FtOCC Contest for June Boston Training

General Help
1

Kerry (from Trixbox) was nice enough to offer the freePBX team a couple of tickets to their upcoming June FtOCC in Boston (6/3-6). We decided that there there are many people out there who could benefit from the training more than we can - after all - we write freePBX which comprises a very important part of the trixbox distro :smiley:

So we are having a contest. The rules are simple but we ask one thing - Please do NOT participate if you can’t make it to the training. You would not want to take the opporutnity away from someone else who could

Rules:
[list]Respond to this post telling us what you like, don’t like, want improved, etc. about freepbx, or how you use it, how many installations you have done, etc.

Either make sure your email address is up-to-date in your profile, or pm me privately to tell me how to best reach you if you are chosen.

We will pick a winner by end of day THIS Thursday (5/17). The process will be somewhat random - we will probably put names in a hat and draw.

We would ask that any good ‘toys’ that you get as give aways at the training (phones, etc.) be donated back to freepbx. We can always use additional equipment to further our development and support efforts.
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That’s it folks, good luck! We look forward to some interesting reading.

2

We will be informing the winners and making an annoucement soon - stay tuned. There is also a lot of good suggestions, feedback and comments on this thread. I will write up a general response on the blog to address much of these points.

For now thanks for all the interest! Be back soon.

3

OK ALL - THE OFFICIAL RESULTS ARE OUT AND THE WINNERS HAVE BEEN INFORMED. YOU CAN FIND DETAILS AND USEFULE READING HERE.

http://www.freepbx.org/2007/05/19/contest-results-what-makes-freepbx-tick/#more-44

All of your comments are much appreciated and we thank everyone for their time and entries.

4

Really love FreePBX; I’m a fan.

One suggestion/thought: change password method from htaccess to something more secure like md5sum/sha1sum in mysql table.

Cheers,
LeahW

5

This one can already be accomplished by putting the name in parentheses

6

I had a wish, some kind of tenant service is the only thing. I’ll describe it as a method to allow 2 or companies exists on the same system. Where is can be handle incoming wise nicely, outbound would be much harder. Example, outbound calls use the correct company’s trunks. I also have been using freepbx (asteriskathome) since 1.1

Great job

Bart

7

please remove me from the contest as i can’t attend this time :cry:

8

I have been using Trixbox and Freepbx for about a year. I have had it at my office and recently set it up at home.
I would like a better conference setup. I tried to use it but I can only use it if I make the calls. Maybe this is already built in but I would like for people to call in and join the conference rather than me having to call them.
I also would like a more robust blacklist function, I got on a Junk fax call list and it was so annoying. I eventually had to charge my phone numbers.
Great program. I couldn’t be without it.

9

Have been a Tribox user for over a year. The main draw of Trixbox was that it was easy to install and had FreePBX. My associate are all CLI type so I take alot of abuse for using a GUI. But I can set up and completely configure a box in an hour to include IVR. They can’t do that!

10

FreePBX is really great on the whole, and there are only a few things missing that I’ve wanted… and then it would be damn near perfect. Primarily we’re using this on Trixbox servers for small businesses, and in our own organization’s phone system.

Suggestions for improvements
1 - There are several places in the interface that allow the user to select a recording they’ve made… ie, as an announcement in an IVR. Often there is an ideal recording that Allison made in place, and I’ve learned that I can edit the mysql database and specify the recording I want - just removing the ‘custom’ directory from the reference and selecting the filename I want without the extension. So… what I want almost works. Please allow the user to have an option to select from their own custom recordings, or a system recording, in each location where you can now select from a custom recording. The above workaround proves that this will be a simple front-end only change.

2 - You can select to use or not use the company directory, but I haven’t seen a simple way to specify that a certain extension shouldn’t be included in the directory (if any). Please add an option to include or exclude an extension from the directory. Useful examples would include an analog line for a modem, postage meter, tivo, fax, members of a ringgroup, and users who require more privacy.

3 - Many other phone systems give DISA access as an option in the voicemail menu. In those cases, the interface allows the administrator to specify that a particular user is allowed to use this feature, or is not allowed… and they don’t have to have another pass code to remember. That way the user just presses the key in the main menu of their voicemail interface (which is trivial to configure for remote access), and can get an outside line. The current system doesn’t scale. If I have 100 users who have DISA access, I either have to give them a shared pass code or codes, or distribute 100 codes. The former means I can’t easily secure the system when an employee is terminated (have to change the code, notify folks of the new code, etc), and the latter means there are many valid codes and effectively opens up a security hole.
Alternatively, if you can hack an easy way to get from the current voicemail menu to be prompted for the DISA password, then as long as my only incoming route to DISA is via voicemail, just disabling a user’s voicemail keeps them from making toll calls on my dime. That increases security and scales reasonably well.

<<answer from James - in the freePBX GUI, under an extension’s vm_options use dialout=from-internal to enable DISA for a particular user.>>

That’s it! Keep up the great work!

  • Jason
11

Hi there I´m Fernando Villares, from Argentina, here I own a little Open source Solutions Company named Intelix Telecommunications & Engineering with more than 20 Running enterprise asterisk systems today in Argentina, Colombia, Chile and Mexico mostly callcenters and isdn pri related digital systems installed since 2003.

I was the first translator for spanish language in the old days of AMP and I love the new interface, the new module admin system, the versatility of backup system, among any other stuff that already has been present since amp with some improvements…
I really dislike however the complicated macro system used in extensions, and of course the actual lack (but surely present in new versions) of multi tennant support…that I have been solving with iax manual interconnections and custom dialplans.

Recently we have developed a simple predictive dialer application fully integrated with Freepbx/trixbox for isdn / sip channels and all the itu customizations related to zaptel, asterisk and a series of phones for regulated use in Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Mexico.

Hope the luck be with me to get to the training…Best regards to all the community that make this happens…

12

Nice intergration with Trixbox, without your gui I would be clueless but I’m trying to figure out why the callback feature does not work I know there’s a fix for it with a new ruby script but why haven’t you guys adress that…ah well maybe I’m barking at the wrong three since you only do the GUI nonetheless if there’s anything you can do it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Kdub
P.S. Dont forget to enter me in for the drawing

Response from philippe - see:
http://www.freepbx.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=4511#4511

13

First off lets say that if it weren’t for FreePBX. Asterisk would not be where it is today. Free PBX has kept evolving and getting easier to use and a more efficient way of managing asterisk.

As far as additions: I would like to see the Fax easier to implement from a usability standpoint(still not sure if I can have a Fax on a FXS extension and do the PDF/TIFF thing at the same time). The only other suggestion would be; additional hints, I know the suggestions are a lot of work but they are appreciated.

Our company are integrators and we have lost “sick” our linux guru who has done all our installations to date (7). He would install FreePBX onto a hand coded Asterisk box. Now I have been trying to fill-in his job but I haven’t the skills. Linux Newb. So I have been using Trixbox. which is ok but I am still not confident with Trunking and using all of the functionality the FreePBX offers. I have been able to install 2 successfull installs on my own. The work load and pressure have been enormous. This course offers us an opportunity to keep our business going and our customers satisfied.

We are located close to Boston and I have friends to stay with if need be. If I am priviledged with a free pass to the TB course I will donate a few snom phones to the cause.
Regards,

14

Many thanks to freefbx.org that decided to donate the free tickets and also to kerry that decided to offer a couple of tickets.
i’m new to voip an pbx also but with freepbx everithing is clear and simple.
For now i’ve only one production system and i’m evaluating if i have enough skills to continue.
i think freepbx is perfect as is, but if you want to make it even better you can consider to make
a) better phonebook whith the ability to link to external databases
b) time condition graphing
c) the ability to create an arbitrary number of consecutive extensions using a saved profile.

i also entered the drawing at voipspeak.net so please don’t draw me two times.

Regards.

15

I’ve been using A@H/Trixbox for a while now. It started when my wife was student teaching in a foreign country and I was finishing school here. I figured that there had to be a good way for family & friends to be able to keep in contact at a reasonable price and for her to call them at a reasonable rate. A DID Germany and a DID here…and that’s how I discovered asterisk and then A@H/Trixbox and have been using it since. Freepbx was a great upgrade and so far Trixbox is really looking great with Freepbx.

I’ve installed 3 systems for smaller organizations and they have been very happy with them. I also use it personally and enjoy the flexibility it gives me. I typically have ~2 POTS lines with VOIP accounts to use for more lines when necessary.

Some Ideas:
How about an extension “wizard”. You could give it some info (such as extension type, number range, special options, etc) and it would create all of the extensions automatically. Being able to take a CSV list would be even better, saving the need to go back to put in real names etc.

Another suggestion is having the ability to play the built-in sounds through the GUI. I know I build announcements, but being able to listen to them first would be great.

I’d love to learn more about Trixbox & Freepbx…boston sounds great :slight_smile:

16

Hi… I’ve been using Asterisk since about the beginning of 2004, and freePBX since I started using Trixbox in late 2006. At this point I’m a “casual” user, not least because I haven’t found that my installation is reliable enough to use as a production system. I don’t know if this is because my hardware isn’t working reliably, or there is something going on with my internet connection (ComCast), or something at VoicePulse (outbound calling and one DID).

We have done a lot of networking in the past, and would like to offer Asterisk/Trixbox as a product. We’re also interested in using the underlying SIP switching and call mangement for managing video conferences in a tele-medicine application.

I took at look at the alternative GUI from Digium, and thought that freePBX was much to be prefered.

Because I was familier with the Asterisk config files, I think one improvement would be to explicitly map the config files to the the FreePBX interface, so that I know that if I change xyz in freePBX that it will be reflected in the config file somewhere, and where it will show up. This may be simply a question of better documentation, but when I attempt trace changes made in freePBX to the config files, I get lost pretty quickly.

I like the integration with VoicePulse that is provided with freePBX, and would like to see other vendors added, where appropriate.

I was able to set up the gabcast application really quickly, and I thought this was great to have this integrated with freePBX.

Another enhancement I would really like to see would be “reporting”… an application that would print out, in graphical form, the current dial plan, the ACD menus, and so on. This would be really helpful for troubleshooting, and as documentation for a customer.

Finally if there was a simplified single screen page that would allow an end-user to see their configuration, features, and feature numbers, that would be helpful as well.

Many thanks for the application, and the contest!

17

FreePBX is very good as it is, you guys have done a great job…

I would like to see the ability to bulk program extensions. A screen where you could enter an extension range (1000 - 1010) then just populate the names and secrets for example. Or the ability to inport a (specificly designed) .CSV file for extensions. When doing larger deployments, say over 35 phones this would save a ton of time.

Also, in Module Admin, a button or link that would automatically update all of the installed and active modules.

I’ll also second the list posted by “pkaplan”

Again, thanks for all your hard work?

18

I have been working with Asterisk@Home with AMP since version 1.1
It’s been amazing to see where this project started and where it is today.
I really don’t think there needs to be much improvement in FreePbx, at the pace you guys develop it works out perfect.

We have about 10 systems in production now, the largest is about 60 phones.
We work mostly with non-profit organizations and K1-K12 schools. We did are 1st TrixBox install in an elementary school about 2 months ago and they really like the system. Being able to help support the people that need new systems but don’t have a lot of budget funding is a great feeling. We provided that school a system that was 40% less than a traditional PBX.
Our company plans on promoting TrixBox to as many schools as we can here in the State of Maine where education funding is lacking and schools need new technology. I would really like to attend the Boston training and I am within driving distance of the training site.

Thank you for your consideration!

Tim[/list]

19

I’m a fairly new Trixbox user, and I find it easy to use and configure. As far as a wish list, I’d like to see more options for CRM and more system documentation. I would like to provide Trixbox as a Phone System option to my clients and am using it in my own office. Another wish would be better Trixbox to Trixbox functionality for site to site and interoffice connectivity.

Thanks for this oppertunity.

Gord Cameron

20

Respond to this post telling us what you like, don’t like, want improved, etc. about freepbx, or how you use it, how many installations you have done, etc.

Wow. Freepbx is great as a general statement. The gui offers a great amount of flexibility, but is still simple to use. There are a great number of asterisk capabilities that I can easily configure just with freepbx. And then, if I want to customize our system a bit, I can go into the configuration files and make the changes that really have an impact in our office. Three cheers to open source!!! I am part enthusiast and part doing everything else in the office and life so, freepbx is a great combination of usability and custom flexibility.
We have a small doctor’s office that has been on board since AAA 2.1 and quickly upgraded to freepbx. I always have a backup install at home, and one to play with; production system in the office. We obviously have heavy incoming traffic on pstn lines, voicemails, ivr’s with great recording interface, love the time conditions now, queues for regular calls and a doctor’s line. Setting up extensions and phones is a breeze. Then we use enum and voip long distance for overflow calls to avoid leasing too many land lines. Improvements? I have really all I need, rest really are bells and whistles at this point. I see many plans in the works - perhaps autoconfiguration for connecting two freepbx’s over the internet although I don’t have a need for it. Thanks! Thanks! Thanks!