“Your PBXtra server and all associated hardware will arrive pre-configured and tested from Fonality. Once you have it in hand, your PBXtra server will need to be connected to the Internet via an Ethernet cable. You will also need to configure your PBXtra server to work on your network in accordance with our PBXtra Installation Guide” This will include assigning your PBXtra Server a static IP address, setting up and plugging in your phones, and then entering all of your user information for each phone extension. After that, you will need to configure how you want your PBXtra to handle your incoming calls through the Fonality Web-Admin tool. These last two steps, adding user information for each phone, and configuring your queues and call treatments, will require access to a PC on the internet with a web-browser (You can not use the PBXtra Server itself as it has no web-browser). That’s it! If you have any issues with your installation, our Customer Care Team is just an email or a phone call away! Also, with each PBXtra shipment, we schedule an Installation and Training appointment to ensure that your server is set up correctly, to answer any of your remaining installation questions, and to show you how to use the most common features your new phone system.” This excerpt from Fonality’s website FAQ section would lead you to believe that the PBXtra installation is a very straight forward procedure and the end user can set up a PBXtra up without technical help.

Phone systems are complex and business critical and as with any other phone system PBXtra requires you to thoroughly understand your current infrastructure and business process. I have yet to see a Fonality install where local technical help was not required and end user was able to get the system successfully running. What’s more troubling is the fact that I have seen Fonality systems that were not correctly configured before being shipped to customer site. Lot of times end nodes have been delivered with wrong IP information to connect to a phone system that does not exist.

Before you get excited about ordering a system and setting it up, get technical help, perform an assessment, build your call routing on paper before you even place the order. Find out what kind of routers, firewalls and VPN devices you already have on the network. Find out if your network switches have enough bandwidth to be used for voice, if you have network hubs instead of switches, replace them! If you are replacing your network hubs with switches, look into getting POE (power over Ethernet) switches, so your voice communication keeps working even if there is a power failure. Think about how will people call emergency services if need when the main power is out.

Get a good UPS (uninterruptible power supply) for your phone system, something that can keep the system and end nodes running for couple of hours in case of power blackout. Remember, UPS systems need to be checked every year to make sure they are able to handle the power load.

Proper planning and the right help can make your new phone system installation a positive experience and at times can even give you insight into your processes where they can be improved.

Asterisk got its start when Mark Spencer needed a phone system for his company and the cheapest system available on the market was way too expensive. Already skilled in programming and application development, Mark created his own phone system that has now become the standard open source PBX that is being used at places like the city of Madera, California.

Cost savings are significant as there are no licensing fees with Asterisk, the city of Madera budgeted $400,000 for the phone system and ended spending only $140,000.

Asterisk runs on a variety of OS’s including, Linux, Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD and OpenBSD. Protocols supported are SIP, Inter-Asterisk Exchange (for authentication), Media Gateway Control and H.323.

If supporting open source software is not a risk you are willing to take, there are many vendors providing custom flavors of Asterisk with extensive support options like Aspect Software, CyberData, Escaux, Fonality, LumenVox and SimpleSignal.

The list of hardware supported on Asterisk keeps growing and there is no shortage of low cost FXS, FXO, PRI and other such ports, along with being successfully used with SIPConnect interface with a variety of dialtone providers.