Confused by FQDN/IP Address on installation

[mbagshaw]

Clearly I am far less network literate than I thought I was!

I have just installed 3CX Free Edition on a server connected to my ethernet network (consisting of five WinXP computers including the server, ADSL2 router, etc). I am considering replacing the current small PABX that has three outside lines (one standard PSTN and two VoIP provided by an external VoIP service provider, the latter two converted for use on the PABX through the two VoIP ports on my ADSL router) with an IP PBX and IP phones. I have looked at the Linksys hardware option but the software option installed on the server has obvious cost advantages. I haven't purchased any IP phones yet but I will - in the interim I will use either the 3CX soft phone or EyeBeam on each computer.

I am confused by the installation question about FQDN or IP server address. At this stage I am only considering connecting phones to the IP PBX in my home office so I'm not sure why I need an external address at all (my server doesn't even have a static WAN IP address and it's local IP address is allocated dynamically by the router). Do I use the local IP address of the server? Does it matter for my set up?

Mark Bagshaw

 

[archie]

PBX uses this IP or FQDN to identify incoming SIP messages if they addressed to PBX or not. So you can use your local IP. Moreover, PBX will discover your external IP automatically if at least one STUN server is specified. Using of DHCP for server is not recommended, because PBX will not notice if your local IP is changed during operation.