I’m new to freePBX and VoIP in general. I have been looking at multiple wiki’s forums etc learning allot of useful information. I’ve ran into a question I don’t seem to be able to solve easily by pouring through forums and wiki’s. Which should I go with I haven’t settled on a server type whether its a rack server or tower server for my build. I haven’t settled yet because I’m unclear which to go with a Telephony card or a Gateway device. Obviously if card it will be tower and if Gateway then it will be rack, but which will be cheaper for me. I have 4 outside phone lines and 2 fax lines one of the phone lines is an 800# and one of the fax machines is hooked up to the LAN so everyone in the office can fax out using LANFax. What would be my best and cheapest choice for my build?
OK - there are a lot of things in here that might be issues, so I’ll just start in on a few of them:
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FreePBX (via Asterisk) is a telephony Gateway. It might help to think of FreePBX as a management suite for Asterisk. It’s a lot more than that, but for purposes of your question, it should be fine.
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You can build Asterisk into a lot of different physical spaces. Most of the servers I build (using PBX In A Flash, which is a FreePBX “distribution”) are rack mount.
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I’m not clear on where you are trying to end up. Do you want to add some functionality to your 800 number and other incoming phone services? Are you trying to convert from POTS (Plain Old Telephone Services) to VOIP?
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Are you planning on changing the phones in your office? Do you want to continue to use your POTS phones, or are you going to upgrade to a VOIP phone?
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Do you actually have four phone lines, or are you getting your services over some other kind of connection? Obvious choices were are PRI and ISDN.
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Do you want to to keep your phone lines?
Using the words you gave us, I assume you have four individual phone lines, each with a Direct In Dial (DID) number. One of these lines is connected to your FAX machine which is connected to the network and operates as an outbound “soft fax” for your office computers. In addition to the three actual phone lines (not the FAX number), you have a Toll Free number that drops onto your incoming numbers through a hunt group.
If that’s the case, tell us where you want to end up. Right now, you’re trying to differentiate on marketing terms, and we do technology here.
For example, if we assume my description is correct, you want to get rid of your three phone lines (keep the FAX line, VOIP FAX is a huge PITA) and switch them and the 800 number over to a VOIP solution. You want to get rid of the single-line phones in your offices and replace them with something more modern (SPA Cisco phones, Aastra, Digium) or even move to soft phones on the computers. You want to be able to set up an IVR, put people on hold, set up queues for incoming 800 calls, and some other stuff.
If that’s the case, let us know. If not, let us know. I’m sure we’ll have someone here that will be willing to make some suggestions.
Cynjut,
Thanks for the fairly quick response. Below I have quoted and responded to your questions.
a. Using Freepbx as management for adding users extensions etc I understand its capable of more but will be mostly managing the VoIP system.1) FreePBX (via Asterisk) is a telephony Gateway. It might help to think of FreePBX as a management suite for Asterisk. It's a lot more than that, but for purposes of your question, it should be fine.
a. I’m not specifically leaning one way or the other on this I have planned for both possibilities.2) You can build Asterisk into a lot of different physical spaces. Most of the servers I build (using PBX In A Flash, which is a FreePBX "distribution") are rack mount.
a. We are doing away with as many POTS lines as we can. We have 2 fax lines and a Security Alarm line that have to stay POTS. But all of our actual phones run through an Ancient DBS-PBX that my predecessor lost or failed to document the credentials for, it will fail eventually and with no access to the system to change settings or clone files and setup a replacement PBX we will be SoL.3) I'm not clear on where you are trying to end up. Do you want to add some functionality to your 800 number and other incoming phone services? Are you trying to convert from POTS (Plain Old Telephone Services) to VOIP?
a. We will be replacing our current phones With VoIP.4) Are you planning on changing the phones in your office? Do you want to continue to use your POTS phones, or are you going to upgrade to a VOIP phone?
a. We have 7 verified phone lines 2 are Fax lines and 1 is our Security system. All of these 7 lines have separate Phone numbers.5) Do you actually have four phone lines, or are you getting your services over some other kind of connection? Obvious choices were are PRI and ISDN.
a. What other options are there we want to keep our main number for sure, also the Toll Free option as a dial in for our customers. Is there an option to lose the extra lines and still have multiple outgoing calls active at any one time?6) Do you want to keep your phone lines?
As I said above we have 7 lines 2 of which are fax 1 is alarm. I’m not sure how its routed but our main number reaches the PBX(which rings the receptionist) and our receptionist then directs calls. So I do not believe they are DID#’s because we don’t dial in on those numbers, I’m not positive because I know didly squat about this ancient DBS-PBX system but I think its something like we have the main number as dial in and out the other lines are there for an overflow like effect(if main line is busy routes to 2nd line if that line is busy then routes to the next until it reaches an open line) to transfer.Using the words you gave us, I assume you have four individual phone lines, each with a Direct In Dial (DID) number. One of these lines is connected to your FAX machine which is connected to the network and operates as an outbound "soft fax" for your office computers. In addition to the three actual phone lines (not the FAX number), you have a Toll Free number that drops onto your incoming numbers through a hunt group.
We want to replace the current PBX with a FreePBX VoIP system thereby replacing all of the office Phones and extensions that would be 30+ extensions probably go with a 48 port switch for the added possible growth. We will not be messing with the fax lines or alarm line. As I questioned in #6 if we can still make multi outgoing calls and loose the extra lines that’s a plus but if not then we would want to keep then for overflow.If that's the case, tell us where you want to end up. Right now, you're trying to differentiate on marketing terms, and we do technology here.
We will be going to Cisco phones in a couple varieties, 4-6 line for high traffic offices and 2 line for lower traffic offices and a few wireless(or soft phone via cell) for the runners that are not often at their desks and currently get calls and have to find an open phone to take calls (these would be setup on a 2nd dial device after x rings.) We will need to setup an IVR. We will need to put people on hold. We would probably just want to tie the 800# into the main dial in number so that the IVR can direct the caller to correct extension or receptionist. We would need at least 1 of the Extensions to be conference capable, and we would want intercom between extensions. I’m not sure if paging through the facility would work off of intercom or what but we would need the ability to page for people through the facility for example: James you have a call on line 1, James call on line 1.For example, if we assume my description is correct, you want to get rid of your three phone lines (keep the FAX line, VOIP FAX is a huge PITA) and switch them and the 800 number over to a VOIP solution. You want to get rid of the single-line phones in your offices and replace them with something more modern (SPA Cisco phones, Aastra, Digium) or even move to soft phones on the computers. You want to be able to set up an IVR, put people on hold, set up queues for incoming 800 calls, and some other stuff.
I hope someone can help me, I am now more confused than I was to begin with, and here I thought a had a pretty good grasp on what I needed minus the few small details now I’m thinking I apparently didnt have as good of grasp as I thought I did. 
Thanks in advance to anyone willing to help out this poor lost soul.
If you are going to pass your fax lines use a physical card.
The alarm should go direct to dmark
Because you are paying for a physical card anyway you can keep your pots lines as analogue or port the numbers as DID’s to a sip service which gives you all sorts of flexibility.
Something like:
Get the base card then add 3 FXO modules to connect to 6 phone lines. If you have the fax lines now in to legacy fax machines you can add an FXS module to provide ports to those fax machines.
James’ suggestion is excellent. This would terminate your FAX lines in the phone server and make your Asterisk server your FAX server. This would work virtually identically to the way your people connect to the FAX machines now.
There is no way around the alarm line, so unless you want to monitor the line with the server (which you could), I’d recommend leaving it connected exactly as is.
Another option is to leave the fax and alarm lines as is and put everything else on VOIP. Some VOIP providers (and specialty FAX services) also provide “soft fax” services that could replace your two fax lines. This should be a separate discussion.
Find a VOIP provider and talk to them about “porting” your 800 number and Inbound number to them. There are lots of rate plans out there, but most charge “by the minute” for all of your incoming and outgoing traffic, and charge a set fee for whatever services and features you want with the number. These features can include CNAM processing, 911 passthrough, E911 support, fail-over numbers, and lots of other things. Work with whoever you end up talking to as a sales rep - they will probably be more than happy to explain all of the options and monthly minimums.
With that in place, you then have as many inbound and outbound “lines” as you can generate, since the traffic to the trunk is packetized. That takes care of your connection to the world for your phones and gets all of your traffic into Asterisk, where you can manage it in as many ways as you can probably imagine. The FreePBX folks offer some VOIP services which are good. I also use “VOIP Innovations” and “Alcazar”. I’d recommend either of them. Shop around - you want to get the most bang for your buck here.
As far as instruments go, I’d recommend picking a solution that allows for Power Over Ethernet so that your phones are powered from a "more or less"central location. Put the power injector (usually a switch) on a BIG UPS with your Asterisk server and the network connection (something like a cable modem, for example). This way, you have phones (for a short time) if there’s a power outage.
There are lots of solutions for line-powered instruments. Most of Cisco’s offerings provide a mechanism for POE, so depending on what you have in mind there, you could find yourself well served by the Cisco phones either operating under the SIP or Skinny protocols. Since Cisco invented Skinny (also called SCCP), you are likely to get a better experience with the SCCP protocol. I like to advocate chan-sccp-b for people that want to use Cisco, which is an “add on” to Asterisk…
If you find another phone provider, there are many SIP offerings that are usually excellent choices. If it was my project and I needed management “buy in”, I’d probably pick up three or four specimens and put them on a table connected to a “test” FreePBX system. Different people like different hand feel and sound properties, and frankly you’d be hard pressed to go wrong with most of the “higher end” offerings. Also keep in mind that if you are going to continue to maintain a telephone receptionist, you may want to be able to provide feedback to him or her through a multi-line phone that monitors everyone’s phone status.
For portable phones, there are several good options out there, including the “cell phone SIP” options. You can really go nuts with that if you want.
Once you get FreePBX installed on a server, you’ll have an embarrassment of options to choose from with regard to features and choices.
Oh, and you don’t have to turn off your old phone system until you are ready to port your numbers. When you start talking to a VOIP provider, get a testing number (VI charges $2.95 a month for the number) that you can later use for a DISA (indirect outbound) number. Set up your new phone system, maybe in an office or conference room, and when you are happy with the way the system is configured, call your VOIP provider and pull the ripcord on the number port - it should be seamless . You simply go from the old PBX to the new one, probably overnight. If you’ve set up your network in advance, you can spend an hour walking around dropping new phones on desks, testing the, and declaring yourself the king of the telephone network.
Good luck.