I have been given a task to look for a telephony board in general. Advice please
a board that’s designed for the technology you’re going to connect it to, from a manufacturer that has a good support function, and provides drivers for the hardware you’re mounting it in.
seriously, you’ll need to be a bit more specific.
Hi
Well this is like being asked to look for something to eat.
You need to narrow down your search a bit
namely:-
Budget
Line type. Alog ISDN
PBX system
OS
Thanks to you both. While, I just try to stand back to see if I can have some general criteria when I am searching the boards. For example, if I’m going to buy a tele, I will go for good brand. Or, if I do not have much fund, I will go for a cheap brand.
Hence, here I am looking for is a general names for boards use in the IVR system.
Cheers
Ok then
Aculab 8e1 4 dsp board ?11000
or clone x100p ?5
or are you looking for something in between?
to buy any hardware you need to know what you want to do and what the budget it.
what board is best for Asterisk?
[quote=“ianplain”]Ok then
Aculab 8e1 4 dsp board ?11000
or clone x100p ?5
or are you looking for something in between?
to buy any hardware you need to know what you want to do and what the budget it.[/quote]
Are you saying that Aculab is a good brand among telephony boards?
One final time
WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO AND WHAT IS YOUR BUDGET ??
As to your Aculab question, if you dont know then you realy do need to do some research, Aculab are carrier grade boards.
Here’s the thing- there are MANY different types of products under the category of ‘telephony boards’. What recommendation we give will be dependant on what you are doing, ie how many lines, what kind of lines, what your server is for, etc.
IE if you have a small office with two analog lines, a $1000+ quad-PRI board is the wrong product for you. Just the same, if you have a call center with a bundle of PRIs as thick as your fist then a 2-port analog board is the wrong product for you also.
So without more info we can’t give a specific recommendation.
What I can tell you is that Digium and Sangoma products are the two big brands for *-based telecom. Both companies make products all the way from single POTS to multiple PRI. They both work great with * and will work well.
I suggest you avoid clone cards, notably the X100 clone. The Digium X100P was an old product, an Intel voice modem rebadged as a Digium product and sold as a single FXO board. The clones are just the same voice modem. Sometimes they work but often they are to blame for a wide variety of problems. They are cheap ($20/port) but should still be avoided if they are at all to be relied upon. Also I hear some of the other digium products have now been cloned, but have also heard the clones are horrible products, producing line noise, echo, etc. So stick to genuine products.
You can also look at other options to connect things.
Voice Gateways are a notable example- a gateway provides you with a telephony interface (multiple POTS, PRI, etc) and connects this to * via SIP (VoIP protocol). The advantage to this can be that the codec (voice compression) is done inside the gateway, reducing the load on the * box.
Channel banks are another option if you have analog ports. It’s basically a PRI (T1/E1/J1) to POTS breakout box, that lets you connect 23 analog lines or phones to a PRI. You connect this to a Digium or Sangoma PRI card inside the * box. It can be a relatively cheap ($/port) way to connect many analog channels.
Lastly, there is a company called Xorcom that does the same thing except over USB. Their product is a box with a USB2.0 port on one side and many analog channels on the other. This removes the need for a PRI card. The driver as I recall is included in Zaptel.
Hope that helps!
[quote=“ianplain”]One final time
WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO AND WHAT IS YOUR BUDGET ??
As to your Aculab question, if you dont know then you realy do need to do some research, Aculab are carrier grade boards.[/quote]
We have an ISDN 30 line, and an Intel dialogic card.
Cheers
[quote=“IronHelix”]Here’s the thing- there are MANY different types of products under the category of ‘telephony boards’. What recommendation we give will be dependant on what you are doing, ie how many lines, what kind of lines, what your server is for, etc.
IE if you have a small office with two analog lines, a $1000+ quad-PRI board is the wrong product for you. Just the same, if you have a call center with a bundle of PRIs as thick as your fist then a 2-port analog board is the wrong product for you also.
So without more info we can’t give a specific recommendation.
What I can tell you is that Digium and Sangoma products are the two big brands for *-based telecom. Both companies make products all the way from single POTS to multiple PRI. They both work great with * and will work well.
I suggest you avoid clone cards, notably the X100 clone. The Digium X100P was an old product, an Intel voice modem rebadged as a Digium product and sold as a single FXO board. The clones are just the same voice modem. Sometimes they work but often they are to blame for a wide variety of problems. They are cheap ($20/port) but should still be avoided if they are at all to be relied upon. Also I hear some of the other digium products have now been cloned, but have also heard the clones are horrible products, producing line noise, echo, etc. So stick to genuine products.
You can also look at other options to connect things.
Voice Gateways are a notable example- a gateway provides you with a telephony interface (multiple POTS, PRI, etc) and connects this to * via SIP (VoIP protocol). The advantage to this can be that the codec (voice compression) is done inside the gateway, reducing the load on the * box.
Channel banks are another option if you have analog ports. It’s basically a PRI (T1/E1/J1) to POTS breakout box, that lets you connect 23 analog lines or phones to a PRI. You connect this to a Digium or Sangoma PRI card inside the * box. It can be a relatively cheap ($/port) way to connect many analog channels.
Lastly, there is a company called Xorcom that does the same thing except over USB. Their product is a box with a USB2.0 port on one side and many analog channels on the other. This removes the need for a PRI card. The driver as I recall is included in Zaptel.
Hope that helps![/quote]
Thanks for the information.
Cheers
Hi
[quote]We have existing IVR system which we purchased years ago. The support is poor. Hence we are going to replace it. We have existing ISDN 30 line, and we have an Intel dialogic card. We are hoping that we can develop or purchase a solution that can use our existing resources.
[/quote]
Now this is vey different to what your original post was about. Why didnt you say this at the begining.
OK what version card do you have ? is it PCI or ISA ?
There is a chance that the Business edition may have drivers for it.
If not you will need a new e1 card and confirm that the ISDN is PRI not Dass if directly connected to the IVR if the connection is to a PBX you will need to confirm that this is PRI, Being years ago It may be DPNSS.
What IVR and PBX is it ?
Other than that Asterisk should easily replace a 10 YO IVR
[quote=“ianplain”]
OK what version card do you have ? is it PCI or ISA ?
There is a chance that the Business edition may have drivers for it.
If not you will need a new e1 card and confirm that the ISDN is PRI not Dass if directly connected to the IVR if the connection is to a PBX you will need to confirm that this is PRI, Being years ago It may be DPNSS.
What IVR and PBX is it ?
Other than that Asterisk should easily replace a 10 YO IVR[/quote]
It is a PCI card: D/300SC-E1; we do not have PBX, and we do not need one.
Cheers