I’m sort of new to this, and I’m about to purchase my first FreePBX unit and I want to make sure I order everything I need before taking the leap. My internet provider can bring the lines in either analog, or with a eSCB gateway. My impulse is to go with the eSCB gateway, but I can’t seem to find clear direction on the internet about how that would then interface with the appliance. Do I connect the gateway to one of the free Network jacks on the appliance? And then to be absolutely sure with my purchase setup, I’m asked " Will you be connecting to Analog or a Digital T1/E1 or PRI", my impulse would be to say “None” since I’d connect to the gateway directly. Is this correct?
If you have any other suggestions about how I should be going about this, I’d appreciate it. Thanks for any input!
Typically, you’ll either want to connect a Digital T1/PRI directly to a Sangoma T1 card in the appliance, or use some sort of gateway that converts the calls to the Voice over IP (using the SIP protocol), which will go to the appliance over the network connection.
Of course, it’s up to you to figure out which of those is ideal in your particular setup, both with regards to cost and reliability.
You definitely don’t want analog lines – they reduce quality, add delay, can have echo issues, and lack important features.
What is an eSCB? It may be a Session Border Controller (SBC in English but the acronym is different in other languages). An SBC would connect directly to a network jack on the PBX and is probably the best option.
What country are you in? In what language are you communicating with the provider? It would be useful if you could provide a link to their documentation (or post a few lines here), so we can confirm the method of connection.
You are correct. An eSCB is an Enterprise Session Boarder Controller.
It’s not much to go on, but this is the only thing I can find related to my provider and the type of connection. www cogeco.ca/en/business/phone/sip-trunking. I can certainly ask for more information from my contact. But what specifically should I be asking for?