I’m in a SOHO and we are in the first stage of implementing a PBX Asterisk based and we need several services to be covered by the system. The one that most worries us is inbound routing. We have several offices around the world being the headquarters in Madrid. We would like that if some one calls to Madrid but for any reason (night time, no one is available, etc) no one answer, reroute the call to other office in other country. I went over FreePBX and I think it is not possible to get this rerouting with it. I guess that this is possible to do with Asterisk “raw”, right?
Another question is what are the main differences between any of the GUI-PBX based on Asterisk and installing Asterisk software by itself. Which are the limits of this GUI-PBX?
The main limitation of the GUI ones tends to be support. Questions on the AsteriskNow sub-forums tend not to get answered, and on the Asterisk ones tend to get answered in terms of raw Asterisk.
Is is possible, with the installation of the ‘Time Conditions’ module, to do time of day routing using FreePBX.
As to which s better…
I believe it is a matter of personal preference and abilities. There are some things I like FreePBX for because some tasks are simply easier. There are some tasks that I find it easier to write directly in dial plan, but FreePBX provides the ‘_custom’ mechanism. It also provides the ‘_override’ mechanism if I do not like the way something works. Sometimes, when using FreePBX, you have to do things that may seem a bit contrived in order to make something work the way you want, but depending on your needs, you may never run into that.
Some benefits of using a GUI such as FreePBX.
Feature rich dial plan that is easy to configure.
Community of users to ask questions to, though sometimes the questions do not get answered.
Easy management of devices and extensions. This lowers the learning curve or allows people to use the system that would never consider writing dial plan code.
Perceived ‘polished’ look when the Customer/Executive see a GUI front-end.
There are, of course, some limitations to using a GUI such as FreePBX.
Adds a layer of complexity to debugging because you have to work with someone else’s generated code.
You cannot do complex things, like true IVR. Simple Auto Attendant menus are there, but complex database related work, no.
Because the code is generated for you, you may not take the opportunity to really learn how Asterisk works.
If your customers can manage their own systems due to the ease of management, it may reduce billable hours.
[quote=“dalenoll”]Is is possible, with the installation of the ‘Time Conditions’ module, to do time of day routing using FreePBX.
As to which s better…
I believe it is a matter of personal preference and abilities. There are some things I like FreePBX for because some tasks are simply easier. There are some tasks that I find it easier to write directly in dial plan, but FreePBX provides the ‘_custom’ mechanism. It also provides the ‘_override’ mechanism if I do not like the way something works. Sometimes, when using FreePBX, you have to do things that may seem a bit contrived in order to make something work the way you want, but depending on your needs, you may never run into that.
Some benefits of using a GUI such as FreePBX.
Feature rich dial plan that is easy to configure.
Community of users to ask questions to, though sometimes the questions do not get answered.
Easy management of devices and extensions. This lowers the learning curve or allows people to use the system that would never consider writing dial plan code.
Perceived ‘polished’ look when the Customer/Executive see a GUI front-end.
There are, of course, some limitations to using a GUI such as FreePBX.
Adds a layer of complexity to debugging because you have to work with someone else’s generated code.
You cannot do complex things, like true IVR. Simple Auto Attendant menus are there, but complex database related work, no.
Because the code is generated for you, you may not take the opportunity to really learn how Asterisk works.
If your customers can manage their own systems due to the ease of management, it may reduce billable hours. [/quote]
Thanks (both) for your quick responses and specially you, dalenoll, for your complete answer!
It’s very interesting the thing that you point out about IVR. Given that I don’t know all things it can be done with it, could you point me out some URL or some source of information about it? Maybe a few axamples?
Other point that I would like to implement is the Active Directory integration so that the process of authentication and assignment of extensions gets automatized and things like this. Is it possible to do this with FreePBX?
IVR is a term that is often, in my opinion, is overused. Many describe a simple voice menu tree of “Press 1 for sales, 2 for customer server…” as IVR. To me, that is an Auto-Attendant. This is what FreePBX can provide. It can allow for multiple menu levels and you could create complex trees using that modules.
However, to me, to be classified as an IVR, it really must be interactive with the user. This means accepting information beyond simple choices and providing varied responses based on that input. There is likely a database behind it and some business logic as well. I would look as a prescription refill service or a bus schedule service as an IVR.
As far as resources go. I have found the new version of the Asterisk book(Asterisk: The Definitive Guide. asteriskdocs.org/ ) to be a pretty good start. There are lots of other resources out there. You will want to look at the AGI and AMI interfaces. The protocols are open and you can use whatever language you want to program in to ‘talk’ to the server. I use Perl most of the time, many use PHP or Java. There are libraries available for most popular languages which takes some of the burden away.
If you like Ruby, you can also look at adhearsion (adhearsion.com/).
I cannot offer anything regarding the connections to Active Directory. I prefer to stay way from it, and so far have been very successful at keeping it out of the environments that I control.
