PBX Setup for Small Business

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: May 29, 2008 Posts: 2

Hello,

My office has two analog lines (ph. & fax) hooked up to a Vonage supplied Motorola VT2542-VD Router. We're on the "Small Business Premium Unlimited" plan. There's just two of us that use the phone. Our net connection is a six mbit-ish Comcast line. We'd like to set up a PBX! I'm handy with Linux and was hoping to use Asterisk on Ubuntu, or trixbox. We are planning on buying a couple SIP phones.
We don't need separate tele. number, just extensions.

Now for some marginal ascii art...

Currently we're setup like this:

NET <--> Comcast HW <--> VT2542-VD Router <---> Phones (line 1), Fax (line 2)

Would our PBX setup with SIP phones be something like this?

NET <--> Comcast HW <--> Router/Switch <--> PBX, SIP Phones

What, if anything, in the above diagram translates the Vonage VoIP to something that, say, my Asterisk box would understand? Also, what would handle our fax needs if we got rid of all the analog lines?

Thanks in advance!

Marshall

Posts: 1178 · Member of the Week Joined: Feb 28, 2005 Posts: 1178

My understanding is that you need SIP information to run a PBX which Vonage does not give out unless you get a softphone acct. The problem with softphone is that it does not come with an unlimited plan.

I would be very careful about this.

Posts: 338 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Dec 04, 2005 Posts: 338

What are you looking for the PBX to be able to provide for you? Most of the features that one typically looks to a PBX for already come with the service, you would just get a line for each desk.

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: May 29, 2008 Posts: 2

Thanks for the responses! I'd like a good deal of the following Asterisk PBX features:

ADSI On-Screen Menu System
Alarm Receiver
Append Message
Authentication
Automated Attendant
Blacklists
Blind Transfer
Call Detail Records
Call Forward on Busy
Call Forward on No Answer
Call Forward Variable
Call Monitoring
Call Parking
Call Queuing
Call Recording
Call Retrieval
Call Routing (DID & ANI)
Call Snooping
Call Transfer
Call Waiting
Caller ID
Caller ID Blocking
Caller ID on Call Waiting
Calling Cards
Conference Bridging
Database Store / Retrieve
Database Integration
Dial by Name
Direct Inward System Access
Distinctive Ring
Distributed Universal Number Discovery (DUNDi™)
Do Not Disturb
E911
ENUM
Fax Transmit and Receive (3rd Party OSS Package)
Flexible Extension Logic
Interactive Directory Listing
Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
Local and Remote Call Agents
Macros
Music On Hold
Music On Transfer:
- Flexible Mp3-based System
- Random or Linear Play
- Volume Control
Predictive Dialer
Privacy
Open Settlement Protocol (OSP)
Overhead Paging
Protocol Conversion
Remote Call Pickup
Remote Office Support
Roaming Extensions
Route by Caller ID
SMS Messaging
Spell / Say
Streaming Media Access
Supervised Transfer
Talk Detection
Text-to-Speech (via Festival)
Three-way Calling
Time and Date
Transcoding
Trunking
VoIP Gateways
Voicemail:
- Visual Indicator for Message Waiting
- Stutter Dialtone for Message Waiting
- Voicemail to email
- Voicemail Groups
- Web Voicemail Interface
Zapateller

Forwarding calls to outside telephone numbers would especially be useful.

Posts: 1178 · Member of the Week Joined: Feb 28, 2005 Posts: 1178

as helpful as many of the asterix features are, most of them will be of little use for your 2 person office. If you need call forwarding, that is already an available feature of vonage as is call forwarding to other vonage #s etc. Voicemail is also a feature. So I'm not very clear on the "real" advantage of having asterix in light of the fact that you will have to get an additional account that does not have unlimited calling plans with it.

Posts: 810 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Jun 08, 2007 Posts: 810

call forwarding to other numbers can be done with Call Transfer Flash, #90, Dial, Hang UP

Other features from the handset:

3-Way Calling Call, Flash, Dial 3rd party, Flash

Call Return *69

Anonymous Call Blocking *77 On, *87 Off

Call Forward *72 On, *73 Off

Do Not Disturb *78 On, *79 Off

Call Transfer Flash, #90, Dial, Hang UP

Call Waiting Flash when tone is heard

Call Waiting Disabled *70, then Dial Number

Caller ID Block *67, Dial Tone, Dial Number

Repeat Dialing On busy signal press #5, Hang Up

Voice Mail *123

Emergency 911

Posts: 185 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Dec 18, 2005 Posts: 185

Honestly, when people want to use a PBX I tell them to go with a company like Broadvoice that offers Bring your own device. if you connect your Vonage Adapter to the Trunk line on the back of your pbx, you are getting compressed audio, uncompressing it at the vonage box, then recompressing it from your pbx, this is the exact reason calls to tech support sound like **** after they are routed from india to the US. While, I personally do use my softphone to connect my main vonage line to my pbx, its only worth it for me because I still have my Vonage Employee plan which includes a free softphone. Also, you lose your unlimited minutes if you're bouncing calls out of a softphone line.

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Jun 25, 2008 Posts: 2

Hi,

I've had poor experience with Asterisk, but a company in California called Brekeke Software manufactures an IP PBX that has been great for me.

check out http://www.brekeke.com/pbx/

and they have instructions on how to set up vonage with their IP PBX at:

http://www.brekeke.com/support/support_interoperability_itsp.php

cheers,

Posts: 185 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Dec 18, 2005 Posts: 185

They're doing the exact same thing that I said. They want you to sign up for a softphone and use the softphone number to login to the vonage trunk. Again, this is a bad idea. 1) Your outbound caller ID will be your softphone not your regular phone number. 2) Even with an unlimited minute plan, the softphone line only has 500 outbound minutes, so you're not using your unlimited minutes anyway.

This is why I suggest broadvoice. Their unlimited plan is the same price, and if you're going to spend the extra 5$ a month on a softphone, you might as well spend it on the Bring Your Own Device plan instead and connect your pbx to your real line, and use your unlimited minutes. Vonage does not have bring your own device.

Asterisk is super configurable and extremely reliable. All of Vonage's pbx's are Asterisk. If you're having bad luck with it you're doing something wrong.

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Jul 10, 2008 Posts: 1

I don't know if this is off topic, but I have a 4 line Panasonic Digital Super Hybrid System that I'd like to hook up to Vonage.

Is it possible to hook up this Panasonic system to Vonage?