Analog or Digital for incoming Asterisk lines?

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greminn

181 posts

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#21053 14-Apr-2008 17:58

Hi There,

We have just about go our Asterisk box up and running. Currently we have Analoge TelstraClear lines, would it be better to ditch these and get a couple of ISDN lines? Is it going to be better from a quality/performance point of view?

PS: We only need to get the PCI card for the lines now.

Simon

nate

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#123534 14-Apr-2008 22:22

Why not get an account with 2Talk and port your numbers over? Cheaper than having to buy extra hardware to support analogue/ISDN lines.

greminn

181 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 6

#123576 15-Apr-2008 07:46

nate: Why not get an account with 2Talk and port your numbers over? Cheaper than having to buy extra hardware to support analogue/ISDN lines.

Unfortunatly we need to have the lines incase DSL is offline. We provide internet technical support services and it wouldnt be a good look: "Sorry - our internet is down so you cant ring us to get help with your internet being down" -

We are going to cut down the number of phyical lines from 6 to 3, and thinking that we might go for 1 ISDN line and 1 analog line (for fax and just to have one old line).

ISDN cards seem to be cheaper than the POTS type cards... But is there any other advantage?

hads

392 posts

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#123861 15-Apr-2008 22:45

With decent hardware you shouldn't really notice the difference between ISDN and analog lines.

With analog the signalling is in-band so callerid can be slightly less reliable, you will need to make sure that disconnect supervision is setup etc.

Besides that, analog cards are usually cheaper for lower densities than ISDN cards.

hads

nicegear.co.nz - VoIP, DVB and other Linux compatible hardware

nate

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#123864 15-Apr-2008 22:51

greminn: Unfortunatly we need to have the lines incase DSL is offline. We provide internet technical support services and it wouldnt be a good look: "Sorry - our internet is down so you cant ring us to get help with your internet being down" -

What are you using as your main internet connection?

If it's more reliable than ADSL, I still think VoIP is the best way to go - setup 2Talk so that if your Asterisk box isn't registered (ie the internet is down) forward to a mobile phone.