Asus TS300-E4 PA4 User Manual download pdf

;LOGIN: OctOber 2008 A 36-user AsterIsk INstALLAtION 31

RobeRT soloMon

a 36-user Asterisk

installation

Phone System Administrator is one of several hats

Bob Solomon wears at a medium-sized non-profit in

New York City. He would like to participate in more

Asterisk projects.

bobsol@gmail.com

my non-profit employer needed

to replace an aging Toshiba KSU system

because the phones, some of which date

back to the ’80s, were falling apart and the

voicemail’s hard drive was grinding loudly.

I was able to convince management to

replace the system with an Asterisk-based

PBX by promising a lower end cost and the

elimination of vendor lock-in. In this article,

I walk you through the process I followed:

selecting phones, modifying the Asterisk

configuration, and training users.

Asterisk installations of the sort I had done previ-

ously, where Asterisk functioned as an answering

machine or a small office phone system, have been

documented in many places. This installation of-

fered an opportunity to take my Asterisk skills to

the next level. The system supports eight lines, 24

extensions, and over 36 voicemail users.



Originally, I proposed a system utilizing a chan-

nel bank and Aastra 9116 phones. The final design

used Polycom IP430 and IP601 SIP phones. The

keypad and voice quality of a sample 9116 was dis-

appointing in comparison to our existing Toshiba

EKT phones.

Business-quality analog phones are available at

about the same price point as the Polycom SIP

phones that we ultimately selected. To support the

SIP phone the only hardware required is an Ether-

net or, ideally, Power Over Ethernet port. The per

port cost of POE is much less than that of an FXS

(analog phone station) port.

The existing phone system provided voice-first in-

tercom; that is, intercom calls were answered by

the recipient’s phone on speaker phone, without

any action on the part of the recipient. A warning

tone preceded the call so that the recipient knew

when he or she no longer had privacy. An all-page

feature similar to voice-first intercom, but con-

necting to most phones on the system at once, one

way, was also provided. A conversation with man-

agement confirmed the importance of retaining

these features. I tested a sample Polycom IP430.

This phone could handle voice-first calls with bet-

ter sound quality than the existing system. The

keypad feel and sound quality compared favorably

with our existing phones.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Summary of Contents

Page 1 - RobeRT soloMon

;LOGIN: OctOber 2008 A 36-user AsterIsk INstALLAtION 31RobeRT soloMona 36-user Asterisk installationPhone System Administrator is one of several hat

Page 2 - 

40 ;LOGIN: vOL. 33, NO. 5[8] http://weaversrevenge.com/ast36/door-buzzer.[9] http://weaversrevenge.com/ast36/holidays.[10] http://weaversrevenge.com/

Page 3

32 ;LOGIN: vOL. 33, NO. 5Polycom phones can be configured from the keypad, through an HTML interface or by XML files, or automatically downloaded by

Page 4 - 

;LOGIN: OctOber 2008 A 36-user AsterIsk INstALLAtION 33since the memory was replaced. Please note that the symptoms of this mem-ory failure were fre

Page 5

34 ;LOGIN: vOL. 33, NO. 5The following dialplan excerpt handles intercom calls placed from an inside context: ; line below is for voicemail for calli

Page 6 - 

;LOGIN: OctOber 2008 A 36-user AsterIsk INstALLAtION 35<alertInfo voIpProt.SIP.alertInfo.1.value=”Ring Answer” voIpProt.SIP.alertInfo.1.class=”4

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36 ;LOGIN: vOL. 33, NO. 5When an employee leaves the organization, I am often asked to forward that employee’s calls to the extensi

Page 8 - 38 ;LOGIN: vOL. 33, NO. 5

;LOGIN: OctOber 2008 A 36-user AsterIsk INstALLAtION 37day. Also, calls to the operator go directly to voicemail when we are closed for any reason.

Page 9 - 

38 ;LOGIN: vOL. 33, NO. 5coming lines, a KSU setup was advantageous because call handling was in-tuitive. We have had eight lines for many years now

Page 10 - 40 ;LOGIN: vOL. 33, NO. 5

;LOGIN: OctOber 2008 A 36-user AsterIsk INstALLAtION 39You should have a good idea of what a properly working phone system sounds and feels like. Ex

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