Topic: Office Setup with remote workers and multiple companies

[jameswilson]

Im looking to replace our current win2k3 server with SME. All things seem to be replaceable my only sticking points had previously been exchange and VOIP.

I have installed SOGo which seems to do the exchange stuff.
On topic we have a 3cx phone system running on the 2k3 server. I want to get rid of this.

We have a handful ( remote phones that are SIP handsets. They use static IP's currently (at the remote end) and we connect via SIP to the 3cx system and limit the IP that is allowed to login.
Other users use softphones (x4) and connect via the VPN as they are not on static IP
Plus we have 9 internal handsets.
We have 5 SIP trunks we use and a single ISDN2 line. This is connected via a Patton IP gateway

Main issues im concerned about.
1. We operate 4 different companies from our head office. I need different IVR's (I assume not a problem for these) but also need different hold music per trunk/handset.
2. Do i need to chnage the handsets (linksys / cisco handsets)
3. We often have to restart the phones that are using SIP remotly. IS this an issue with our current setup or am i doing it totally wrong.
4. Backup. I notice sark/sail has a Has a High availability option?
5. We also have 2 PSTN lines for Fax and Modem use. I know there is hylafax etc but is fax better or possible in Sail etc. Also is there anyway i can setup a virtual com port in windows to use the pbx for modem use.

Many thanks
James

[SARK devs]

Wow - lot of questions...  here goes...

We operate 4 different companies from our head office. I need different IVR's (I assume not a problem for these) but also need different hold music per trunk/handset.

yes you can do this in asterisk and in sark.  You can specify a musicclass in the trunk or extension entry.  You can google musiconhold.conf to see how to define a music-on-hold class.

Do i need to change the handsets (linksys / cisco handsets)

 
If you mean do you need new or different handsets then no, what you have will work OK.  You will need to change their registration details to register to the asterisk server but that's about it.

We often have to restart the phones that are using SIP remotly. IS this an issue with our current setup or am i doing it totally wrong.

you don't say why you restart them but in my experience this is not 'normal' behaviour.    I can only assume that the phones are losing connection to the server and not re-establishing it.  Most SIP phones will continually attempt to re-register in the event of a lost connection and I thought that the cisco small business units fell into this category so it may be an incorrect setting on the phones but I'm not an expert on these units.

Backup. I notice sark/sail has a Has a High availability option?

It does but the option is only currently available to supported customers (i.e. you need to buy support from us).  It is likely that we will release an unsupported version of ASHA (the HA component) as part of the SARK V4 release later this year.

We also have 2 PSTN lines for Fax and Modem use. I know there is hylafax etc but is fax better or possible in Sail etc. Also is there anyway i can setup a virtual com port in windows to use the pbx for modem use.

SARK doesn't really do anything special with FAX.  Most of our customers tend to receive FAX over DDI on PRI or BRI lines and we simply route them to regular FAX machines (using Cisco small business ATA's).  Other customers often just have PSTN lines for FAX as you do.  For customers who want fax-to-the-desktop, there are lots of existing standalone solutions on Linux and Windows which do a good job so it's difficult to justify re-inventing the wheel. 

With regard to your question about windows com ports; I've no idea but assuming the link would be over some kind of analogue line then you would need to experiment with an ATA (like the PAP2T)  to see if it works.

Kind Regards

S


 

[jameswilson]

Wonderful. Thanks for the replies.