Hi Newbie, I wonder how you could find the mailing list but NOT the wiki at http://www.voip-info.org/tiki-index.php?page=Asterisk, that documents a huge area of how to use Asterisk in many scenarios.
First of all, take a week or two to read the wiki and to set up a testing environment and try to get basic things running with Asterisk (which means os, Asterisk installation and basic calls between softphones...) to get knowledge of what Asterisk can do. i suggest you use debian because i think there are more people using debain than using os x and maybe you will need some help ;-) then try to get a BRI line (Basic Rate Interface, also known as ISDN), put a BRI interface card like Longshine LCS-8051a, which has a HFC chipset on it that enables you to use the ZAPTEL functionality. (http://www.voip-info.org/tiki-index.php?page=zaptelBRI) and then, read the wiki... reguarding the costs for the testing: 1 PC: around USD 500,- 1 BRI interface: around USD 40,- after testing you will have to deside what to do: - take the T1 out of the cisco and put it into your Asterisk Server in a PRI interface (that acts like the BRI but has 23 channels and not 2) - route your traffic to your cisco and let him to the translation to PSTN i would prefer the first choice, i am currenty running several HP ProLiant DL360 Servers with Fedora Core 3 Linux with Digium's quad PRI cards TE410P with 4 E1s (30 voice channels each). These servers are single Xeon 2.8 GHz with 2GB of RAM which is more than enough. in austria each of these servers is aroung USD 2400,- and the Digium PRI card is around USD 1600,-. reguarding your network: at worst case you will need 64kbit of bandwidth so you can run your voice infrastructure using your network easily without buying expensive switches from cisco that are "VoIP capable". this and everything else can be found by experiencing the search button on the wiki-site... best regards, roland -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Ed Pastore Sent: Tuesday, July 12, 2005 11:33 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [Asterisk-Users] Systems Admin; Telecom Newbie - What do I need? Hi, folks. I am planning on implementing Asterisk in 2006, and need to budget for it now, so I need to know what I'll need to get. My company has about 50 users, and is currently languishing on a very old Comdial PBX. All of our client computers are Macs; our servers are mostly OS X, with a couple Debians and a Red Hat. I am thoroughly experienced at systems administration, and can figure out most everything I need on the computer hardware and software side, but I am a complete telecom newbie and get lost when trying to figure out what else I will need. Here's what I think I need: - A server, running Debian Linux or OS X (our preferred operating systems here) - A good network. We're on switched 100 Base-T, but will move to gigabit next year. - A T1 or some dedicated channels of a T1 - Gateway PCI cards or devices (in the case of OS X, only devices I guess) - VOIP phones or phone software (I'd like to use software and USB handsets) Here's what I don't get: 1. How do I route between the internet and the telco network? (I said I was a telecom newbie, right?) I mean, if someone dials a phone number, what tells it to route to my gateway device? Do I need service from a telecom company? I need to get the phone numbers from somewhere, right? 2. Does my network need to be VOIP capable? I see some network switches which route additional layers of ethernet, including in some cases VOIP. Do I really need that? Or will any gigabit switches do the trick? If so, what's up with those VOIP switches? Is that just marketing? They sure cost a lot more. 3. What do I need in a T1? I currently have one T1 from Sprint, going into a Cisco router, which then goes to my firewall, then to my network. If I want, say 30 channels of another T1 for VOIP... can I just buy another Sprint T1? And where does additional hardware fit into that route in order to split out the VOIP channels from the data channels? 4. Do I pretty much need a vendor for implementation help, if this is all new to me? Or is there a path I can follow that will help me get through this? 5. What am I not asking that I should be? :) Any help, input, suggestions, etc. would be welcome. (But please no vendor calls yet... I'm in early budgeting, and will just ignore vendor input until I know more.) Thanks! _______________________________________________ Asterisk-Users mailing list [email protected] http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users _______________________________________________ Asterisk-Users mailing list [email protected] http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
