Frequently Asked Questions
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.