Ive read loads and find this site extremely useful I cant wait to get started.
Coming from a cisco background I have had their take on things so far and need to understand a little how this architecture matches up the their ideas.
Im planning on installing a small installation of around 10 phones for a friends business as a freebie and a trainer for me.
I have experience of linux, im no expert but i can find my way around and im a quick learner
I understand how phones connect and are configured and how the local phones work but i am a bit flaky on the breakout.
so heres my questions
Cisco refer to IP-PBX which i guess is asterisk in this case and also a VOIP gateway. Is this the hardware cards that are installed in the server to run asterisk? They also refer to a âtelephony serverâ but i think this is also asterisk.
What are the various versions of these? and how do they connect? directly to the PSTN-PBX? ISDN? What connnections are used?
Can you breakout to something like sipgate.com? or am i barking up the wrong tree completely
How does breakout to something like voiptalk.org work and how does this compare to linking in to your existing PSTN-PBX?
I guess i just need an overview of how the breakout is handled and how the process works for calls.
I have searched for this info, so be gentle with me.
[quote=âspoonzâ]breakout = breaking out from VOIP to PSTN network
the gateway to the PSTN
my terminology[/quote]
Usually referred to as âPSTN terminationâ.
[quote]1) Cisco refer to IP-PBX which i guess is asterisk in this case and also a VOIP gateway. Is this the hardware cards that are installed in the server to run asterisk? They also refer to a âtelephony serverâ but i think this is also asterisk.
[/quote]
âVOIP gatewayâ could refer to the asterisk server too. My VOIP gateway is asterisk running on the same linux box as my firewall - with an external IP address and an internal (LAN) one.
Incoming calls from the internet or the PSTN (via ITSPs) come into my asterisk gateway and are routed to their local destination. Local calls going out to the internet or the PSTN work the same way. It sounds like a gateway to me!
There are lots of ways to make connections to an asterisk server. FXO cards connected to landlines, FXS cards connecting to analogue phones. ISDN. SIP, IAX2, H323, etc channels via ethernet to softphones or hardphones - or via the internet to ITSPs for PSTN termination. Etc, etc.
You can have connections to as many ITSPs as you like - iâve currently got 6 working with my asterisk server (4 in Europe - including sipgate.co.uk - and 2 in Australia). I can get incoming calls on 3 different PSTN numbers in Britain (via Sipgate and Gossiptel) I havenât got an Australian DID (direct in-dial) number, but i could have and then i could receive calls to PSTN number(s) in Australia.
Of the 4 European accounts iâve got, two have landline numbers in Britain that i get calls on and the other two are just for outgoing calls to Europe.
You simply have an account with them, set it up in your asterisk configs, and use it like any other phone line. A PSTN PBX can be connected too and you could route calls from the internet to the PSTN PBX and vice versa. (I assume by âPSTN-PBXâ you meant a hardware PBX? Or did you mean asterisk - which can be a PSTN PBX?)
So I can have a connection to a existing hardware PBX so the company doesnt have to change numbers etc to handle incoming calls and connections to one or many ISTPs for outgoing calls?
Then eventually they can ditch the old hardware PBX from the telco if and when numbers can be ported and emergency numbers work etc.
So FXO cards just plug into a normal phone socket??? or directly into the PBX? (probably a daft question). Is their any docs i can read to understand the cables/connections/IAX2,H323 differences etc. Just need to get a picture in my mind. Am i over complicating this?
Yeah, probably. But that does depend on what capacity is available on the h/w PBX, of course. There are at least a couple of different ways you could hook it up.
Asterisk could be set up as a down-stream exchange as far as the h/w PBX is concerned - in which case, you have one or more FXS ports on the asterisk box and the h/w PBX connects to it as an âoutsideâ line.
Or asterisk could be set up with the PBX as a down-stream exchange - in which case you have FXO ports on the asterisk box and the PBX sees it as one or more âinsideâ lines. But that will depend on whether or not the PBX allows that sort of connection - i.e., if you can connect a normal telco-style handset to it or not. Maybe they all do - i donât know much about it.
You donât need to wait for number to be ported - just stick some FXO ports in the asterisk box and the existing exchange lines can be connected to it directly.
Either (but see above re: compatability). An FXO port should appear like a normal handset to equipment on the other end of the line.
So FXO cards just plug into a normal phone socket??? or directly into the PBX? (probably a daft question). Is their any docs i can read to understand the cables/connections/IAX2,H323 differences etc. Just need to get a picture in my mind. Am i over complicating this?[/quote]
Best example for this is from the VoIP-Info website as posted above:
[color=orange]If you want to connect an ordinary telephone to a computer, you need a card in the computer with an FXS interface.
If you want to connect your phone line to your computer so that it can make and answer calls on your telephone line, you need to add an FXO interface to your computer. [/color]
