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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."
how long this will last now that Cisco bought Sipura.... cf: http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2005/corp_042605.ht ml?CMP=ILC-001
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!
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!
Another interesting use is integrating it with X10 or other home automation tools, so you can remotely control your house without having to have internet access wherever you are.
Also, wouldn't it be cool to have your Linux box read your email (or /.) to you over the phone on those lonely nights?
"Teleporting Rodents with D-Cell Battery Displacement" theory -- IgnoramusMaximus (692000)
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.
Buy a VOIP Line (packet8 etc), take it to a country that doesnt offer VOIP lines (india? pakistan? uae?), plug it into the internet, plug the sipura up with a local line and voila you can call anyone in that country as a local call?
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
If you live with other people you could use extensions to direct each call to the right person, and set up a separate voicemail box for each one. You could also set up a single phone number for your business even if it's just 3 telecommuters, which might make it look more professional.
Plus, telemarketers would never ring a phone.
I have a POTS line and I have a VOIP account, both of which terminate on my Asterisk box.
In addition to my normal house phone I have a GrandStream SIP phone. Either phone can make or answer calls and each phone can call each other. (Handy for calling downstairs from the office to order another beer!)
I get voicemail, call hold, call parking, music on hold.
Although I haven't set it up yet, I can have it answer my fax calls, convert the fax to a PDF and email it to me.
I get the ability to route my calls depending on where I'm calling. For example, calls to cell-phones, 1800 numbers and emergency calls go out my POTS line. All other calls go out on my VOIP account. As most of my family live in the US (I live in Ireland) I make a huge saving on the cost of those calls.
By way of a proof-of-concept for my employer (in the financial services industry) I even wrote a Telephone Banking application in Perl for Asterisk.
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!
In addition to the features pointed out by other posters, telemarketer avoidance is a HUGE benefit. IMO, the donotcall list is a failure due to all the exceptions (think back to the pre-election timeframe...) I've been running * for over a year now, and have quite a nice dial-plan / feature list. I have it integrated with an intercom, mp3 server, phones in various places (garage, basement, etc.), speed-dials for family, callerID rewriting (put a REAL name on the number), time-of-day inbound restrictions (no more wrong-number calls in the middle of the night), time of day restrictions based on called ID, etc.
I also get my voicemails via email, can access everything remotely via VoIP or normal phone, can use VoIP from the hotel on my laptop to call my wife, call friends without using long-distance, transfer my home-office phone to wherever I am, etc.
It makes the old "stupid annoying phone" not so annoying and a lot more useful.
Well, that's funny, but the ability to call another extension is Very nice some times. I have a woodshop out back (loud ringer with a visual indicator,) and sometimes I answer a call that's for my wife. Rather than go outside in the snow, and yell throughout the house trying to find her, I just park the call and page her (All Call). If she doesn't answer I transfer the call to her personal voicemail. No more forgeting to give her the message and have her get all mad or anything.
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