Asterisk PBX has many features
Asterisk is a complete PBX in software. It runs on Linux, BSD, Windows (emulated) and OS X and provides all of the features you would expect from a PBX and more. Asterisk does voice over IP in four protocols, and can interoperate with almost all standards-based telephony equipment using relatively inexpensive hardware.
Asterisk provides Voicemail services with Directory, Call Conferencing, Interactive Voice Response, Call Queuing. It has support for three-way calling, caller ID services, ADSI, IAX, SIP, H.323 (as both client and gateway), MGCP (call manager only) and SCCP/Skinny. Check the Features section for a more complete list.
Asterisk needs no additional hardware for Voice-over-IP, although it does expect a non-standard driver that implements dummy hardware as a non-portable timing mechanism (for certain applications such as conferencing). A single (or multiple) VOIP provider(s) can be used for outgoing and/or incoming calls (outgoing and incoming calls can be handled through entirely different VOIP and/or telco providers)
Interconnection with Asterisk PBX
For interconnection with digital and analog telephony equipment, Asterisk supports a number of hardware devices, most notably all of the hardware manufactured by Asterisk’s sponsor, Digium. Digium has single and quad span T1 and E1 interfaces for interconnection to PRI lines and channel banks . In addition, single to quad port analog FXO and FXS cards are available and are popular for small installations. Other vendors’ cards can be used for BRI (ISDN2) or quad- and octo- port BRI based upon CAPI compatible cards or HFC chipset cards.
For interconnection with the cellular network (GSM or CDMA), Asterisk can use the Celliax channel driver or chan_mobile that is in the trunk now and there is also a unofficial backported version.
Lastly, standalone devices are available to do a wide range of tasks including providing fxo and fxs ports that simply plug into the LAN and register to Asterisk as an available device.
If you are looking for a software-based IP-PBX for Windows, contact Toronto-based Codefusion Communications Inc at 416-335-9390 who can give you full service voip and pbx solutions
Filed under Computer Telephony Integration, Toronto VOIP Providers by on Dec 22nd, 2014.
Use VOIP Solutions with Integrated Solutions for Teleworking
Toronto based Codefusion Communications Inc has developed innovative service solutions that improve productivity and avoid wasted days due to inclement weather or other issues.
For more teleworking information on Codefusion’s VOIP and Unified Communications offerings call Jeff Brodie at 416-335-9392
Filed under Computer Telephony Integration, VOIPEducation by on Feb 2nd, 2011.
;VOIP Connects Data and Voice
Your business operates multiple locations either in the same state,province or country around the globe. Typically, I’ll say typically as in the past, the communications between these locations is either a very high cost and as such they were limited to larger organization or they were very poor connections until VOIP.
Now when we think about connecting offices or when most people think about connecting office they think about connecting the computing resources. So the computer systems, perhaps the email systems and the telephone systems inter-operating usually are not factored into this discussion, usually, however recently with the advent of Voice over Internet Protocol or VoIP, telephone systems, inter-office communications can and does today mean both telephone and computing.
Now when you have multiple locations you can connect the computer systems together using what’s called the wide area network and for that wide area network connection you can use the internet using what’s called the Virtual Private Network – Firewalls and Routers that have VPN technology Virtual Private Network what that means is that you use a public network like the internet and you create a connection often referred to as a tunnel. The reason we call it a tunnel is because this connection has an encryption wrapped around if you will.
So that the data that you’re transmitting across this public infrastructure, the internet is encrypted to make it private and this is why we call these Virtual Private Network. Now VPN technology works effectively and works well depending on the type of traffic and information that your transmitting across it and the sensitivity to delay also in the VOIP Voice over IP technology no one has latency, how slow the connection or the transmission can be.
Now in voice technology if we’re transmitting your voice from one location to another, we have things that we need to deal with called echo. That’s like if you yell into a large auditorium or out into a canyon you will hear your voice reflecting back to you an echo means that there is a delay in the reflection of the sound waves, so that the voice comes back to you at a later period of time.
With VOIP Voice over IP technology, if we are getting echo it means that we have a very slow connection. If you think back, if you’ve ever spoken over a satellite connection maybe 15 or 20 years ago or more recently if you’ve spoken to people using satellite phones, however that technology is much better today, is that you can actually hear your voice coming back to you before you here the response of the person. It becomes much more a one-way conversation. You speak, you stop and you wait for the other person to reply. Now what does all this have to do with multiple offices. Well an expensive way of interconnecting offices is to use dedicated or leased services, leased line services between your office locations.
Now if you hadn’t to be in a metropolitan city where they have Metropolitan Area Network MAN services that are cost effective, you can actually deploy an interoffice Wide Area Network called a Metropolitan Area Network, that is less costly because you are piggy backing onto the infrastructure that’s already in place and typically say like a large city like Toronto or New York you have a large amount of fiber optics to carry the signals and many buildings are what they called on Net, meaning that the fiber is already running to that building or very close to the public access to that building, so that you can have access to the network connections.
Now if we join our networks together so that our systems can talk together, perhaps we have a centralized Microsoft Exchange Server where the remote offices are using Outlook Clients or perhaps we put in a Citrix or a Microsoft Terminal Server into our main office, we keep all our servers in our central office and our remote clients use Remote Desktop and all their application live in the terminal server, that works in some and some instances it doesn’t. But the advantage to an organization using a terminal services solution is that the intelligence and the maintenance to the application resides on a centralized server, where as in a desktop environment or a work station environment the application intelligence lies on the discrete or individual computer work stations. Therefore, it requires more support and maintenance.
Now there’s advantages and disadvantages to both. We’re not going to cover that in this discussion because that’s not the purpose of this. So multiple office locations, so if you have telephone systems in each of your office locations what you’re going to want is to create a dialing plan or an extension number system that’s going to allow you to have three or four or five digit dialing between your offices.
VOIP for Users-Transparency
Traditionally people would pick-up the phone and dial the ten digit or seven digit PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) number to access the other office and then either speak to the reception to get to the person they wish to speak to or go through the automated attendant and dial the extension. What we want to do is we want to take out the inter-connection, the need to touch the public infrastructure and spend money on those telephone lines because you can think about this.
If we have to call from office to office, we need one telephone line out of the office we’re calling from and one telephone line into the office we’re calling to, which means we have reduced the number of lines that are available for our clients to speak to us at both of those locations.
If we were able to use able to use a VOIP or Voice over IP connection between these to locations we would still have those telephone lines to the outside world available for our clients, our customers to call us and we would have those lines available to call our customers from. So we really want to look for a phone system that will allow us to do this, have the flexibility so that the offices can communicate to each other through a simple extension plan and also called a dialing plan and ideally the phone systems at each location can function independently so that if there was ever a disruption of service between the locations, then each office can continue to function with their own voice mail automated attendant and telephone supported fully.
So that business continues as usual and then when the system and the services are back up, it’s the ability for these offices to communicate by VOIP fully using your data network between offices.
Now when we’re going to use the data network between offices, we would consider, but we should be putting in quality of service also know as QOS. What this is going to do for us is it’s going to say hey if this is a VOIP call or a telephone call, we’re going to give this information that’s being transmitted in this telephone call the highest level of service or highest level of quality or Hi-Fi level of priority on the network when we transmit between location A and location B, because a data packet for your Microsoft Exchange Server or your line of business application can be delayed a few hundred milliseconds and there would be no effect on to the quality of that data transmission. However if you delay a voice packet, you’re going to start getting drop outs and calls dead air or you’re going to end up with pops and click or echo on the line.
So quality of service at both ends and if we’re using a public network infrastructure to connect our offices, want to control all traffic in an out of that pipe, so that we can make certain that at least what we call our last mile, our first connection into our internet service provider is going to give us the optimal service.
Now here are some caveats to think about public infrastructure with cable systems, you’re using a shared network, meaning that you and your neighbors who are using the cable network are all sharing a common network cable. So therefore your quality of service may be much lower, however the cable companies have invested a lot of money into preparing their cable systems for the transmission of voice so that they can deploy their own VOIP Voice over IP phone systems and VOIP telephones for home usage. So the other caveat is that Digital Subscriber Lines, DSL or ADSL are susceptible to the quality of the copper.
If you’re depending on the distance, you are from the central office, that is where the telephone company’s main phone connections are, so they interconnect you to all of the other telephones in the world, where that office is and the age of the copper in the line. So if you’re in an area that’s primarily residential, in a lot of cities the phone cable is run in the ground itself, it’s not run through conduits or prepared in the way that will protect the cable so that environmentally the cables can be effected by weather, if the cable is 20 or 30 years old the shielding on these cables become brittle and crack and then they become susceptible to electrical interference induced or created by water, so if it’s raining heavily and the phone rings you would drop your internet connection, so a lot of people will see dropped interconnections typically when it’s a wet or rainy season.
A lot of this is starting to go away as the internet companies, the telephone companies are going out and they’re bringing the services closer and closer to your office and residence. So just to understand there are some caveats using public internet with the quality of service that you’re going to use. Now there are providers out there who will allow you to use multiple internet connections and transmit your data over those multiple networks, so that you could have a cable connection from your cable company and a DSL connection from your telephone company and perhaps you could have a dedicated T1 connection and then you could share your internet across all three of those and manage and control your bandwidth so that you’re transmitting the information from you network out and back so that it’s transparent to you as a service user, then you get the highest level of quality.
VOIP -Experience the Codefusion Advantage
So connecting multiple offices together is not a trivial undertaking, however to an experienced company like Codefusion Communications, where we’ve been doing this for over 15 years, we have a number of best practices to allow us to draw on our experience to know the best methods for implementing your multi-location communication solution and this is going to encompass, your telephone systems, your computer networks and the security that’s required to ensure that your systems are safe, secure and stable.
Now if you’re interested in perhaps reviewing the requirements for your multi-office, multi-location network solution, then we would be happy to speak to you about VOIP. Please visit us at www.codefusion.com or give us a telephone call at 416-335-9390. Look forward to speaking with you soon about VOIP.
Filed under Computer Telephony Integration, Suppliers, VOIPEducation by on Oct 14th, 2010.
TELECOM TORONTO VOIP- A Tool for All
A quick note about Voice over IP, Toronto VOIP.
Guest Post by Jeff Brodie
Everybody is VoIPing according to Vonage. And your grandmother VoIPs, you VoIP, your business VoIPs. Did you know that Bell Rogers, TELUS, AT&T, all of those companies are VoIPing. What’s the big deal with VoIP? Why would you want to VoIP? That’s a good question.
Everybody thinks that Voice over IP is miraculously going to eliminate your long distance bills. Well, to some degree, that’s true. Voice over IP has flattened the world. But let’s see, where else is the world becoming flat. Your cell phone packages generally include unlimited long distance or can include unlimited long distance across your continent. So, North America calling, Canada calling, United States calling, all for one flat fee.
They’re also bringing one flat fee to your home phone lines, bundling in either unlimited calling or a set number of minutes that most homeowners would never use. Businesses are getting bundled long distance as well. So if it’s only about saving money, is there a better way? Is there another reason that would drive business owners to look at Voice over IP? The answer to that, you’ll find out in a moment.
Let’s think about this. If Voice over IP is only about saving money from what you spend on long distance, is there really a compelling reason for you to look any further? Maybe not. But Voice over IP really is a tool that’s going to drive productivity for organizations.> Think about this. Today, the only way you can get your telephone calls is if you’re in the office or maybe have some call forwarding scheme or follow me scheme where the calls can come out and track you down on your cellphone. That’s great. Toronto VOIP really does increase productivity by reducing the amount of time lost in productivity by calling in, picking up voicemail, returning calls, leaving voicemail and the entire chase that goes on in voicemail tag.
So what does Voice over IP do for Toronto businesses? Well, if we replace our traditional telephone system that has wires hanging off and each phone is physically connected to a system in your office and physically connected to your telephone company, and we put in a system that is now connected digitally to your office over Voice over Internet Protocol VoIP. It plugs into your network. It’s connected to your internet connection, perhaps even your telephone company connects to you over the internet as well. There are private internet connections that are specifically designed to guarantee the quality of your Voice over Internet Protocol communications. Your digital internet communications are guaranteed with these providers.
Now, we put in a digital telephone system, Voice over IP, and we connect it to our telephone company and now our handsets are plugged in to the network. And you ask, “So, big deal.” That’s really the way my phone system works now. Ah, but now, you can take that phone, put it on your computer or take that hard phone and tuck it in your briefcase and go home and plug it in, point it back to your office with a couple of settings, perhaps on your firewall. Your technical geniuses will make things work for you. You now have a phone from your office. That’s right, a physical telephone that rings. You pick it up and your voice transmits over it. You make and receive calls just like you’re sitting in the office. That’s the value of Voice over IP,Toronto VOIP.
Toronto VOIP Anywhere
So, you can now operate your office anywhere. Starbucks, your den, maybe in Europe when you’re spending the summer there. You’re making and receiving phone calls. So rather than being away from the office for an extended period of time or worst yet, being away for an extended period of time and using an expensive international telephone with the international phone bills and thinking of the thousands and thousands of dollars that organization rack up every month on high cost of communications. People just don’t work that way.
So let’s look at this. Is there a better way? Yes, there is, and it’s here today with Toronto VOIP. And it’s actually, let me tell you my friends, it’s been here for the last seven or eight years. I’ve been doing it personally myself. I have a phone in my den. I’m able to be in the office whenever I choose, wherever I choose, and it’s a convenience for me but it’s also a convenience for my clientele. They call me, I answer the phone. It doesn’t matter where I am. The phone conversation is the same.
So Voice over IP is really about a productivity tool. If you want to talk about going green, everybody is talking about saving the environment, reducing our carbon impact, our footprint. Well, Voice over IP is another enabler for us to eliminate some of our carbon footprint. Think about this. Your people hop in their cars everyday or get on public transit everyday and go into your office. Why? So they can sit down on a computer keyboard and pick up the phone.
Now, think about this. These are your trusted employees, people that you’ve hired and you trusted to do work for you. You know they are good workers and you know what they are up to. So think about this. If their office was in their home and they didn’t have to commute, that would be better for the environment, both our earth environment as well as this person’s personal environment. Think about the time that they get back to spend with their family, time that’s lost in commuting back and forth.
Yes Toronto VOIP ( Voice over IP) can be a tool that will enable this and allow people to leverage this productivity. So think about this. Voice over IP is more than just cheap long distance. It’s a productivity tool for businesses and people in general. Make your businesses work better, work more efficient.
If you want to find a trusted Toronto VOIP advisor or you are in the GTA as well, you’ll want to contact Codefusion Communications Inc and see how they can benefit your company with Toronto VOIP.
Filed under Computer Telephony Integration, Suppliers, VOIPEducation by on Aug 12th, 2010. Comment.
Telecom Toronto- Computer Support is a useful addition when you are considering VOIP applications. If you have an existing business computing structure perhaps you can employ some integration to allow your business to improve on its customer service or make more sales calls. One of the best sources for this is a Toronto Microsoft Gold Certified Partner or a Microsoft Small Business Specialist.
These designations means the organization you are dealing with has attained certain standards of training and excellence in the use of Microsoft Servers,Windows and .net computing solutions among other things. You should search out firms that have had experience dealing with multiple systems such as Nortel, Cisco, Avaya and Altigen systems and can help you integrate those systems into your workplace applications.
If you have a call center and want to integrate it with Microsoft CRM, Netsuite or Salesforce.com you may want to consider middleware such as those provided by Codefusion Communications Inc with their CT Fusion Integration Suite.
Always ask your vendor who they have worked with before and get them to supply you with testimonials and people to contact before you embark on a VOIP or Integration Application purchase.
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- 3 Things to Know Before Your Business Switches to VoIP (businesspundit.com)
Filed under Computer Telephony Integration, Equipment, Suppliers, VOIPEducation by on Jan 17th, 2010.