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new phone system, need advice

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speck

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I'm in the middle of re-installing, an older Toshiba strata dk40i, and the boss came to me, and said she wants some very advanced features, that the system just wont do, and some of it, that it will do, will require pricey upgrades.

i was looking into asterisk and free-PBX, but 3cx has caught my attention now, so I'm debating between 3cx, asterisk, and just using Cisco call manager

ill have 15 7965g, 5 7925g, and no more than 5-10 users running soft phone software on their blackberry's or various smart-phones.

I'm a bit lost on what hardware i need to put in the server

I'm planning on purchasing another dell PowerEdge 2850 with dual 3.6ghz dual core Xeon's, and plenty of memory, running server 2003 enterprise (all our servers run this).

i have VoIP service from Nuvox, over a T1 Integrated access solution, with a Cisco 2431-8fxs, what id LIKE, to have, is some type of hardware card, that i can run the amphenol from the Cisco, to the telco 66 block, cross connect to my 66 block so the lines i want for the phone system are in the order i want, and the lines for my fax and alarm are where i want them, and then run an amphenol off of my 66 block, back down to my phone server. we also will have a block of 20 did's from Nuvox, that ill need to hook into the server as well

ill be using a dell 3424p switch to run the phones off of. and the server will connect to it over a 2gbit fiber connection

so i need to know, what hardware card(s) i need to purchase to do this the way i want, if its possible the way i want.
we want to do an auto-attendant, ivr, and an advanced voice-mail setup. I have en e-mail server, with exchange 2003 enterprise, and will likely be putting black berry enterprise server on that as well shortly.

if anyone can help me on knowing what hardware i should purchase, and what your experiences with 3cx have been, i would greatly appreciate it
 
There is no SIP softphone available for Blackberrys that I am aware of.

Do you already own those Cisco phones? If not, I would suggest looking at the Cisco SPA5xx series instead as they are supported within 3CX.

To use a Sangoma card you will need to connect into a breakout box instead of going straight amphenol into the card.
 
we do not own the phones yet, ill look into the spa series phones you are referring to, i haven't looked around to see if there's any software for the blackberry yet, i know i had seen some mention of software that worked on most all smart phones, if it doesn't support the blackberry, i can just use Nokia smart phones i suppose, id prefer it to work with blackberry as, well i have Nextel and id need that, unless i go with like an i930 which i believe is a windows based smart phone. so they do not make a card that will accept an amphenol end?

the way my setup is wired, is the amphenol comes out of the IAD, and goes to a 66 block, which is cross connected to another 66 block, which accepts an amphenol end, and that was what i was hoping to run back down to the server, i mean i can always just punch cables off my 66 block, and run down to the server with rj11 or rj45 as needed, but it would make my life so much more simple, if i could just run an amphenol right out of my cross-connect block to the server.

*edit*
i looked intot he spa525g, and it appears to be a nice phone, however, it only supports 5 lines from the information im reading on it, and i need something that supports 6-7 lines

what would be involed with getting the 7965g to work with 3cx? i know people that have asterisk and are having no problems running the 7900 series phones, and would i need to get the phones with sip built in or no?
*edit*
 
Why do you need so many lines? You can get the SPA509G which is 12 lines but a monochrome display. The 525G can also take the 500S sidecar. The 79xx series phones can work but you will probably have issues with paging and possibly conferencing.

The only cards that work with 3CX are the Sangoma A200 cards which do not have Amphenol connectors available.
 
well i have a feeling this is gonna rule this solution out for me, i guess im back to asterisk and FreePBX, or a 2821 and call manager express, id kind of prefer the asterisk, because i can put it on a decently powerfull server, and take care of all my scaleability
 
speck said:
well i have a feeling this is gonna rule this solution out for me, i guess im back to asterisk and FreePBX, or a 2821 and call manager express, id kind of prefer the asterisk, because i can put it on a decently powerfull server, and take care of all my scaleability

Do you have to use Cisco phones? Since you do not already have them you could look at other multi-line 3CX supported phones. Also as a side note we use a 2821 running CME internally here as well. Its a fine solid system..once it is setup and configured but it is a PITA to manage sometimes. And the cost is a HUGE difference.
 
i dont have to stay with cisco phones, if you have any suggestions on the phones, im open to all, as i havent started purchasing any of the hardware yet..

i do not know much about the features of CME, however i do neeed auto-attendant, and IVR would be a big help if not necesity, and i need a nice featurfull voicemail system

if i do go the CME route, i have a 2621 currently that id be upgradeing to the 2821

one question is, the data/voice provider, has the lines coming out of a 2431-8fxs, would i still be going with this option or would i have to tell them to remove it and put a wic card in the 2821, with vwic card, and so on and so forth?

im not sure what type of changes id have to make equipment wise to go with cme on a 2821

i did find this http://www.3cx.com/sip-phones/cisco-7940g-7960g/

acording to the cisco reps ive been talking to, they claim the 7940's are almost the same phone as the 7965, just, monochrome and less soft keys, not sure how true that is though
 
KerryG said:
Why do you need so many lines?


we are a school, aswell as a full service salon and spa, with a retail store, we have alot of call volume
 
ok the snom 820 and snom 870 are peaking my interest, any thoughts on those?

im likeing snoms equipment so far, i like the pa1 too, would be helpfull in the classrooms
 
Havent read all the posts just bits and pieces from the initial post.

Dual 3.6ghz dual core Xeon's

Major Overkill for a 20 Sim Call System in my opinion.


1 Suggestion in all this, dont Install the new Exchange on the same machine, it's the most power hungry program i've ever seen.
If you think of it, the New MS Exchange would need a Dual 3.6Ghz Dual Core Xeon :p Not 3cx.


1 Xeon would be Waay more than enough for 3CX, usually these kind of CPU's allow a couple of hundred or more Sim Calls without any Audio Jitters.
So you are covered by a lot :p
 
the exchange server is on a different machine, or will be, i do have an older poweredge 1550 with dual 1ghz xeons that i could throw it on i guess, and use the dual 3.6ghz for the exchange and bbes.

i don't need any higher power for the auto-attendant and voice mail??

right now, i can get dual 3.6ghzs poweredge servers for fairly cheap, damn things are a dime a dozen, might just get 2 of the 2850's and use the 1550 for something else, little web server or something

also, does 3cx support any kind of interactive voice response from the callers?

and whats everyones thoughts on the snom phones? or would i have no problems using the cisco 7900 seires phones?
 
speck said:
and whats everyones thoughts on the snom phones? or would i have no problems using the cisco 7900 seires phones?

I only have a Snom 300 in my test lab but it is a solid little phone. I prefer Aastras simply because I am more familiar with them. As far as a SIP converted 7900, I never was able to get the BLF's to work but maybe someone else had better luck with them.
 
comresource said:
speck said:
and whats everyones thoughts on the snom phones? or would i have no problems using the cisco 7900 seires phones?

I only have a Snom 300 in my test lab but it is a solid little phone. I prefer Aastras simply because I am more familiar with them. As far as a SIP converted 7900, I never was able to get the BLF's to work but maybe someone else had better luck with them.

now does this include the 7900's that come loaded with sip from cisco? or is this ones you are refering to that are done a different way? im told by the cisco people that they offer the 7900's with sip now, its an expensive little upgrade however
 
speck said:
comresource said:
speck said:
and whats everyones thoughts on the snom phones? or would i have no problems using the cisco 7900 seires phones?

I only have a Snom 300 in my test lab but it is a solid little phone. I prefer Aastras simply because I am more familiar with them. As far as a SIP converted 7900, I never was able to get the BLF's to work but maybe someone else had better luck with them.

now does this include the 7900's that come loaded with sip from cisco? or is this ones you are refering to that are done a different way? im told by the cisco people that they offer the 7900's with sip now, its an expensive little upgrade however

Hmm, unless its a different firmware than what is downloadable from Cisco's site I would think it would be exactly the same. I have not checked for a new firmware within the last couple months so maybe they have added a couple new features. If I get time in the next few days I will try again.
 
what would the requirements be to run 3cx, auto attendant, and a nice voice mail, and does 3cx have any support for interactive voice response?


For 20 SIMUTANEOUS CALLS, you can put the 3CX PhoneSystem on any PC with a Modern CPU that's a Dual Core.
Xeons are a bit of an Overkill but still ok.
You can even install the phonesystem on an existing Server, as long as it has enough Free CPU usage, around ( 70% ) is reccomended.

But if you are going to be running 20 Sim Calls all the time + 20 Assistants under the same load, the Xeon cpu is reccomended.

Yes we also have IVR Support, Queues, Ring Groups, Parking Orbits, Paging and all that good stuff.



one question

how does 3cx do if i set it up on 2 identical servers, with everything identical, for failover? i doubt its necessary this office is rather small. just trying to decide between this and asterisk, id like the experiance in linux, but its going to be a pain to setup


Unfortunately, we dont have any Failover Options with the PBX.
There is no need for one, the PBX is not going to just Crash on you all of a sudden when it's working fine. It will only stop working when the whole server burns down.

You can setup a second identical server if you want, but in the remote case of a Dead Server, but then you would need to register all Extensions to that Server, it would take around 15 minutes to do so manually if you dont mind that.

We run bulk tests with the PBX all the time. 256 Sim Calls - 512 Calls, even 1000 Sim Calls on a Powerful PC.


Just to inform you, Ram is not an issue, in the worst case scenario that you are running 200 Sim Calls for 24 hours straight, the 3CX Services would need 500-700Mbytes in total to run. That's the Worst Case scenario, and i think the amount of Ram i'm telling you is actually a bit too big.




Now about phones.
Anything but Yealinks :)

Try the Cisco SPA5XXG Series they are nice and reliable. But have no Company phonebook. In Version 9 there will be an option to use SLA.
If you want something cheaper and more business like, i'd suggest something from Grandstream like the 1200 which is small and easy to make calls with.
 
those are both nice phones, but i have to have 6+ lines available on on the phones, which is why i was looking at the Ciscos and Snoms
 
It bears repeating, the Cisco SPA508G is an 8 line phone and the SPA509G is a 12 line phone.
 
KerryG said:
It bears repeating, the Cisco SPA508G is an 8 line phone and the SPA509G is a 12 line phone.


indeed, but i dont really like that one, lol, :p

its not pretty :lol: j/k

im going to be financing this purchase, so, as such most financing companies wont deal with under a certain amount, and if im gonna finance it, i might as well get really nice phones
 
i just want to say, that this community by far, has been far more helpful, than the asterisk community, so far my posts sat ignored an unanswerd for several days on the asterisk boards, then when someone did finally respond, it was someone that chose to be a smartass and flame a potential customer of digium products, so i would like to say THANK YOU, to you here in the 3cx community for being so helpful, as you have been thus far. I am leaning towards 3cx now, on nothing more than the fact that it seems to have a much more supportive community, and far better support in general, plus it will be much easier for me to set this up, than to run through linux doing it all

so again, thank you for your help thus far, i really do appreciate it. and any advice you can give, as ive never messed with ip pbx sip servers before, would be greatly appreciated
 
It's our pleasure to have a Flamer & Smartass Free Community.

I've had my fair share of forum flaming on over a dozen forums that i was a regular member of. I can say that i haven't seen even 1 Smartass in here, i guess when a community consists of "Grown Ups" instead of 8 year olds, TEH INTERNETZ IZ SERIOUZ BUZINESS for us here!
Everyone respects everyone.
 
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