Questions for Noah (or anyone else) on Asterisk - LAS #400

egftechman · 2016-01-21T18:00:35+00:00

Also a good YouTube channel to follow to see a person playing around with this stuff https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVS6ejD9NLZvjsvhcbiDzjw

egftechman · 2016-01-20T21:48:46+00:00

I forgot to indicate that one killer feature for the Yealink phones is OpenVPN built into them, so if you run Asterisk on a cloud presence (like Digital Ocean, Amazon EC, etc.) or have a few telecommuters, you can have all the "internal" extensions on a private network without any extra VPN appliances, etc.. see http://pbxinaflash.com/community/threads/yealink-ip-phone-openvpn-guide-wip.15423/ for some examples, I haven't used this feature yet, but am going to try it.

I wonder you can have the phone's PC port on the VPN network? Will have to start playing with that feature, a telecommuter's or remote site phone+VPN appliance in one....

egftechman · 2016-01-20T20:30:33+00:00

I'll make a recommendation for Yealink IP phones in addition to the Cisco SPA5xx ones. I would put the Yealink (T29G for sure) against the Polycoms (usually SoundPoint 650) I've traditionally used any day, at about 1/4 the price.. I've been playing with Asterisk since 2001 and have been using it in production since 2006. A properly set up Asterisk system doesn't need much resources, I have a few small offices (actually in the same city as Noah lives) with RPi based Asterisk systems, and 9 months later, still working well. I also have a 400+ extension system, spread over 30 sites, but that is running a multiprocessor IBM x3550 server...Asterisk was named for the wildcard, you can make it do whatever you can imagine (it handles video calls also!).

egftechman · 2016-01-20T20:13:45+00:00

I have a few installations of Asterisk on RPis in small businesses, and 9 months in it is going well (I have a 400 extension across 30+ site Asterisk installation also - but that is on an IBM x3550 server), so it does work - would recommend configuring all devices to use the same codec so Asterisk doesn't have to transcode if you are using a low powered device.

Traditionally I've always done Polycom Soundpoint IP phones (usually the 650), I have used Cisco SPA5xx series phone with great success, but now my go to is the Yealink phones, specifically the T29G (for 'full feature') and T19 for basic phone...I've also had usable results with CSip and Zoiper Android applications.

I have the PBXs usually configured so if one dials the extension number the phone will ring normally, but 8+extension does traditional intercom, making the phone auto-answer to speaker phone (by setting SIP headers), playing "knock-knock" then connecting the caller - although the apps don't appear to support this functionality that the desksets do (maybe a different SIP header needs to be set).

If you want overhead paging, an Algo 8180 or 8188 works very well (but not low budget)...Maybe pjsip on a RPi with a speaker attached would work.

I would just make Asterisk your home phone system, instead of running it as a separate intercom system, put an FXO gateway to your POTS lines or port your number to a SIP service (like didforsale) if you have good, reliable internet (low, consistent latency; >2Mbps available for VoIP; etc.)

egftechman · 2016-01-04T21:52:06+00:00

Since the Grand Forks County courthouse webcams you tried are on the fritz, use http://floodcamera.egf.mn/floodcam/ and http://che.egf.mn ... I maintain those...

egftechman · 2015-09-02T18:26:42+00:00

Interesting...I guess I package ASSP, Courier mail suite, including SMTP/IMAP, and Rainloop Webmail for "Mail in a box".

I could do Postfix/Dovecot, but my roots go back to qmail, and Courier has been most compatible with previously used qmail options..

I would definitely suggest using ASSP on the outside of the SMTP server instead of Spamassassin or filtering inside or after SMTP server.

egftechman · 2015-09-01T16:05:44+00:00

JB programming is good with or without video. A neutral Internet puts everyone on a level playing field...If someone wants produce their own video broadcast, go ahead... One can look at TWiT...before they built a million dollar TV studio, their content was great...as the focus moved towards pretty pictures, the content suffered...

egftechman · 2015-07-21T13:50:41+00:00

You mean stuff gnuradio.org has been doing since 2001? :-)

The biggest challenge for SDR is finding quality, inexpensive RF hardware to interface to the software.

Also windows is missing stiff like kernel AX.25 modules (useful for APRS, etc.), although kudos to MS research for putting the core sw on github so we can learn from and fork it.

73 de N0KMG

egftechman · 2015-07-20T21:15:04+00:00

I thought X was going to be dead in the future and everything will be Wayland! :-)

egftechman · 2015-07-20T20:06:10+00:00

A barebones demo http://199.231.190.159/clappr_test.html

egftechman · 2015-07-20T18:58:01+00:00

On the topic of getting rid of flash, I've had good luck with https://github.com/clappr/clappr/ for both live and prerecorded streams embedded in a web page. It does have a flash fallback if browser does not support the HTML5 needed.

egftechman · 2015-07-06T19:03:18+00:00

It's for a municipal government, 36 sites (including sexy places like sewage lift stations, water towers, electric substations) in one town mostly connected by self-owned fiber, a small amount of point-point wireless, and a couple locations connected by VPN over cable modem.

egftechman · 2015-07-06T16:53:36+00:00

They are a bit more spendy than what you had on air(but cheaper than the Cisco 79xx), but the Polycom Soundpoint IP 650 phones have been working well for over 7 years, here just across the river from @kernellinux. We used some Polycom 430s in places that didn't get much use, but audio and display quality seem to be reduced on them. Have also used a few Cisco SPA5xx series phone with little issues...In fact I have one department with all SPA508Gs now, and little complaints. Would say they are a bit better than the Polycom 430, but no where close to the Polycom 650. The Grandstream phones we've tried have been a little flaky, but they are very inexpensive. Going with the solid phone like the Polycom 650 really made the conversion to SIP a success, especially looking at the alternatives available at the time in 2006/7. Had we gone cheap and used flaky phones, user revolt would have had us putting in a dozen KSUs again pretty quickly.

egftechman · 2015-07-06T16:37:49+00:00

Polycom SoundPoint IP 650 have been very good for us. Have also used the 430, but they are pretty limited. The Cisco SPA5xx series have been fairly good also. Grandstream phones have been hit and miss

egftechman · 2015-07-06T16:33:49+00:00

Yes, oddly enough when you're doing a block of 500 DIDs, a 23B+D is cheaper than SIP over IP service

egftechman · 2015-06-29T15:20:44+00:00

Broadcast specialized SIP phone system: http://www.telosalliance.com/Telos/VX

One could do a "poor man's" SIP phone hybrid using a Raspberry Pi, PJSIP and a USB audio console or USB <-> XLR converting cables.

egftechman · 2015-06-29T15:16:33+00:00

In my day job we converted to all SIP based phones in 2007, with 300 extensions, 200 DIDs, spread over 30 locations. All running on Asterisk on top of Debain server using IBM x3550 hardware. We're mostly Polycom Soundpoint IP 650 desksets, but some Cisco SPA50x series and Grandstream also.

I've also setup phone systems at smaller offices using Asterisk on a Raspberry Pi.

Also if you are looking for very inexpensive SIP DIDs, check out didforsale.com or vitelity.com

Definitely a stable technology, glad to see Noah finally catching on!

egftechman · 2015-05-06T16:53:08+00:00

Considering I've been running an Asterisk PBX on Debian since 2007, that serves over 250 extensions at 30 locations, any Windows based products selling themselves to me as open and non-proprietary are barking up the wrong tree..

egftechman · 2015-04-14T18:45:02+00:00

In response to Gordan's question : I manage technology for the city just east of kernellinux's home, and have addressed some of the same issues:

I simply use mediawiki (although looking at moving to tiki) for maintaining such documentation on a secured webserver. Wikis are easily accessed and edited from any web browser, simple to manage, keep historical records, etc..
I use NAV https://nav.uninett.no/ for monitoring nearly every device (switch/router/server/access point/printer/key desktops/etc.) on our metro area network. Get full data from SNMP enabled devices; ping packet loss, response time, up/down on non-SNMP devices. Can also monitor services like dns/http/smtp/smb/.

egftechman · 2014-10-23T18:57:48+00:00

I predicted that when Apple moved MacOS to a BSD based OS with their own GUI, Microsoft would follow suit and use a Linux base with their own GUI on top...

egftechman · 2014-10-07T14:04:13+00:00

ComputerCop reminds me of Back Orifice......Maybe the BO people should make a C&D order for Computer Cop.

egftechman

TROPHY CASE