work Here?

OK, I’m trying to see if I can’t pull this off with asterisk:

I’m working for a company with 4 offices in different states and cities.

Each office has a Windows 2003 domain server. The servers are not connected, there is no VPN or anything. Each office has an existing PSTN. With this PSTN they can call intra-office free of charge, dial 9, and get an outside line. Calls between offices are NOT free…

Now, I realize that I will have to set up a VPN between the 4. Instate a Forest/tree domain relationship, etc.

All the offices have 1mb+ lines that are not too congested at the worst of times.

Can I use Aterisk to set up a way for the employess to call any other employee over with SIP free of charge, and still be able to call outside lines (with an extension like 9’) like before, at normal rates?

why the VPN and hassle of AD forests ? do the servers have to be able to talk to each other ?

how many asterisk servers are you proposing ? 1 at each site, or 1 between them ?

it sounds as if each office has a PBX already if they’re dialing a 9 to get an outside line. are you going to install alongside or replace existing equipment ?

I was thinking of something along the lines of 1 server in the main office, connecting all of them together.

We will NOT be using a VoIP provider, only intranet. In order to have 1 server, I will need the various officies hooked up in a LAN, as in a VPN.

Unless of course, there is something easier I’m missing out on… Can you help me out?

PS I don’t want TWO phones on each desk, I’m thinking of one phone where you can call free anyone else in the company, and also dial outside lines. If it is possible to integrate the PSTN with a VoIP phone, that would be great.

what you want is certainly possible, but made a bit more complex by the fact you will (obviously) want to maintain the free “local” calls for each office. only using a single Asterisk box means that you either need remote FXO interfaces, or you integrate FXS interfaces with your current phone systems.

an Asterisk server at each site would mean you could ditch the current systems and setup IAX peer relationships between them (VPN or not).

the fact is that you could run inter-office communications with Skype (yuk!) so i think you need to see what it is you really want to do. i have an Asterisk client that started out with Skype, just to see what the impact of wider comms had on his business. luckily it was very positive, but he could have decided that the high quality audio and easy rollout was enough.

Hey, you are the boss… :stuck_out_tongue:

I personally have no problem installing a Asterisk server at every location. Fill me in. What will I then need to do?

Can I MSN Messenger you? You seem to know what I want, and I’m in a tad of a hurry… :wink:

i don’t do MSN, sorry.

not really available for free 1-on-1 support anyway, i just pop into this forum when i have a few minutes free and the fancy takes me.

if you’re that short of time, you want consultancy … have you googled for a local asterisk installer/consultant ?

you still haven’t decided about the current phone system, although i would suggest an asterisk server at each site, IAX peering setup between them, and a TDM card in each server for the PSTN connection (lose the current system). you choose the phones for the desk. job done.

OK, thanks for the help. Questions answered… New questions arose, new topic being started…