Frequently Asked Questions

Show all answers Hide all answers

General

What is a PBX?: A PBX (private branch exchange) is the switching system that manages calls between internal users. It also shares a number of lines that connect to the external, public phone system and parcels them out as needed to the internal users. In addition, PBX systems have other features that allow them to take incoming calls, send them to the correct extensions, connect calls to answering services, etc.
What is the difference between IP PBX system and traditional PBX?: The Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) is the traditional phone network. Traditional PBX systems are analog whereas IP PBX systems are digital. Digital systems have many advantages over analog, including the ability to transport voice and data transmissions over the same line . VoIP uses a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) over the same Internet path that you use to view web pages.
What is VoIP?: VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol. While this may sound confusing, it simply means using your internet connection to carry your phone service. The quality is as good as or better than traditional phone providers, and much more advanced due to all the new features and technology. But, best of all, it's much less expensive than old-fashioned phone providers!
What kind of monthly savings can my business expect?: In addition to the many benefits and advanced features provided by our phone systems, businesses can reduce their monthly telecomunication expenses.

Here is a sample of a small business that has purchased 5 analog lines and DSL service from the local telecom provider.

Pre BearTel Office Phone System
5 analog lines at $50.00/month: $250.00/month
Business DSL: $50.00/month
Total Monthly Expense (Pre BearTel Office Phone System): $300.00/month

Post BearTel Office Phone System
2 Analog Lines at $50.00/month per line: $100.00/month
1 VoIP Trunk: $25.00/month
Business DSL: $50.00/month
Total Monthly Expense (Post BearTel Office Phone System): $175.00/month

Total monthly Savings: $125.00 That's a 42% savings!

trixbox®

What is trixbox CE?: trixbox is a turnkey business class PBX voice communication system based on the Open Source Asterisk project. It’s no longer necessary to pay thousands and thousands of dollars for a proprietary phone system. From small systems with only a couple analog phone lines and extensions to large installs with multiple T1/E1 connections and hundreds of extensions, you can easily use trixbox to meet your telephony needs.
What is the most important thing to know about installing trixbox?: During the install process, ALL hard drives connected to your system will be formatted and all data will be lost. This will even apply to any external USB drives.
How do I connect analog lines to a trixbox?: You will need some kind of FXO interface, this can be an FXO card from Sangoma, Digium, Rhino, OpenVox or several others or a SIP gateway product like a Linksys SPA3102, Linksys SPA400, Grandstream GXV4104, Mediatrix 1204, or similair device.
How do I make calls over the internet?: You will need an Internet Telephone Service Provider (ITSP).
Can I use a "soft" phone with trixbox?: Yes, popular softphones are Zoiper, X-Lite, SJPhone, and others
Can I use trixbox with a residential VOIP service like Vonage or Packet8?: Somewhat. You may not be able to connect a direct trunk to some of those services, but you can usually take the ATA they provide and connect that to an FXO device in your trixbox system. There are other providers that are more asterisk "friendly", such as those listed above.
What phones will work with trixbox?: Most any SIP compatible phone from companies like Aastra, Polycom, Linksys, SNOM, Cisco, and others will work, you want to make sure it is fully SIP compliant. You can also use a regular analog phone if you have a card with an FXS port on it or you can use an ATA (analog telephone adapter) to bridge between SIP and the analog phone.
What do I need to setup a home or office system?: You should run trixbox on a dedicated machine, preferably 2.4ghz or faster with 512mb of RAM or more. You will also need an interface card or SIP gateway to connect to your analog phone lines and you will also need to choose appropriate phones.
Can I use RAID to make my system more reliable?: Yes, if you are using SATA drives, at the initial install prompt type: sataraid and then press enter and the system will configure RAID 1 (mirroring) across both drives; this step does not apply if you have a hardware raid controller, make sure your controller is supported before using the standard install (just press enter).
Can I send/receive faxes with trixbox?: Officially this is not supported although the mechanism to do so is provided within the system. Receiving faxes is pretty simple as it should do it by default if you have FreePBX configured to receive and process the faxes. For sending, you will need to add a product such as Hylafax or AvantFAX, we will be having tutorials on these coming soon. Fax success depends upon the quality of your lines.
What T1/E1/Analog cards do you recommend for trixbox?: trixbox is tested with Sangoma, Digium, and Rhino cards and support for PIKA cards and Xorcom Astrabanks is coming soon. We highly recommend that whatever you choose that you make sure it has hardware echo cancelation built in.
How many users does trixbox support?: Lots, but it is not a service provider, its more geared towards office use, and there are many factors affecting usable size. For reference take a look in the wiki.

Microsoft® Response Point™

What is the maximum number of incoming lines Microsoft Response Point will handle?

We recommend Microsoft Response Point for small businesses with up to 50 employees and 10–15 external phone lines.

How do you manage the system?

The Microsoft Response Point Administrator is the central administration and monitoring program to configure and maintain the system. The simple GUI-based interface lets you add or change a phone, monitor and back up the base unit, alter call handling, and perform many other functions. You can install it on any computer without any special technical expertise or training. There is no restriction on the number of people who can run the Administrator software, but access to the program is password protected. It includes three main consoles: the Phone System console, the Base Unit console, and the Call Routing console.

What about backup?

Backup is a two-click model. Within the Administrator, on the Base Unit console, you can click where you want to save the backup, and it will back up all settings, contacts, and voicemail for every user automatically.

As a user of the Microsoft Response Point system, how do I customize the settings for my calls and phone?

Everyone with a Microsoft Response Point phone should install the Microsoft Response Point Assistant software, a simple interface that runs on your desktop computer. This lets each phone user customize his/her system. Install the Microsoft Response Point Assistant software for as many users as you need at no additional cost. The Assistant lets you specify:

How you receive voicemail messages - by phone, as e-mail attachments, or both
Call forwarding
Whether you want to be listed in the company directory
On-computer screen caller notifications
1,100 personal contacts you can access for voice-dialing
Bypass Receptionist for select callers

If you forward your calls to a mobile phone, does it pass through the caller's phone number, or just show your corporate phone number?

The incoming call will show your corporate number.

Is Microsoft Response Point an SIP-based (or VoIP) phone system?

Microsoft Response Point is an SIP-based small business phone system that supports both traditional phone service and VoIP, but not generic SIP endpoints, which are incompatible with the auto-discovery and voice command features that are core to the Microsoft Response Point product experience.

Which VoIP carriers does Microsoft Response Point support?

We do not restrict customers' choice of service providers. Our beta testers have used a variety of carriers for phone service, sometimes as a supplement to existing POTS lines, sometimes as a complete landline replacement.

How does Microsoft Response Point handle unusual names or names that aren't common in English? If a name is spelled vastly different than it sounds, how will Microsoft Response Point deal with that?

Microsoft Response Point has a large built-in database of pronunciations, including those of names from many languages and unusual names, and can handle common mispronunciations as well.

Do Microsoft Response Point phones support three-way calling?

Yes, Microsoft Response Point handsets support three-way calling.

Can Microsoft Response Point's U.S. speech recognizer work with Spanish?

No, the U.S. version of Microsoft Response Point supports a variety of English dialects, but does not currently work in other languages. The core speech engine is built on the same technology currently shipping in multiple languages for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, Windows Vista and other speech-recognition-enabled Microsoft products, so we expect to offer this for Microsoft Response Point in the future as well.

How many minutes of voicemail does Microsoft Response Point hold?

In the default configuration we can hold approximately 1,000 minutes of voicemail. OEMs aiming for product differentiation are permitted to increase that number by adding more flash storage.

What happens when Microsoft Response Point storage is full?

To create more space on the flash drive, you can forward your voicemail to e-mail and archive it. You can also use the backup option within the Administrator to back up all your data to a file.

What happens if I lose the Administrator password?

Microsoft Response Point comes with a set of utilities for resetting the unit to the default settings without losing data. Refer to the Installation CD for additional details.