Currently I have been using freepbx on a raspberry pi. It started as a bit of a project for the office building and has been great for directing the sip trunk into the office. However I have had frequent reliability issues with one way audio (doesn’t happen all the time) but not only that, other issues like incoming calls not accepted etc.When it works (usually after a reboot) it works fantastic and voicemail is brill.
After spending months with settings etc I have come to the conclusion that at very least I should have something decent to run a distro on. I don’t want something that eats electricity too so was thinking of an ebay special! Something like a Dell Wyse thinclient.
Would this be better than my raspberry pi? It seems it may have more resources to throw at the software. Do you recommend anything in particular, something cheap would be brill? What are you guys using for your distro? I want something very low power hence why i was using a Raspberry pi.
I only use 3 extensions, voicemail, 2 sip trunks, thats it for my setup, cheers
Are you confident the issues are related to system constraints on your Pi. The Pi4 is quite capable, especially for your stated needs. If you do choose to upgrade, I recommend an x86 processor and 2GB memory. Any recent chipset here would be more than powerful enough.
Since your use case is so small, perhaps also look at spinning up a small virtual instance. There is a very small reoccurring cost, but there are increasing benifits and flexibility that comes with an option like this.
I followed the guide to setup initially and it worked well but little niggles crept in and it needed a reboot to work. Also when updating I get a message stating that to update the system i need to be running a proper distro or something like that so I thought I’d buy a mini pc like a Dell Wyse. It has 4gb ram, 128GB ssd and 1.2ghz dual core processor. It can run Windows 10 64 bit so hoping that this might be a better option and apparently uses only 6 watts of power. It’s what i found on ebay anyway and thought no harm in trying that with an actual full freepbx distro.
The pi4 seems fast etc and no issue there but i did think my issues might have been down to raspbx possibly, its just what i suspect although I could be wrong. Ive been using this for over a year and have enjoyed the flexibility etc but I do wish i knew more especially for the settings etc. For example at the moment people cant hear me when the call from the outside but I can hear them. NAT all good and settings are as recommended, tried various things and sometimes a reboot helps. I have sent for draytek modem and new wifi access point and router just to rule those out too, so hopefully with a nice new setup all should be good or at very least I have tried
While not saying that @sorvani is wrong, I (on the other hand) am a proponent of running my software on my hardware. This is largely a matter of choice. His point about reliability is spot-on, but I do a lot of things with my system where a “straight” distro system isn’t really going to be a thing for me.
Nope. For lots of people, running software on other people’s computers is a perfectly acceptable way to live. For some applications, in fact, it’s preferable. When a lot of people switched to “work from home”, having phone servers in the cloud was a HUGE win. For me, with the equipment I use and the installations I do, I prefer to have local hardware.
I take your point, because I work in IT, I kind of enjoy working with this stuff and was using this as a way to learn more especially about VOIP. If I was ever to increase employees etc I would do a hosted option for sure but for now I am hoping to find a reliable way to run the official distro that will hopefully work. As I say 3 extensions it’s not heavy, I always make a backup in case of failure mind you so I could just load it on again when the hardware is changed
But I recently used two different versions of their PBXact / FreePBX appliances and really like them. They are low power and for the size I assume you want, very small form factor.
If looking for a small cheap device that could run ‘The Distro’ (it is an ‘amd64’ device, Intel Atom x5-Z8350 quad core with 2M Cache.)
Brill cheap at $40 and hits all the criteria of the OP.
(It comes with a ‘nasty Debian’ installed so one might need to RAFM or two and put your geek hat on (your Raspberry one will do ). but you do get a camera thrown in and several accessible GPIO’s for easy Home Assistant, node red or whatever integration)
Thank you everyone, all very helpful. Got my hands on an older Dell Wyse lying around. Its 128gb ssd, 1.2ghz dual core, 4gb ram. Would this do my job, would be so handy. Seen guys running windows 10 on these so if it can run that surely freepbx would be no bother? Thanks for the help
). but you do get a camera thrown in and several accessible GPIO’s for easy Home Assistant, node red or whatever integration)