Does anyone have a PBX server for their business instead of a Telco/cable phone?

[tankman1989]

I am thinking of switching from my ISP, Windstream, and going with my cable provider that is offering 50/5 down/up speeds or 30/3 and putting in a PBX server for my phone setup. This would save me $360 the first year and $1,080 for the 2 years after that for a total saving of$1,440 over 3 years on phone bills alone. My idea is to run some flavor of asterisk on a combo server box running VM's (box will be a router, proxy, dns, dhcp, PBX & maybe email server running with 4 NIC's). I figure I will run 2-3 virtual servers for this. I'm just worried about having service outages b/c I have had such horrible Internet service for the last 2 years with Windstream DSL. I'm switching over to fiber with Docsis 3.0 provided by a cable company.

Can anyone give any input to this? Do any of you rely on your internet for phone services?

Also, what else do I need to make my phone services work, don't I need some kind of PSTN gateway or something? It's been awhile since I've worked with PBX's.

I really dont' want to go with a hosted PBX as I'm trying to save some $$ here because I'm spending a good bit of $ on 30/3 speed.

[YeOldeStonecat]

Avaya Partner

Was looking at a few open source setups like Asterix and Trixbox....but the guy we use for doing data wiring for our jobs, he retired from the phone company as a foreman, and stayed with programming phone systems for people into his retirement. He wanted to get into being certified for Avaya systems, so he could sell/install them. So he offered to sell us the hardware cheap..and no charge for the install/setup...as this was his first setup so it was a learning experience for him.

I draw the line at doing phone systems...I know a lot of people in IT cross over and do IP phone systems....but I don't and won't.

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

The only advice I have is drop Windstream and run like hell. They are such a joke.

[compnet]

We run freepbx.. Pretty easy to install and set up, haven't had any issues..

[bigdessert]

We are a 3CX partner and install them. They are not free, but are well worth the money for a business system. They support many phones and voip gateways.

[YOCS]

I ran Trixbox for about 2 years then switched to Ooma http://www.ooma.com/ . You buy the device for around $200 and put it between your modem and router to handle QOS. Call quality is excellent. VM's are emailed to me. Best of all I don't have a phone bill.

[PCSupportGlasgow]

Originally Posted by bigdessert

We are a 3CX partner and install them. They are not free, but are well worth the money for a business system. They support many phones and voip gateways.

3CX has a free community edition albeit cutdown but for a small tech shop it would be fine, as a resale partnet you should know that (i give benefit it was overlooked, but if not the forum to help other techs not try gain sales from them).

jealous of those in the USA as unfortunately here in the UK you cant get broadband without getting ripped off for actual phone line rental (especially for business lines where you get totally shafted by BT) so VOIP will only be for those looking for extra lines or high outgoing call usage.

[TenYardFight]

Tankman, did you ever do this? I'm researching FreePBX for a client. Compnet - do you support freePBX? Meaning, are you pretty good with all the ins and outs, or do you just run a pretty vanilla installation?

[compnet]

Originally Posted by Ten Yard Fight

Tankman, did you ever do this? I'm researching FreePBX for a client. Compnet - do you support freePBX? Meaning, are you pretty good with all the ins and outs, or do you just run a pretty vanilla installation?

Not really :P

Its pretty straight forward, lots of resources on the internet.. Your provider should give you all the info on trunks, etc.. And then there is a pretty easy GUI for setting up phones, extensions, call times, etc.

[TenYardFight]

Are trunks $25 or so? Hardly cheaper than the hosted PBX systems, right? I've always been a ringcentral guy, but this client already has freepbx deployed, so we're going to try to make it work for them.