New to FreePBX and Sangoma - General Info

General Help
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Hello

I have recently started to look at FreePBX and so far I like what I see. I can also see that a perfect phone to pair up with FreePBX is a Sangoma model.

If possible I would like help with the below general questions I have:

  1. Has anyone got any thoughts/feedback for hosting FreePBX within an AWS instance rather than on site. Does this work well with handsets registering with a PBX in the cloud?

  2. I understand the main benefit to enable the VPN feature for the handsets, that is, the extra layer of security. Are there any downsides when using the VPN feature? Does it affect call quality? Do handsets “talk” directly to each other or does ALL traffic go through the VPN to the PBX?

  3. Is the VPN feature an SSL VPN or a IPSEC VPN. Does it use standard 443 ports, meaning it will work with 99% of firewalls by default?

  4. By default can users “login” to handsets or does this require extra configuration? Is it complex?

  5. How well do people rate Sangoma for things such as technical support and firmware security updates?

I’m sure I will have many more questions as I dig deeper but would appreciate any feedback from the community at this stage.

Thanks

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  1. I have no personal experience with AWS, but anecdotally here in the forum there are reports of problems. You would probably be better off by choosing a host specializing in the FreePBX Distro.

  2. VPN downsides would be slightly more complex configuration for setup (for the admin, not the user), slight increase in bandwidth. There is no effect on call quality, and as Asterisk is a back to back user agent, all media goes through the PBX regardless of whether a VPN is used or not.

  3. VPN is OpenVPN and uses port 1194, which is not currently user configurable.

  4. Hot desking is a feature provided by Phone Apps and has nothing to do with VPN. There is not too much to config, enable permissions for your users and they login with extension number and vm pin.

  5. Since I work in Sangoma support I shall let others tell you how awesome support is.

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Thank you for the quick reply, much appreciated.