Simple Newbie Questions! :D

Asterisk Asterisk Support
1

Hey everyone, hoping to get some clarification on all this, as theres alot of info to go through…

first, a small bit of background:

The company i work at is a small business that currently has 4 phones, each connected to 2 Phone numbers through one wire (im thinking just ring and tip are spliced into each wire? is there any other way this is possible? afaik its standard phone service, and our multiline phones will just ring the other line when another call comes in.

We’ve got an extra pc around the office i can test this with, what other hardware will be needed? i’d imagine to keep the phones we have now (i can post model #'s tommorow when im back in the office if theyre needed)

just want to get a few things clarified to make sure im understanding everything correctly…

1)we would need an analog adapter for each phone, that would take the ethernet connection and output it to regular phone line?

2)would having 2 regular pci voice/fax modems work, or would we need a special card(or 2?) to stick into the asterisk box? it’s already got a lan connection.

3)I’ve been looking at asterisk@home, but it seems its made for voip, will this work with the setup i want, or would i need to compile from scratch? just having the pc boot the disk and run the setup seems awfully nice :smiley:

  1. The main reasons we want a pbx system is to be able to forward callers to workers voicemail boxes, and to have an faq system to aleaviate alot of repetative calls we get (how much, what’s the warrenty, product specs) is asterisk overkill? is there another system i should be considering?

  2. lets say the faq system works great and we get 1/4 of the calls ringing into the office we’ve been getting…does asterisk log the amount of callers, their duration, what menu’s they looked through, etc? i’d hate to migrate to this, then find out 5 days later when i get an angry email from a customer that it’s not working and they cant get through…

We’ve got a guy that used to work for the local telco for 20 years that works with us, and he claims we can’t get a pbx system for under 1000$, i’d love to prove him wrong, and bring us into the 21st century :smile:

any help would be greatly apriticated

Sili

2

Ok so lets assume that you want calls to come in via the standard phone system and terminated on you * box. So your * server would need a card to connect to the POTS and then a LAN card to connect into your network via a switch or similar. In terms of the interface card then I would find a local suppler in your country and get what works. Certain countries have different requirements for echo cancel, Caller ID etc. You might find performance / quality with an analog card is poor. In our office we run an ISDN30 into our asterisk box with no issues.

  1. Assuming your desktphones have RJ-45 adaptors then a SIPURA box can connect this to the LAN and hence to the * server. We use these with no issues. However I might suggest whilst you’re playing with the config that you use soft-phones initially.

  2. Dunno see my opener above. I’m gonna try my standard windows fax/modem card when I do my install on @home this weekend.

  3. Yes, and I reckon its a good starting point, besides compiling on slow hw is a drag

  4. Voicemail/ Call q’s etc are dead easy on @Home. The only thing you might have to get down and dirty with is the IVR for the FAQ system. Note: think about your ‘voice talent’ - i.e. who will record “press 1 for info on product xyz” - when you change a prompt in 6 months time (you will!) if you can’yt get the same person then you’ll have to re-record all prompts otherwise it sounds rubbish.

  5. The cdr includes date/time/inbound CLID/ answering extension/duratiion/index to the mointor file (call recording) as std. Checking where they caller got to in the IVR is not standard, but one way would be to listen to the call recordings and see what prompts they went thru.

If its really important to your business then get a pro to set it up correctly. and pay the bucks!
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