Hi All,
I am new to FreePBX and I have inherited a system to support. I need to add a second site, which is connected by s2s VPN, but I also need local dialtone with POTS lines. I have a card and a server, but need a little recommendation. Is it possible to tie a 2nd server into the main system with the local cards or would it be better to build a completely separate system for the 2nd office.
If you install a server to use the card in, it would be a separate server anyway, but you can “link” the new server with the original one through a trunk, whether SIP or IAX, whichever you choose. Since you have a s2s VPN between the two places, you can route the trunk through it and connect both places. To make it easier just make sure you choose different extension numbering, for example if the original place has extensions in the 1xxx range, use 2xxx for the new place.
Thanks for the reply, i will give that a try. There is no way to have an analog line card at a different site tied directly into the main PBX?
You can certainly do that. Using an FXO gateway such as
http://www.grandstream.com/products/gateways-and-atas/voip-gateways/product/gxw4104/4108
you wouldn’t even need a server at the remote site (the phones could connect to the headquarters PBX over the VPN).
However, in most applications that would not be a good design. POTS lines are generally much more expensive and less flexible than SIP trunks, but are often chosen because they are more reliable and are less likely to have voice quality issues. Having the remote site connect over the VPN negates those advantages – the POTS lines would be inaccessible in an internet outage and could have quality issues when the VPN is overloaded.
We could give better advice if you provide more details. What country are you in? How many extensions at each site? Number of POTS lines at each site? Are the POTS lines actual copper fed from a central office, or are they delivered over the same fiber or cable with your internet connection?
Do you also have SIP trunks? What kind of phone system does the remote site have now?
Current design is as such:
Site1 - FreePBX server, 4 POTS lines, 20 extensions.
Site2 - Nortel Analong, 3 POTS lines, 8 handsets.
At each site the copper cxn is delivered with the internet from the provider. We are needing to upgrade site2 in order to provide voicemail and deliver a more robust solution. We are looking to provide dialtone but need to maintain the DIDs that are mapped to the POTS lines.
Perhaps a Grandstream GXW4104 as already suggested, available for under $200 on amazon. Similar devices from Patton, Audiocodes,Cisco and Sangoma, they all work much the same way providing a SIP trunk at the FreePBX to the PSTN connections at the Nortel end, if the handsets are analog (plain old telephones) add 8 ports of FXS as SIP extensions on the FreePBX
Generically you are looking for a 4-port FXO (means a trunk not a phone) SIP ATA (means analog telephone adapter) gateway, specifically you will need to get one that is as simple as necessary for you to setup.