We have two offices sevral miles appart. They are networked through Point to Point connectivity. We use this network for data exchange only.
Currently we use normal telephones PSTN. and we dont want to use IP Phones or softphones because they are quite expensive.
We have about 20 phone extensions in each office and about 5 external phone lines in each office. Both of these offices are indipendant and have a regular pbx installed.
We have to make a lot of calls between these two offices.
i would like to know that is it possible that we can use asterisk as a pbx on our existing network. I want the same infrastructure as it is now i.e. 20 extensions in each office and 5 external lines all lines connected through regular phones.
So we can make calls between our offices for free.
We dont want internet connectivity and we also dont want to use ip phones.
and what hardware do would be required.
Thanks & Regards
Raza
Softphones are free… and IP phones can be had for 40$
Uh, yeah.
So your going to connect the two asterisk boxes how?
if i am understanding your question correctly-
you have two offices with about 5 lines and 20 extens each on analog PBXs. The offices are connected together with some form of point to point link which you want to use to dial by extension between offices.
You don’t want to buy IP phones due to cost and you don’t want VoIP phone service (i’m assuming thats what you mean by internet connectivity).
First, yes this is possible. First though you will have to decide how you want to do it.
The cheapest way- get an * box at each end with a few FXS ports. Connect these to free line/co ports on the PBX and put them in a hunt group with DXD. Assuming your pbx’s are smart enough, program them to send the other office’s extension range to a series of ports connected to the * box, which relays the call to the other office via IAX2 or SIP.
This will be the cheapest option, it basically uses * as a really long extension cord. When a user dials an exten in the other office, the PBX dials it on one of the lines going to *. The call goes to the other * side which rings one of its lines, and dials in the destination right after the PBX answers (DXD, direct extension dialing).
Full replacement/analog- Rip out your existing PBXs. Replace with * servers which have enough ports to cover your lines and extensions.
This is I think what you want. With 25 analog ports you will probably want either TDM2400 cards or a channel bank of some kind… this will run (guessing off the top of my head, very tired and could be wrong) around $60-85/port for the channel bank type stuff.
Note that this will almost certainly NOT work with your existing phones. If you have special system phones for your PBX, they will almost certainly NOT work with *. Normal analog phones or unlocked ADSI phones (if using zaptel cards) will work great however.
You can work around this however- if your PBX has PRI (T1) capability put a cheap PRI card in * and link each * box to its PBX that way. Program the PBX to be ‘dumb’, that is it does nothing more than pass calls between the PRI and the extensions.
Full replacement/VoIP- Rip out your existing PBXs. Replace with * servers which have only FXO ports for your lines. Replace your extensions with IP phones.
This as you know may cost a lot initially in terms of IP phones, however keep in mind good IP phones start at around $100/each so it’s not THAT bad.
also i would never recommend the $40 grandstream bt1xx phones for a business environment unless cost is a MAJOR issue…
Thank you very much for your kind and detailed response.
I really appreciate it.
[quote]if i am understanding your question correctly-
you have two offices with about 5 lines and 20 extens each on analog PBXs. The offices are connected together with some form of point to point link which you want to use to dial by extension between offices.
You don’t want to buy IP phones due to cost and you don’t want VoIP phone service (i’m assuming thats what you mean by internet connectivity). [/quote]
yes, this is what i mean
[quote]Full replacement/analog- Rip out your existing PBXs. Replace with * servers which have enough ports to cover your lines and extensions.
This is I think what you want. With 25 analog ports you will probably want either TDM2400 cards or a channel bank of some kind… this will run (guessing off the top of my head, very tired and could be wrong) around $60-85/port for the channel bank type stuff.
Note that this will almost certainly NOT work with your existing phones. If you have special system phones for your PBX, they will almost certainly NOT work with *. Normal analog phones or unlocked ADSI phones (if using zaptel cards) will work great however.
You can work around this however- if your PBX has PRI (T1) capability put a cheap PRI card in * and link each * box to its PBX that way. Program the PBX to be ‘dumb’, that is it does nothing more than pass calls between the PRI and the extensions.
[/quote]
Yes . I want to do it kind of this way.
Actually currently we are using cheep Chinese PBX that cost us under $100 and provide 32 extensions and 5 co lines. These PBX just provide the basic functionality of call transfer, conference call etc. And these PBX are not much programmable. And the phone sets are ordinary phone sets that you connect to a normal landline. These phone sets cost us under $10 each. And an ip phone that cost us $100 is totally unfordable. So u might now understand that why i don’t want to use ip phones. There is no voip service provider in my country and i don’t even have internet service in one of the offices.
We are connected wirelessly between the two offices through a point-to-point link. And that is the only connection that is possible between our offices. And we use this connection for data transfer and sharing the accounts information between our offices.
[quote]With 25 analog ports you will probably want either TDM2400 cards or a channel bank of some kind… this will run (guessing off the top of my head, very tired and could be wrong) around $60-85/port for the channel bank type stuff.
[/quote]
do you mean that it would cost me around $60-85 * 25 . If yes then isnt there a cheaper way.
[quote]
Note that this will almost certainly NOT work with your existing phones. If you have special system phones for your PBX, they will almost certainly NOT work with *. Normal analog phones or unlocked ADSI phones (if using zaptel cards) will work great however. [/quote]
what do you mean by this. What kind of phones would be required. What is zaptel cards? I’m not using any special phones they are just ordinary phones that you connect to landline.
I have told you … no internet … so what should i do ???
Once again thanks & regards
Raza
ah okay, I understand better.
For the PRI- i did not mean for you to purchase and install a T1 line. What i mean is you can use a PRI to link two devices to each other (without buying any services), have * with a PRI card go into a PRI card on your PBX. Since you said your PBX is a cheap POS then it probably doesnt have PRI, so ignore all that.
By it wont work with your existing phones I assumed you had system phones that came with your PBX and had buttons like transfer, conference, etc. If you are using cheapo analog phones it will work just fine.
The cheapest way to add ports is probably with ATAs (analog telephony adapter, a small SIP device that gives you 1-2 FXS ports). The bottom of the line for this will give you 2 ports for about $50, so about $25/port. It really doesn’t get much cheaper than that.
And yes i meant (60-80) times 25.
Zaptel cards are telephony PCI cards taht go in the server. Digium and Sangoma both make cards taht work w/ zaptel. This is in contrast to ATAs or gateway devices.
I still recommend that you go with cheap IP phones if possible. Grandstream budgetone phones are in the $40-60 range. This is because with an IP phone, you get dedicated buttons for things like hold, transfer, conference, etc. With a phone like you have now, doing these things requires flashing and star codes.
i dont evan have isdn line.
isnt there any way so i can connect the two * through the exsisting point-to-point link.
thanks for all the kind help
yes that is what i mean. I realize you don’t have an ISDN line. Ignore that whole thing I was talking about possible ways to interface * to your old PBX.
You can link the two * servers via IAX2 or SIP protcols, both of which will work over your point to point link.
In all honesty you may find it cheaper to get a internet connection for each office and use soft phones… you’d save tons of money in the process.
The only thing you’d be paying for is the hardware to get the server up…and the phone carreir(s).
But what you do is your choice : O )
softphones (VoIP software on a computer w/ a headset) can be a cheap alternative but unless you are running a business like a call center they are quite unsatisfying. If a phone rings, you want to answer it, not put on a headset and mess with software. If you are running a real office (IE not a call center) your users will probably find softphones to be most unsatisfying.
ehhh depends on what you got… bluetooth headsets for example.
But I do see your point.