[TriLUG] so what does a 10 phone Asterisk system cost these days?

Sun Dec 30 10:16:07 EST 2007

On Trixbox, I've heard both good (e.g., easy to setup and use, asterisk-based, decent support, one person I know just moved his entire office over to Trixbox and has had no problems outside of poor/unavailable FoIP fax capability which is less of a problem with Trixbox than FoIP I think), and bad (e.g., uses a fork of asterisk which may not be completely supportable if Trixbox goes out of business, many VoIP phones are not well-supported and the phone/appliance setup is "buggy" unless using the right VoIP phones, a couple of PBX/VoIP vendors I spoke with mentioned that a number of them come back after customers try them and become disappointed). 

The folks at voipsupply.com sell a lot of them and the salesman I spoke with tried to steer me towards the Rhino setup (the same one Jon mentioned) over the Trixbox (we ended up going with hosted VoIP through Spirit Telecom in the end). Rhino makes the Trixbox appliance for Trixbox and also sells a non-branded bundle for resellers. Supposedly their support is better than the support provided by Trixbox, but this was several months ago and things may have improved. I'd recommend talking to voipsupply.com and others for as many "real world" opinions as you can find. 

The voipsupply salesman also recommended Switchvox (another Asterisk-based appliance) and said they seemed to have a very well-built system overall. Switchvox and several others (e.g., Evolution PBX) provide the same "hybrid-hosted" model as Trixbox which basically means they will monitor the system remotely for a monthly fee and proactively fix any issues. 

You need to find the right mix of ingredients for your budget and needs (phones, features, appliance, and support) and ask a LOT of questions. Voipsupply also sells the Talkswitch bundle so it might be a good idea to ask them what customer feedback has been on that as well.

Kevin

----- Original Message ----
From: "jonc at nc.rr.com" <jonc at nc.rr.com>
To: Triangle Linux Users Group General Discussion <trilug at trilug.org>
Sent: Saturday, December 29, 2007 9:58:07 PM
Subject: Re: [TriLUG] so what does a 10 phone Asterisk system cost these days?

Lookup pricing on Voipsupply.com. They sell a Trixbox that would work
 just fine for your friends. Very easy to setup. Very easy to maintain.
 Full of features that you will never find on a cheapo Analog PBX.
I recommend model CEROSR4XO-EC  (advertised price:  $1,335.99)

Note: if they plan on growing, you might want the more pricey TB-01... 

This would use the 4 incoming lines from Sprint for connection to the
 PSTN and let them use VoIP phones for connections to the PBX.

Cerient (Cerient.net) has experience with similar installs. So far they
 have a great on-site track record for VoIP/hybrid pbx installs.

Now for the interesting part of a phone system - the clients will judge
 the new system almost completely on the handsets that are put in with
 the system... No matter how good the features and sound quality, crappy
 handsets == crappy phone system.
I recommend you get Polycomm (or Cisco)phones for the system. These
 will cost from $100 to $200 each depending on the functions you need for
 the phones. Of course you could go with Softphones like the VT-GO from
 IPBlue. These are about half the cost of Hardware phones and generally
 work very well - as long as the computer workstations are decent.

Good Luck!

Jon Carnes
FeatureTel

---- Jim Ray <jim at neuse.net> wrote: 
> Go to hellodirect.com and order a Talkswitch. Use regular analog
 phones. Your per phone cost for VoIP is something like $300 and for POTS
 something like $5 from the Walmart check out line. The head unit is a
 grand or two.
> 
> Regards,
>  
> Jim
>  
> Jim Ray, President
> Neuse River Networks
> tel: 919-838-1672 cell: 919-606-1772
> http://www.NeuseRiverNetworks.com
>  
> Connecting You to the World since 1997
>  
> We specialize in managed services, IT outsourcing and installation of
 network communications systems for voice, video and data. Our
 expertise has evolved from small, local businesses to large businesses with
 locations scattered across the globe. 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: trilug-bounces at trilug.org [mailto:trilug-bounces at trilug.org] On
 Behalf Of Greg Brown
> Sent: Saturday, December 29, 2007 7:17 PM
> To: Triangle Linux Users Group General Discussion
> Subject: [TriLUG] so what does a 10 phone Asterisk system cost these
 days?
> 
> My friends who run the campground at the outer banks are looking to
 upgrade
> their phone system - but what does it cost?  They have 10 phones now,
 all
> are multi-line ancient things.  They have four incoming lines from
> Sprint/Embark (the only provider on the Island) and they'd like to
 keep
> their lines.
> 
> So what they are looking for is a new phone system, naturally, I
 thought
> Asterisk.  I'd be interested in getting some a quote or two for
 installation
> and support of the system.  The good news is whoever is maintaining
 the
> system will have inbound ssh (with Squid if you need it) access so
 the
> system can be maintained over the Internet.
> 
> Also I can be utilized if you need to replace a handset, etc as I am
 present
> in the area MOST WEEKENDS.  I can also help with the physical
 installation
> of the hardware if required.
> 
> Requirements are as follows:  10 phones, all IP all with an internal
> switch.  The existing wiring isn't pretty I'm sorry to say but most
 rooms
> have at least one 100 meg cat 5 drop.  The computers in each room
 will have
> to be connected via the phone switch port.  Voicemail is a big thing.
  If
> you can believe it there is no voicemail in the current system.
> 
> That's about it - what would a system like this cost?
> 
> Greg
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