First big project, looking for some answers

General Help
1

Hoping you guys can answer a few questions for me. I have a decent amount of linux experience and I’ve used FreePBX in small SIP only scenarios. I have a project ahead of me that is a bit bigger so I was hoping to draw upon some people’s experiences here. The basics of this project are:

44 extensions (with growth capability)
14 trunks (via AT&T Flex T-1)
5 extensions (operator and 4 POS extensions) need to have all 14 line appearances on the phone.

  • Looking at using a T-1 card (from what I’ve read, it seems Sangoma is the best, and EC is a must) with an AT&T Flex-T circuit. Basically a virtualized T-1 coming from an Cisco 1841. Anyone done this and know if there is anything I need to specify to AT&T on how to hand-off the T-1?

  • Looking at using the Linksys SPA962 phones with 6 line appearances. The customer has a total of 14 lines, and would like to be able to see the status of, and pickup any of the lines that might be on hold for tool long. Has anyone used the SPA932 side-car to add additional line appearances? Everything I’ve read seems to point to using it for BLF/call transfer only. Is there another way to acheive what I’m looking for?

  • SPA400 and SPA2102, are the reliable? Looking to use this to bring in a few POTS lines into the system, and to serve a couple analog phones that don’t have ethernet cabling to their locations. Do these work well or am I better off getting an analog card with a mix of FXS/FXO modules.

  • Can you do multiple digital/analog cards in a system. I remember some time ago reading that you could only have 1 card in a system due to some timing issues. I don’t remember if this was a digium only concern, of if this applies to the other manufacturer’s as well (Sangoma, Rhino, etc).

  • Is there anything wrong with AMD-based systems for Asterisk? It seems everyone leans towards Intel chips, and more specifically intel chipsets. Trixbox lists HP’s intel-based PC’s as having platinum support. I haven’t seen anyone post problems, only vague references that intel chipsets seem to work better.

Thanks in advance.

2

As for chips and chip sets, when troubleshooting issues that may arise…Using Intel and Intel chip sets means one less thing to have to consider. That is the best way I know how to put it.

As for the Cisco 1841…There are something like 30 different WIC cards for that. I would google the T-1 card you plan to buy and Cisco 1841 and do a little research. If the WIC has been purchased (and is in use somehow?) that would be a good starting place.

This one is a best guess…If you buy you the digital card and analog card from the same manufacture and understand how to troubleshoot IRQ, then you can have two cards running without too much trouble.

I don’t know about linksys phones. I’d go with Aastra.

3

I’ll also answer a portion.

I’d recommend Aastra over linksys hands down.

As for cards stick to one manufacure, and most important thing is make sure that the Motherboard that you use allows for good IRQ distribution across the slots so that each card uses a unique IRQ. Sharing the same IRQ with a telephony card and anything else will be the death of your project.

4

This sounds like you are trying to emulate a key system. This will NOT work with FreePBX. You can not have all 14 trunks appear on the phones and have anyone pick up lines. Nor does that make any sense with a T1.