How to use a Softphone in ZA?

[Vex7337]

I'm new to MyBroadBand's forums (as seen by this being post #4).

I am trying to do research for a start up which I am involved in however I keep getting thrown in circles and the answer is always too vague.

I am looking for the best solution for a local pbx and software solution for 5 users. I need to find out where the best place to buy a number is and how to get it working via a softphone inbound and outbound for 5 users.

I do apologise if my post is too vague but please ask me if I need to clarify on some things as I am lost and I just need some advice on where to go and what to do in regards to this matter. I've never worked with any teleco related things before so I am a little lost with my PC brain.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

 

[Mars]

It is kinda vague.

If you are looking at local then you could set up a box using asterisk with freepbx, elastix is my favourite flavour since it has a fax server built in as well as a couple of other goodies I dont use (im, mail sever and a couple of other things).
http://www.elastix.org/index.php/en/

If you are looking to connect to land lines then you can get an fxs/fxo card (with only fxo ports since you want to run soft phones) The different options are sangoma, digium or if you are cheap like me, yeastar.
Scoop used to stock the yeastar fx cards tho I don't see them on their website any more.

The other option is the yeastar integrated boxes, tho the software functionality is severly limited compared to Asterisk/freepbx. The upside is its much easier to install than elastix. Tho tbh I didn't find it that hard and my linux experience is limited.

Then if you want to rent trunks instead of going landlines then I cannot recommend since I havent done that in a while, I seem to remember them being around R60 a trunk and then you obviously pay for calls made.

As for soft phone's I use zoiper.

I hope I have answered some of your questions or steered you in the right direction.

 

[Vex7337]

Thanks for your assistance Madman88

It's quite a lot to take in and I will have to research all of the different software choices you are suggesting to me. However on an even simpler side of things. Should I just be looking into getting a landline number and then routing it through to a linux machine which is running asterix with mypbx with elastix? (The more I write this the more I realise how clueless I am in regards to this).

What would the other option be in opposition to using a landline? Can I just purchase a number and then use it via a softphone system online? and would this entail me not using a local pbx?

 

[SauRoNZA]

You could get away with a direct softphone yes, buy then you'll be paying it from a company who charges you subscription for it and hosts on their PABX.

Try teleforge.co.za.

 

[Mars]

Well I didnt really give you a lot of choices lol, tho I may not have been very clear.

If you want to run a pbx on a pc then Asterisk is your only option. Freepbx runs on top of Asterisk, there might be other pbx options but I'm not aware of any. Asterisk (and freepbx) comes in different distros using different versions of linux as their base.
You could take any distro of linux and then install Asterisk and Mypbx onto that if the fancy strikes you tho.

The more common distros of Asterisk are - MyAsterisk, Trixbox, Elastix, and a couple of others i think. I find elastix to be the best. It comes with a slew of fucntionality from IVR and fax to Call recording and local voice mail.


As for not getting a landline, you could easly get a trunk from various providers and just use that, tho if you are only looking for one trunk (line) then Skype or even FNB connect would be a good option (if you bank with FNB) because they have no line fees.

You could rent an entire off site Asterisk PBX with 10 trunks, IVR, the whole toot. Personally I prefer to manage my own hardware, not that it takes much managing to be honest. All I do is restart the box once a month or so.

So to lay it out at clear as possible:

Option 1: PC with Elastix without land line integration is probably the cheapest option, especially if you have some kind of fast internet without a land line or you dont want to use that land line for this business.
Then you can rent lines (trunks) from many sources for around R60 a month
Some examples : http://www.voys.co.za/voip/sip-trunking
All you need is a mid range pc with a gigabit lan port (or card). 500 gig hdd is plenty with 4 to 8 gigs of ram. The more the merrier obviously. I handle 3 land lines, and 6 extensions comfortably on 4 gigs.
There are also audio codecs you can buy to lower your bandwidth usage, but I havent got there yet because I dont use the voip (yet)

Option 2: PC with Elastix with land line intregration will need an add on card like this http://www.miro.co.za/catalogue/dig...-card-pci-3-35-0v-supports-echo-cancellation/ in addition to the setup above.
A card like that will probably set you back about R5k with the FXO ports. I dont think you would have more than 4 land lines and since youre using the soft phone option then you wont be needing any ports for analogue phone ports.

If you did want actual handsets on either option there are plenty of ip phones you could use instead of soft phones if you wanted.
Have a look here: https://scoop.co.za/products/voice-over-ip/ip-phones/

If you wanted a company to set up your Asterisk box for you, you could contact http://clarotech.co.za/ I have heard good things about them tho I have never used them myself.