Posted: Fri May 05, 2000 1:40 pm Post subject: [Asterisk] PBX build up
I am very interested in building a PBX, but I have some questions/problems.
Quote:
From what I have read in the archives the internet phonejack/linejack
combination is the way to go in supporting POTS. But.. How do you get
normal PC hardware to support 20 of these devices? 4 incoming lines, and 16
extensions?? I have never seen a computer with 20 pci card slots. Is there
a way to dasey chain boxes? My NEC Neax-2000 is basically 2 neax-1000's
glued together with a data interface card pair, can I make a cluster of
boxes, 1 to handle incoming lines, 1 for voicemail, and 4 to do extensions?
What kind of extension phones are supported by aterisk? what is the current
hardware support list? I have seen quotes of "use a voicemodem" that have
no substance... I have tried to you vgetty for years and voicemodems are
poorly supported at best, and those that have support are basically
un-useable. How about a list of hardware make and model numbers that works?
Posted: Fri May 05, 2000 1:58 pm Post subject: [Asterisk] PBX build up
Quote:
From what I have read in the archives the internet phonejack
/linejack combination is the way to go in supporting POTS.
But.. How do you get normal PC hardware to support 20 of
these devices? 4 incoming lines, and 16 extensions?? I have
never seen a computer with 20 pci card slots. Is there a way
Solutions:
1. put a PhoneJACK in the desktop PC of the spots you want
extensions, and use the ethernet as your phone wiring.
2. or, get a passive backplane machine that has lots of slots
and do a dual machine solution:
a. use one machine with 4 LineJACKs for your PSTN interface;
b. use a passive backplane box with lots of slots for your
POTS lines.
Realistically, if you want to concentrate like this, you are in
the range where you might consider a higher density telephony
card. Pika has some that have linux support.
I like solution 1 - it provides lots of capabilities beyond what
a traditional PBX can.
Greg
/********************************************************************
Greg Herlein Quicknet Technologies, Inc.
Director, Super-Secret Project (yes, it really is secret)
gherlein@quicknet.nethttp://www.quicknet.net
*********************************************************************/
Posted: Fri May 05, 2000 2:29 pm Post subject: [Asterisk] PBX build up
Solution #1 really isnt an option as this increases the cost of the phone
system to having $1600.00 phone extensions, Most of the PC's are Not IBM
compatable, and are SGI stations. This option is out for me (I wish I could
use it, SGI really does stink). Secondly Option 2: 16 IRQ's required in a
system that has 16 Irq's maximum and most PII systems use at least 10 of
the 15 irq's just to operate. Can these cards all share a single irq and
operate at the same time with no audio degradation or hiccups? Has anyone
even tried to make a PBX for POTS use using this hardware? I looked at the
hardware that asterisk was designed for and they do not offer any POTS
capable equipment, and their pricing really makes me want to keep the NEC
neax-2000.
Cince there is no Linux support for any of the 4 line telephony cards, Are
there any options?
-----Original Message-----
From: Greg Herlein [mailto:gherlein@quicknet.net]
Sent: Friday, May 05, 2000 8:59 AM
To: 'asterisk@marko.net'
Subject: Re: [Asterisk] PBX build up
Quote:
From what I have read in the archives the internet phonejack
/linejack combination is the way to go in supporting POTS.
But.. How do you get normal PC hardware to support 20 of
these devices? 4 incoming lines, and 16 extensions?? I have
never seen a computer with 20 pci card slots. Is there a way
Solutions:
1. put a PhoneJACK in the desktop PC of the spots you want
extensions, and use the ethernet as your phone wiring.
2. or, get a passive backplane machine that has lots of slots
and do a dual machine solution:
a. use one machine with 4 LineJACKs for your PSTN interface;
b. use a passive backplane box with lots of slots for your
POTS lines.
Realistically, if you want to concentrate like this, you are in
the range where you might consider a higher density telephony
card. Pika has some that have linux support.
I like solution 1 - it provides lots of capabilities beyond what
a traditional PBX can.
Greg
/********************************************************************
Greg Herlein Quicknet Technologies, Inc.
Director, Super-Secret Project (yes, it really is secret)
gherlein@quicknet.nethttp://www.quicknet.net
*********************************************************************/
Posted: Fri May 05, 2000 2:53 pm Post subject: [Asterisk] PBX build up
Quote:
use it, SGI really does stink). Secondly Option 2: 16 IRQ's required in a
system that has 16 Irq's maximum and most PII systems use at least 10 of
Aha! You see, we do not use any IRQs at all. :)
One of our developers is running a passive backplane box with 12
of our cards in it. He has run multiple simultanious calls and
still not gotten the CPU up to over a few percent... The way we
implemented the driver is extrememly efficient, and the fact that
the cards DSP does the heavy lifting helps a lot too.
Yes, there are folks who are using our hardware for a PBX. I
don't know off the top of my head where they are in their
development cycle (probably under NDA anyway) but it most
certainly CAN be done.
I can introduce you to our Developer Program Manger if you'd like
(off list).
Greg
/********************************************************************
Greg Herlein Quicknet Technologies, Inc.
Director, Super-Secret Project (yes, it really is secret)
gherlein@quicknet.nethttp://www.quicknet.net
*********************************************************************/
Posted: Fri May 05, 2000 2:54 pm Post subject: [Asterisk] PBX build up
The Internet PhoneJACK and Internet LineJACK cards do not use any IRQ's
or DMA channels, so you can stack as many in a machine as you have slots
available. I personally have a machine with 10 Quicknet cards in it.
The driver builds by default with support for 16, but that can be
changed by editing the ixj.h file and changing IXJMAX to the required
value and recompiling the driver.
Ed Okerson
Quicknet Technologies, Inc.
"Gray, Tim" wrote:
Quote:
Solution #1 really isnt an option as this increases the cost of the phone
system to having $1600.00 phone extensions, Most of the PC's are Not IBM
compatable, and are SGI stations. This option is out for me (I wish I could
use it, SGI really does stink). Secondly Option 2: 16 IRQ's required in a
system that has 16 Irq's maximum and most PII systems use at least 10 of
the 15 irq's just to operate. Can these cards all share a single irq and
operate at the same time with no audio degradation or hiccups? Has anyone
even tried to make a PBX for POTS use using this hardware? I looked at the
hardware that asterisk was designed for and they do not offer any POTS
capable equipment, and their pricing really makes me want to keep the NEC
neax-2000.
Cince there is no Linux support for any of the 4 line telephony cards, Are
there any options?
-----Original Message-----
From: Greg Herlein [mailto:gherlein@quicknet.net]
Sent: Friday, May 05, 2000 8:59 AM
To: 'asterisk@marko.net'
Subject: Re: [Asterisk] PBX build up
> From what I have read in the archives the internet phonejack
> /linejack combination is the way to go in supporting POTS.
> But.. How do you get normal PC hardware to support 20 of
> these devices? 4 incoming lines, and 16 extensions?? I have
> never seen a computer with 20 pci card slots. Is there a way
Solutions:
1. put a PhoneJACK in the desktop PC of the spots you want
extensions, and use the ethernet as your phone wiring.
2. or, get a passive backplane machine that has lots of slots
and do a dual machine solution:
a. use one machine with 4 LineJACKs for your PSTN interface;
b. use a passive backplane box with lots of slots for your
POTS lines.
Realistically, if you want to concentrate like this, you are in
the range where you might consider a higher density telephony
card. Pika has some that have linux support.
I like solution 1 - it provides lots of capabilities beyond what
a traditional PBX can.
Greg
/********************************************************************
Greg Herlein Quicknet Technologies, Inc.
Director, Super-Secret Project (yes, it really is secret)
gherlein@quicknet.nethttp://www.quicknet.net
*********************************************************************/
Posted: Fri May 05, 2000 3:34 pm Post subject: [Asterisk] PBX build up
Ahh! This is great!!
I can see the options growing now!
Ok, now a harder question... what would be the smallest requirement for the
hardware? Pentium 166? 32 meg ram? how about networking? assuming that I
use a pc for incoming lines and voicemail/paging and use another pc for
every 6 stations?
If it would work this way, I am starting to see the ability to stick
extensions off of the T1-data circuts. remote offices having extensions to
the main office.
Hmmm, this could generate the possibility of Least cost routing.. place
line cards also in the remote offices.
-----Original Message-----
From: Greg Herlein [mailto:gherlein@quicknet.net]
Sent: Friday, May 05, 2000 9:54 AM
To: 'asterisk@marko.net'
Subject: RE: [Asterisk] PBX build up
Quote:
use it, SGI really does stink). Secondly Option 2: 16 IRQ's required in a
system that has 16 Irq's maximum and most PII systems use at least 10 of
Aha! You see, we do not use any IRQs at all. :)
One of our developers is running a passive backplane box with 12
of our cards in it. He has run multiple simultanious calls and
still not gotten the CPU up to over a few percent... The way we
implemented the driver is extrememly efficient, and the fact that
the cards DSP does the heavy lifting helps a lot too.
Yes, there are folks who are using our hardware for a PBX. I
don't know off the top of my head where they are in their
development cycle (probably under NDA anyway) but it most
certainly CAN be done.
I can introduce you to our Developer Program Manger if you'd like
(off list).
Greg
/********************************************************************
Greg Herlein Quicknet Technologies, Inc.
Director, Super-Secret Project (yes, it really is secret)
gherlein@quicknet.nethttp://www.quicknet.net
*********************************************************************/
Posted: Fri May 05, 2000 6:05 pm Post subject: [Asterisk] PBX build up
On Fri, 5 May 2000, Gray, Tim wrote:
Quote:
Ahh! This is great!!
I can see the options growing now!
Ok, now a harder question... what would be the smallest requirement for the
hardware? Pentium 166? 32 meg ram? how about networking? assuming that I
use a pc for incoming lines and voicemail/paging and use another pc for
every 6 stations?
If it would work this way, I am starting to see the ability to stick
extensions off of the T1-data circuts. remote offices having extensions to
the main office.
Hmmm, this could generate the possibility of Least cost routing.. place
line cards also in the remote offices.
After that, we implement SS7 switching into it all...Heee.
But, actually, I'd like to be able to take 2 machines, each with an
ethernet card & a T1 card, and put them at two ends of a WAN (be it a
private WAN or the Internet). These two machines would take calls from a
PBX or carrier-class switch, transport them across the WAN, then present
them to a local loop for termination.
I haven't dug far enough into Asterisk to know if this is possible yet,
but its something to think of. An open-source & cheap alternative to the
$80K Clarion gateways I used in my last IXC venture.
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