Implementation scenarios

I have two problems which I have been asked to look at on behalf of a client. I have been asked to look at how VOIP could be used within their business both from an internal use point of view and as a potential product offering. I am looking for information which describes different implementation scenarios for asterisk but am having limited success.

  1. How VOIP/Asterisk can be used to provide maximum telecommunication savings for a company that has a European head office and branch offices around Europe and the US (others in future) and a worldwide user base where support is offered, follow the sun.

  2. What different VOIP services can be offered and how, (virtual switch board, VOIP provision, termination, billing etc) as possible offering to existing and future user base.

I know this is a lot to ask but I am hoping someone can give me a head start.

Thanks

If you put it up for bid on guru.com I can generate a solid technical writeup for a couple of hundred bucks.

you’re not kidding. if you don’t want to pay for it you’ll appreciate the resource at voip-info.org/

Hi

OK

I find posts like this very annoying. Mainly because someone is getting paid to provide a solution. So they must have told the client that they can do the work involved. Then they come to forums and ask for it to be done for free for them.
I and many others could happily answer this, but it costs time and MONEY. All the info you want is out there if you know where to look, and based on your “knowledge” you should be able to pull this together in a couple of days. DYOR

Ian

students doing “research” by asking someone here for all the answers are just as bad :exclamation:

They dont worry me, I just point them to the section of the website at my Wifes Uni about plagerism… Its the ones getting paid under false prentences . On a few occasions people have paid up, but they mostly crawl back under their stones.

Ian

At the danger of starting a posting war I find replies like yours annoying. You guys really should try cutting people some slack no-one is forcing you to spend your time answering the question.

The term I used was “head start” not “please do all the work for me”. I have spent many hours looking for information but have not been able to find what I wanted so before doing many more hours work, it is often better to ask those with more experience etc for some guidance/help. That is what these forums are generally meant to offer.

When someone comes to this forum looking for technical help do you tell them to go away and find out the answer for themselves or do you help them. I bet you help them even if they are being paid by a client or by an employer who might expect them to know the answer as they are paying them (maybe you only offer advice to those setting up home systems).

I’m sure at times you have been stuck with a problem which you have been getting paid for sorting out and therefore you should have known the answer because you have convinced someone to pay you to do it, but you still asked for help.

Looking back at many of your answers to technical queries on this forum you have provided many solutions for people who are evidently being paid either by a client or an employer to do a job but you didn’t give them the same response, you were polite and helpful, so why the difference for a not so technical question.

By the way the work is for a client/friend and in the early stages payment is little (may even be paid in meal/beer) , also I often look at things for him about which I have no real knowledge but I am a generalist who finds things out and puts them into the context of his business for him, hence the starting with little knowledge.

But hey guys, thanks, hope you require help one day and others can return the favour.

PS Ian on the subject of plagerism I’m sure you have never used a configuration settings defined by someone else in order to allow you to do something in Asterisk on behalf of a client or if you have I’m sure you have admitted this to the client and refused payment.

jimbob, i’m sorry you feel that way.

when i “started” using Asterisk and decided that it was something that i could offer to my clients, i essentially took 3 months out and installed, configured, b0rked and used it, all day, just about every day. it drove my wife mad. during that time i read the wiki more than i care to remember, googled 'til i was sick, and read every message from the Asterisk lists.

you’ve obviously put together the bones of a proposal, and to do so, you’ve obviously done some research. so why stop there ? why not carry on and finish the job. instead of looking at my posting history (and ianplain has a fair bit of history on another asterisk/voip help site), you could have spent that time getting together your ideas.

i’ve also lost track of the hours i’ve spent giving “free support”. just today it’s been over 3 hours … but these are normally people that will pitch up with some paid work for me at some point in the working month.

as for a flame war, you won’t get one from me. but then, you won’t get much help from me either unless you’re asking Asterisk-specific questions. from my posting history you’ll have seen that i am fairly short with people in your “position”. there may be someone else here prepared to give you your “head start”, but i would think most will point you the way of the wiki.

Although I am looking through the Wiki and trying to install asterisk (without much success on Fedora 3) sometimes we don’t get the luxury of 3 months to play. As I said I am a generalist if we decide to go forward then there probably would be payable work available, I just cannot and would not promise that now.

The Wiki is huge and not, from what I can see at the moment particularly well structured, all I was looking for was for someone to say look at that particular section or page your question is answered there. However I suppose even that is too much for some.

Sorry to have taken up so much of your time.

jimbob, there is no one page with the answers. your questions are fairly high level, and the wiki is more about detail. you either need to pull the detail together to get the kind of output you want, or perhaps look at a less detailed site. the pages at asterisk.org/ might actually suit you better, they have white papers and perhaps the feature list will answer your second query to some degree.

i didn’t have the “luxury” of 3 months, i did it and seriously lowered my income for that time. i’m only just about recovered.

comments like “However I suppose even that is too much for some.” won’t endear you too much either.

Thank you, baconbuttie,

The comment was not meant to endear me.

I had been to asterisk.org a while ago but had neglected that source when I get stuck in the quagmire of the wiki. I have started to find the type of information I require their.

The section on networking examples in the handbook is just the sort of thing I am after, if anyone knows of anything similar please drop me a line.

I know it can be frustrating when people pop up and do no homework at all or don’t search for an answer before asking the same question a for the millionth time, but not everyone if like that sometimes we genuinely just need help to see the wood.

I belong to many forums, for instance on some e-commerce software, on some I am knowledgable and other not so. I will always try and help where I can and will often lead the horse to water but will not drink it for them. All I was asking was for someone to show me the water.