New to VoIP, just need some confirmation I'm doing it right

Forums › VoIP › New to VoIP, just need some confirmation I'm doing it right

Wendo

12 posts

Geek

#89284 30-Aug-2011 09:26

Hi All

I'm setting up and Asterisk server for my company as a way to improve communication after the earthquakes here in Chch. We're currently spread all over the city either working from home or is small office spaces. Our DDI's are mostly redirected to our cell phones but everyone is tiring of that as you can imagine :)

The server is setup and I've been testing with IAX softphones initially to get around any firewall problems but once we get the incoming lines sorted, we'll be moving to SIP hardphones, probably Yealink T20P's, they are seemingly decent quality, with good reviews and have a good price. This means I'll have to open SIP to the internet, something I'd really rather not do but I can't configure VPN's at everyone house so this is it. I've put strong passwords on all the SIP extensions and have firewalled the SIP port to only allow connections from NZ using iptables. fail2ban is also setup and running. I'm hoping all this will be enough to keep me secure.

For incoming lines we're deciding between 2talk and WxC. WxC seems more expensive that 2talk because of the free minutes you get with a 2talk package. I'm assuming WxC has better architecture in the backend (more redundancy etc) and better support to account for this but I'd love to hear some pros and cons from others using them.

What have I missed, and does anyone have any other suggestions?

Thanks

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310 posts

Ultimate Geek

#515444 2-Sep-2011 01:48

Hi Wendo
Welcome to the geekzone forums
I would say by what you have done you are doing ok.
As long as you don't forward your sip or iax ports they will be invisible to the internet
which is always the best security and of course iptables and failtoban is always good idea, so security wise you should be ok IMO.

As far as an ITSP is concerned I can only really speak about 2talk, never had a phone line with WxC
2talk have had there issues with reliability in the last year or so (especially IAX2) but to be fair for what they charge it is a pretty awesome service and lots of features.
They have just launched their 2talk+ platform(still beta) which promises much improved redundancy and reliability
and even more features, HD voice, call queues, SIP TCP, TLS, SRTP the list goes on, TBH you do not need a PBX anymore. The cloud is the place to be perfect for just your situation.
As for call quality, 2talk are very good.

Hope that helps

timmmay

20587 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#515564 2-Sep-2011 10:44

I read about plenty of problems with 2Talk, both performance and support, but WxC generally gets good praise. I'll go with WxC when I get around to VoIP.

oryan

35 posts

Geek
Inactive user

#515573 2-Sep-2011 10:48

Oh wow I just posted a new topic regarding this. check it out here http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=65&topicid=89440

oryan

35 posts

Geek
Inactive user

#515579 2-Sep-2011 10:53

Have you tried counterpath's X-Lite and eyebeam software also Bria for android and iphone. Excellent quality, WXC is priced at $11 a month with no contracts.

I am with WXC VFX service which I highly recommend

Wendo

12 posts

Geek

#515588 2-Sep-2011 11:02

Well after some emails back and forward with WxC it seems they no longer do SIP trunking over the internet for anything more than home connections. Anything else you have to get a dedicated connection from them.

That's a shame as our servers are hosted in an ISP's datacenter so we don't have any issues with bandwidth, and getting another ISP's connection in there is more pain than I want to go through, which really only leaves us with 2talk.

So I've been researching that and as far as I can tell, while 2talk do IAX trunks, which would be awesome for us, if you get 10 or 20 lines that also means 10 or 20 trunks (one per line), which is a LOT of configuration on the Asterisk end when one trunk running all the lines over it would seem to make more sense, so while IAX trunks are an option, doing real SIP trunking with 2talk is what it looks like we'll end up with.

Hopefully the new plus service they just launched has the improved reliability they are saying it does.

oryan

35 posts

Geek
Inactive user

#515591 2-Sep-2011 11:05

Maybe test out skype business? I use it for personal reasons and I like the prices :) and of course an easy user friendly software and easy installation :)

oryan

35 posts

Geek
Inactive user

#515593 2-Sep-2011 11:08

Oh yea I am laughing at the Topic Title right now hahaha.
You sound like a professional in VOIP hehe

Quic Broadband

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joshp

205 posts

Master Geek

Trusted

WorldxChange

#515624 2-Sep-2011 11:47

Wendo: Well after some emails back and forward with WxC it seems they no longer do SIP trunking over the internet for anything more than home connections. Anything else you have to get a dedicated connection from them.

Hi Wendo,

We have our business product which is call DVX, this is a registering SIP trunk which we allow connections from any source IP address. If you could PM me your details I will request that someone contact you directly regarding this.

I think the person you were speaking to would have been thinking of another product that we offer that does require you to have a dedicated connection through us (for service quality reasons).

Thanks

Josh

http://wxc.co.nz

Zeon

3916 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#515626 2-Sep-2011 12:00

Have been using DVX (migrated from VFX about 2 years ago) here with pretty much no problem. We have our PBX (Trixbox) as a virtual machine at the Orcon datacenter without too many issues. WxC have an excellent and reliable platform technically speaking but their account management system and staff are pretty useless. They do have very good and knowledgeable tech support though. The other thing i like is that its easy to understand the billing on a per min basis without any kind of package.

We did have a security issue a few months ago after emergency maintenance on our border router resulted in firewall rules being removed without us knowing. A SIP extension was hacked and the hackers racked up a $1000 bill. Luckily WxC spotted it and alerted us to it on Monday so we could act on it straight away.

Speedtest 2019-10-14

techmeister

310 posts

Ultimate Geek

#515672 2-Sep-2011 13:19

Wendo: Well after some emails back and forward with WxC it seems they no longer do SIP trunking over the internet for anything more than home connections. Anything else you have to get a dedicated connection from them.

That's a shame as our servers are hosted in an ISP's datacenter so we don't have any issues with bandwidth, and getting another ISP's connection in there is more pain than I want to go through, which really only leaves us with 2talk.

So I've been researching that and as far as I can tell, while 2talk do IAX trunks, which would be awesome for us, if you get 10 or 20 lines that also means 10 or 20 trunks (one per line), which is a LOT of configuration on the Asterisk end when one trunk running all the lines over it would seem to make more sense, so while IAX trunks are an option, doing real SIP trunking with 2talk is what it looks like we'll end up with.

Hopefully the new plus service they just launched has the improved reliability they are saying it does.

You do of course realize that you can do many calls on 1 IAX2 trunk?
What about a hosted phone service? would that not be perfect for your situation.
With all of 2talks features you can just about do anything with your phone calls.

Wendo

12 posts

Geek

#515676 2-Sep-2011 13:29

Oh I'm aware you can do, but 2talk don't seem to support it form their documentation that I've found, I'd love to be wrong though

oryan

35 posts

Geek
Inactive user

#515680 2-Sep-2011 13:34

The "no support" policy is not because it's an Open Source software, but because it's not an official product. Any other configuration (non-official box, PBX configuration, etc) it's at the customers' risk and choice.

As for the settings, those are pretty standard. You will need to worry about some router configuration later if things don't work well.

Maybe that is what they mean by "No Support"

oryan

35 posts

Geek
Inactive user

#515683 2-Sep-2011 13:36

oryan: The "no support" policy is not because it's an Open Source software, but because it's not an official product. Any other configuration (non-official box, PBX configuration, etc) it's at the customers' risk and choice.

As for the settings, those are pretty standard. You will need to worry about some router configuration later if things don't work well.

Maybe that is what they mean by "No Support"

lol sorry posted this in the wrong forum

techmeister

310 posts

Ultimate Geek

#515686 2-Sep-2011 13:41

Wendo: Oh I'm aware you can do, but 2talk don't seem to support it form their documentation that I've found, I'd love to be wrong though

I am unsure of what you mean.
We have 1 main IAX2 trunk(phone number) registered with 2talk and it can support many phone calls at the same time, it is only limited by the servers bandwidth.
If you have to have DDI though it would different, but you could still send all your DDI's to one number (trunk)
with 2talks live portal.

Wendo

12 posts

Geek

#515688 2-Sep-2011 13:45

We have a lot of DDI's. I was specifically referring to this note

"NOTE: If you wish to have multiple numbers presented over IAX2 then you need to create a ‘register’ and ‘peer’ entry for each number in your IAX configuration file since each line on your account acts independantly."

from this page

http://blog.2talk.co.nz/iax2.html

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