[VoIP] Cards for Asterisk

Thu Mar 22 19:55:06 CST 2007

Look around for Adtran model 750 or 850.  You're likely to find them with
plenty of FXS ports.  The tough part will be finding one with an FXO.  You
can always purchase an FXO separately.  My quad T1 card was $350.  My
Channel bank was $200 with 6 FXS cards.   Another member was gracious enough
to sell me an FXO card.  I paid roughly $27/port for everything.  I've
deployed 2 FXO circuits and 14 FXS.  I never thought that I would need that
many channels, but as John Novack is quick to point out, need has nothing to
do with it.  It's more like "if you build it, they will come".

As a pilot, I used to say that aviation cures affluence.  Ha.  This hobby
does.

Lee

-----Original Message-----
From: voip-bounces at ckts.info [mailto:voip-bounces at ckts.info] On Behalf Of
Jayson Smith
Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2007 9:15 PM
To: Voice Over IP Tandem for Analog Switches
Subject: Re: [VoIP] Cards for Asterisk

Hi,
I didn't think channel banks were that cheap. But I went looking around on
eBay. A Google search once took me to a channel bank with 24 FXS ports
costing upwards of $1700 or so, and that was before the T1 card! We're
thinking of possibly using Asterisk as our PBX around the house if our
Vodavi system were to die. It hasn't done that yet, but I'd like to get some
hands-on experience if we decide to go that route. Currently we have nine
stations, two PSTN lines, and two outside door intercoms that act like PSTN
lines hooked up to the Vodavi. When getting a channel bank, do you have to
get one with either all FXS or all FXO, or can you mix and match within a
single channel bank, E.G. sixteen FXS and eight FXO? What types of channel
banks will work, and are there any that won't work? There's a bunch of
untested channel banks that don't give much info about them on eBay, some
for $50 or less. Are these most likely unpopulated channel banks, with no
FXS or FXO ports at all? Sorry for all my newbie questions, I'm new to all
this! Unlike most of you, I haven't spent my life working at a phone
company, or collecting old telephone bits to build an SXS switch, etc.
Thanks.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Lee Spenadel" <lee at spenadel.com>
To: "'Voice Over IP Tandem for Analog Switches'" <voip at ckts.info>
Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2007 8:50 PM
Subject: Re: [VoIP] Cards for Asterisk

> If you're going to spend that kind of money for FXS and FXO ports, why not
> consider a T1 Channel Bank.  If done wisely, you can build it out at
roughly
> $25/port.
>
> Lee
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: voip-bounces at ckts.info [mailto:voip-bounces at ckts.info] On Behalf Of
> Martin Harriss
> Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2007 8:30 PM
> To: Voice Over IP Tandem for Analog Switches
> Subject: Re: [VoIP] Cards for Asterisk
>
> Not a card, but I see that Grandstream has recently released a 4-port
> FXS ATA that has a street price of about $150.  Not quite as cheap as
> the Rotomola, but more dense space-wise, which may appeal to some.  They
> also have a 4-port FXO that has a street price of about $250, or about
> $62 per port.  There are also 8-port versions of both of these.  I have
> no experience with any of these devices, although from what I read the
> quality of the Grandstream stuff seems to be a bit variable.
>
> I should also mention that I've had good experiences with the Sangoma
> cards, for those of you whose PC's are too old to take the Digium card.
>    Price is about the same as DIgium.  Only real drawback (and it's a
> minor one) is that the software install for the Sangomas is a bit messy.
>
> Martin
>
> David Josephson wrote:
> >> Jayson Smith wrote:
> >>
> >>> I've sort of decided to try playing around with actual boards in my
> Asterisk
> >>> system, for hooking up phones. I don't want to put a ton of money into
> this.
> >>> What's a good, cheap, card that would let me hook up a few phones?
> >>>
> > As Russ mentioned, there are no cheap FXS cards. The X100P FXO cards are
> > cheap only because they are really Intel voice modem boards and have
> > nothing to do with Digium or Asterisk (except that someone figured out
> > that they could be used as trunk cards). For one to four ports, the 400P
> > type cards are the cheapest. Otherwise you need to spend about $3-500
> > for a T-1 card and $100-200 for a channel bank.
> >
> > There are plenty of inexpensive SIP ATA's that work fine, particularly
> > if they are on the same subnet with the Asterisk box. voip-supply has
> > Motorola VT1005's for $50, that's $25 a port and I figure that's hard to
> > beat. The Sipura SPA-2000's are also reliable.
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> >
>
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