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SPA-3000 Review/Guide: Affordable Home PBX
Kerbo writes "Seems every few days there is another news item about Asterisk PBX or Asterisk@Home, the open-source PBX system and associated installer package. You may have even been wondering what equipment you need to get started. The Geek Gazette has posted a review of the Sipura SPA-3000 ATA/Gateway with a complete setup guide on configuring it to work with Asterisk. This makes a very cost-effective way to get started by using your existing phone line as a trunk into the PBX."
It consisted of two tin cans and a string, and it worked mighty fine!
how is a single phone line going to be useful for running a PBX?
turn up the jukebox and tell me a lie
Given that most geeks get few enough phone calls to render an answering machine pointless, why do they need a PBX system?
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
Will the secratary it takes to operate it be a tax deduction?
Good to see that asterisk is in the news more and more. It is great a great pbx with so many ways to configure.
how long this will last now that Cisco bought Sipura.... cf: http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2005/corp_042605.ht ml?CMP=ILC-001
I couldn't find the price in the article-- may have missed it. Went to the Sipura sight and they don't sell directly to end users. They do have links to sites that do sell to end-users and I found it for $99
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
Assuming the software works as well as private PBX systems, (which it doesn't yet seem to, based on the websites linked), it could save major dollars to larger corporations. My own company (Arch Insurance) easily spent thousands on our hardware PBX system, and we're not that big a company. I can imagine what, say, an AIG might spend every year just on this. Definitely worth exploring further.
My wife and I fix computers, and something like this would be very useful (so useful in fact that I think I'm going to build it.) Even with only one phone line, having the ability to create seperate mailboxes, and conditional voicemailboxes (eg. a different message after 6:00, or on saturday, or during lunch). Hooray for Do-it-yourselfers!
No one calls me
"brxref
Join Asterix@home today, and use your idle computing power to help druidic scientists explore the possibility of creating super soldiers through chemical means!
And, coming soon, Obelix@home, which will attempt to genetically alter recipients to be permanently endowed with these abilities.
Warning, may cause lowered intelligence, anti-authoritarianism and increased risk of obesity.
My company just went completely VoIP. We were originally entertaining the Asterisk PBX option but decided against it for the time being.
I can not seem to find a piece of hardware that will generate a dial tone on 16 or 24 different ports. I'm looking for one switch-type looking device, preferably rack mountable, that will take however many phones lines, and connect them via whatever to an Asterisk PBX.
As of right now we put a bunch of the Sipura SPA-1001M in our back room plugged into our router and punched down to the 66 block going to all of the phone sockets in the offices.
Anyone have any suggestions? Thanks.
--
Fairfax Underground: Where Fairfax County, VA comes out to play
I hope this is pitched as a SOHO solution. I also hope it fails. Trying to bolt a phone menu system on to POTS is like trying to bolt a security system on to Windows. Sure you can do it, but you shouldn't - it just makes the user experience dismal and worries consumers. It's bad enough that they charge you to keep you on hold, never mind charge you to put you through to the right dept. Our tech team uses an Asterix system to put you through to the right dept. There are 4 of them in the there and they all answer the phone regardless of what button you press... WTF?
What's next? SOHO phone support outsourcing software? - Enter your script, provide a national rate number and some friendly will instantly start annoying your customers with broken english and massive phone lag too!
Scared of flying, pointy things snce 1979!
http://geekgazette.com/index2.php?option=com_conte nt&task=view&id=28&Itemid=26&pop=1&page=0
Here's what concerns me. I'm sure it is a newbie question. If I've got a VOIP provider, what happens when my computer starts cranking some serious bandwidth in or out of my cable modem connection? Do I need to invest in some different home cable router to prioritize the VOIP traffic?
I mean, I can't have someone on the phone making a call, all the sudden to go into low rez choppy digital speech because someone else decided to download the latest Linux distro.
As someone who started a small business and employed a PBX-in-a-box system can attest, this type of innovation is a godsend to small businesses and start-ups. The real key to this technology taking off however, will be service providers incorporating it into their offerings to small businesses. I think that there could be a very lucrative business model selling services to small-biz/start-ups that allow them to have big-biz type amenities (PBXs, etc...) at lower prices (enabled by OpenSource software). I *believe* that the guys who perform small-biz networking on the cheap could easily add this technology to their offerings and it would be rapidly adopted by their customers. "Hey Jim, I just got done installing the extra PC and the WiFi network for you. I was wondering if you've ever thought of installing a professional phone system. You know, there are these OpenSource technologies that will provide close to full PBX functionality with a third of the cost. Interested in hearing more about it?"
Very easy sale.
First Linksys and now this! Cisco says; "All your VoIP base are belong to us!".
There is a cheaper/better FXO/FXS from Grandstream, the Handytone 488. This is a new item and can be bought for under $90. It is extremely small (a little smaller than the SPA-3000) and handles all the popular codecs. Its configuration is a little easier to understand than the huge Sipura menus. It works right away without SIP registration (Sipura needs a setting in order to work without SIP registration) which allows you to test it by placing calls to IP numbers directly.
Sipura units seem to have much more provisioning support but Grandstream supports the same provisioning protocols. This can help with large deployments where you want to automatically assign extension numbers from a central server.
Again, this a new product that just went into production and might save you a few bucks over the Sipura in quantity. See http://voipsupply.com/ and http://www.grandstream.com/ for some more detail.
Kris
Kriston
Get a channel bank (I reccomend the Adit 600) and a TE110P T1 card.
Connect the channel bank to the T1 card via a crossover cable and you have a 24 (or 23 ISDN) port FXS interface.
oops!
What you'll get when you sign up with the likes of Vonage, Packet5, or the other services is an ATA to connect both your WAN connection and your phone to. With the bare-bones ATA, you plug it directly into your cable or DSL modem, and connect any other devices (routers, etc) downstream of the ATA. This lets the ATA (a) avoid problems with NAT by being outside NAT and (b) keep your call quality up there by enforcing QoS limits on all non-VoIP traffic. The ATAs are also generally smart enough to loosen up the restrictions when the phone's not actually in use.
Vonage (Packet5 may be now as well, I can't recall) also offers an all-in-one solution that's a router and an ATA in one box. You can also pick up the combos yourself (Linksys makes 'em), but they tend to be tied to one specific service -- so do your homework before you sink the cash on a combination ATA and router.
The sad thing is that /. does not even make money off this.
/. though.
They are just sucked into doing it because the editors don't bother to look at the stories they post.
It is sad really. It is a total abuse of the system. Like getting a retard to give you their lunch money for 10 magic beans. Do you really expect anything better from
The days of this site being good for anything more then a laugh have long been gone. If you want news that is more then a hidden advertisement or that isn't older then you grandmother I suggest elsewhere.
I've had a PBX at home for 2 years now.....look around any old office building thats getting renovated - you'll find at least two PBX's getting tossed out.
Nortel Cics or Mics are the most common, they work great, have zero noise/fans. Autoattendant (on most models - or with the Star Talk Flash), voice mail, Fax reroute etc. Great little systems, why go Asterisk?
I love all tech - just cause it's old/experienced don't abandon it.
A home PBX is to the average person's actual phone needs as a Hummer is to the average person's actual driving needs.
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
How is pointing out that the submitter is also the writer offtopic. It is not like the submitter said "I wrote a review" or anything like that. In fact he makes it sound like he has no connection with the Geek Gazette at all.
-Rob
Marriage doesn't have to suck!
TalkSwitch Phone System
/sales pitch
Now all are VoIP upgradeable. Plus they can expand to suit your growing business' needs.
What is this news for elephants?!
Jeeze.
could I buy this product, configure Asterisk and have it forward calls received on my landline to a SIPphone?
"no, *you* couldn't configure Asterisk" is probably the right answer, but pretend for a second that I could. Is this possible?
Your PBX is limited to 32 stations. Adding stations adds licensing cost. It's proprietary? It's VoIP upgradeable.
Asterisk is free of licensing cost. 1 station or 1000 stations does not incur additional licensing cost. It is open source. It is VoIP enabled from the start, no need to upgrade.
For all I know though, your PBX may well have Asterisk inside. Many do.
Sometimes there is a lot more happing in a simple setup.
.wav file emailed to me as well. Nothing mind boggling.
I have 1 POTS line, 3 IP phones, and a plain old cordless plugged into an FXS port on my asterisk server. Keep in mind this is a collection of parts that have grown from testing. All that would be needed for this is either 2 analog phones with FXS, or 1 analog and 1 IP phone etc etc you get the idea.
I get a regular phone call, my home phones all ring, there's no answer, it goes to voicemail, people can pick who they want to leave voicemail for. I get a copy of the
2 of the IP phones are at home, 1 is Overseas where I have family. My wife returns back for a visit every year. Most of the year it is the line she uses to keep in touch with family (once she plugs in the second box over there for me, she can use it to dial out to her friends over there as a local call as well)
While she is back visiting, she can try to call me via IP. Failing that, dial 9 and the number and dial out from our landline to my mobile phone, for example (which, coincidentally, is not always great when you're "killing time at the pub") . When she is away, she uses this to keep in touch with others here, and to continue and other local business calls she needs to make.
I can also dial home, hit a key to dial out before voicemail rolls in, and reach my overseas IP phone.
This isn't an overly complicated setup, cost little money to setup, and created an extremely useful way to keep in contact. Don't turn on all the bells and whistles and you don't scare callers (Do they *really* need dial by name?) The situation I use it in is nothing off the wall, and it's simple to use. This doesn't even *start* to cover the practical applications it has WITHOUT being an overbearing system.
For a small consulting business, or mobile worker, there's a huge benefit. Even for a family, there's a major convenience. And according to my call detail records, in under a year I've already paid off anything spent in savings from overseas calling (and more). The rest of the ongoing savings can go to my beer fund. You can call it pointless if you want. My pint glass and I would disagree with you though.
I was all excited, until I saw the price for the SPA-3000 was $149.95 Maybe I'll wait a bit...
Froogle search: SPA-3000.
Nothing in the article, and nothing in the comments above, fully explains the benefits of Asterisk for a small business or home. Transferring calls to a second line? Voicemail to email? What else?
Froogle search for the Digium card: Wildcard TE110P
T1 hardware: 24-Port FXS Analog Gateway (SIP).
There are no ignorant questions. Or maybe I just think that because I had the same question.
Signate has an excellent book on Astrix.
I test VoIP products for my company, and have found that QoS needs to be managed at a basic level. If you're in a household that has slower DSL, or limited upstream bandwidth (for instance, Comcast Cable Modem in Portland), it would be wise to have your router process and remark (DSCP) all of the traffic between your IP phones and the router as EF.
Granted, your ISP probably doesn't care if your traffic is marked EF, but would prevent PCs on your local network from clobbering your bandwidth during a call.
Also, check out OnDo SIP Server from Brekeke. I play with it in my VoIP lab, and find that it's a find piece of software for quick n' dirty SIP setups. It's free for non-commercial users.
The slightly more adventurous can try Asterisk@Home which has a streamlined setup.
... and on Slashdot, they're often the same ones!
That is all.
i had like 400 people staying at my house (really)
so i needed a pbx system (really)
so i bought this one(bullshit)
and it worked great(morebullshit)
and i was so glad that i finally had a great
pbx for house use since i have 400 phones.
every time it rings, it sounds like headache.
How about this series of devices: http://www.digitone.com/
I've been using one now for several years with great results! It lets me do the following:
And all for around 100 bucks!
Now that Cisco is going to buy Sipura, you can plan on a price change really soon. Once the deal with Cisco is done, expect to see this unit for $249.95
Toodles.
2) Purchase and Install OpenBSD
3) Purchase Building Firewalls with OpenBSD and PF, 2nd ed by Jacek Artymiak (ISBN: 83-916651-1-9)
4) Use bandwidth shaping as described in chapter 10.
5)Enjoy your new router.
This should give you high priority bandwith for the VoIP. It cannot control how your ISP allocates bandwith (of course), but I think that this would help the average user happier with both voice and data share the same bandwith.
Think global, act loco
Sorry to burst your bubble, but those inflatable dolls have seen it all and don't impress easily!
Engineering is the art of compromise.
Would it be possible to create a fxs easily out of a voice modem? Voice modem is basicaly a fxo. So I figured that if it was possible to somehow 'add dial tone', it might be possible to build a fxs expansion card from a dirt cheap voice modem.
Anyone got an idea if it could be done?
good call. make sure to stamp "not a geek" on his forehead as he exits the basement.
EOM
And I thought I was pretty knowledgable about technology.
Do most people need a PBX at home? Hell, I'd be happy if I could get something that did Fax to PDF and voicemail while sitting between the incoming analog telephone line and my (inside the house) telephone network. Do I need a computer and all this crap for that?
The Doormat
If you're not outraged, then you're not paying attention.
I have a POTS line and a whole bunch of phones around the house. I need to have my outside line route to the PABX and then the PABX would route to each individual extension. How would this be accomplished?
-Palal
You are having problems because you are asking the wrong question. Throw your old phones away. Get new VOIP phones. (Cheap ones are about what the cheapest converter would cost, expensive ones can do a lot more than a converter ever could) You get more flexability, as you can choose how many buttons you get, and what is displayed on the screen of the phone. You can mix and match for features, or give everyone the same phone for a better bulk rate, depending on what management wants)
There is a place for analog lines. If you need an emergency phone in the parking lot that instantly calls security when it is lifted for instance (I haven't seen VOIP models that do this - yet). Otherwise VOIP phones are the answer to the problem you are trying to solve.
I have been checking out PBX's and phone systems for a while and I manage a couple of them right now.
The real cost of the phone systems are in the desksets which vary in features and cost but in a medium small office the PBX is a small percentage of the cost.
Consider a 30 station setup with 8 lines. The 30 phones would be somewhere between 6000 - 12000 depending on model. (you probably would not do elcheapo $75 ebay phones).
The {insert brand name here} PBX would be more but the asterisk would be probably $2000 (including cards). And then, no matter what system you choose, comes the programing, which should be about the same no matter what.
The thing that asterisk provides is the ability for everyone to use it. It is also exteremly accessable.
This is exactly what he wants. A T1 channel bank is exactly what they want. As the parent mentioned you then connect it to your VOIP server as you would a standard T1 voice line.
I would be interested in donating a land line w/ a astrisk box attached so that others could route voip call in my area if others did the same.
Is there a network of people doing this?
Talk about convenient. This topic just came up yesterday. My mom called, asked me what type of PBX she should purchase for home use. And to think that someone had this very thought in mind today! Wow. Thanks everyone.
-- No sig for you!
Having used the SPA3000 with asterisk and on its own.. all i have to say is.. its a piece of shit!.
If you are going to use it, i hope you like echo's , faint voice levels (to try to get rid of echos) and random disconnects..
better yet.. save your money, go buy a tdm400 for allmost the same money, have perfect audio, and have a phone system that just works.
"I have a POTS line and I have a VOIP account, both of which terminate on my Asterisk box."
and
"Although I make savings on my calls and get added functionality, the main reason I use Asterisk is for control over my telecoms. Apart from that, it's cool!"
What was that about "control"?
"No one calls me"
Except for all the people you owe money.
How did you handle the external database connection pooling in your script? The overhead of repeatedly making a connection for every new call can be a problem.
My supplier just quoted me a T1 card and a channel bank, together, for $850.