Cheap FXS PCI card -- Oxymoron?

Asterisk Asterisk Support
1

I am building my first Asterisk box, using Asterisk@home build.

I see FXO cards for ‘good’ prices like $30 per port (but 1 port per PCI slot).

But I don’t see any equivalent pricing for FXS cards. A Digum TDM20B seems to come in around $270.

I need at least 2 FXS ports for my legacy side. And I would hope they can support a standard 5 REN (maybe that is why it costs so much?).

I have looked at various devices like the Grandstream and Supiras, but they only support one upstream provider at a time, and that won’t work for me.

Any recommendations on how to control my costs here?

2

You get what you pay for. The cheapy cards, they really are IMHO good for testing proof of concepts with systems. You will likely find that the overall quality is very poor with them, functional for a home environment…but in a production environment…not suitable.

3

But what ARE the ‘cheaper’ FXS cards? I have not seen any listed. Or perhaps I am just not recognizing them?

4

You could try this:
voipsupply.com/product_info. … cts_id=713

A Linksys SPA-2002, a X100P clone and a switch/hub could do the trick, if I’m not wrong. Assuming the switch/hub is in place, you should be spending around $100
Disclaimer: I don’t use this product myself.

I still prefer the TDM400P which is the cleaner solution and IMHO worth the extra $.

5

[quote=“RedStapler”]You could try this:
voipsupply.com/product_info. … cts_id=713

A Linksys SPA-2002, a X100P clone and a switch/hub could do the trick, if I’m not wrong. Assuming the switch/hub is in place, you should be spending around $100
Disclaimer: I don’t use this product myself.[/quote]

I have thought about such a combination, with the SPA-2002 configured to use my Asterisk server which in turn goes out to other service providers.

Yuck.

But actually, that might be a good ‘emulation’ of a corporate VoIP deployment? Internal units talking to sole gateway unit.

Just trying to see if this is the only player in the FXS PCI card arena.

I guess this is still such a small market, that the clones have not seriously invaded.

6

[quote=“rgmhtt”]I guess this is still such a small market, that the clones have not seriously invaded.[/quote]Theres’s a couple of other companies besides Digium making cards (names escape me). These are not clones, and do not beat Digium, at least last time I checked.

7

Cards can be purchased from the following shop.

voipcomponents.co.uk

8

as far as TDM400 clones, there arent any real clones that I know of. The only reason X100 clones exist is becuase the X100p itself is pretty much a clone or rebranding of a particular Intel Tiger Jet voice modem.

That said, Sangoma i have heard is currently working on a TDM400 type card, the major advantage being that you can put as many as you want in a system, link them with a funky backplane connector, and when you do only the first one takes up any PCI resources (talking to the others over the backplane) so 5 cards take up 1 IRQ and don’t share (if that makes sense). See telephonyware.com/telephonyw … ma_aa.html .

9

voipcomponents.co.uk/index.php/cPath/36_39

10

So, has anyone actually a recommendation for a cheap FXO and/or FXS card? What most of us reading this thread is looking for is supposedly something that works reasonably well in small scale, i.e. for experimenting or home use.

11

For small scale at home you have 2 options, these are as follows:

  1. Analog card with 2 ports

  2. ATA with Ethernet connection and 2 FXO

  3. ATA with Ethernet connection and 1FXO/1FXS

  4. IP connection to very cheap termination service provider.

Get the basics up until you have to connect to PSTN.