VOIP - Asterisk - Intercom/Phone System

I Imagine many churches would have ethernet around the place.... so why not run a VOIP intercom system with Asterisk (Open Source Linux PBX and more). Use analog phones, computers, ip phones (and whatever else you can think of) connected to a linux server running Asterisk. Why not connect a few external lines as well so it can replace your whole phone system? You can change your extension configuration with .conf files! add interactive menus and many other amazing things. What do you think of the idea?

www.asterisk.org

Phone systems are such a critical part of what we do, I'd hate to try to peice together a solution without someone really knowing what they're doing. And what if that person left the church for some reason, you'd have to find somebody else to support it, and help troubleshoot.

I'm all for saving money, to use it in other places, but as we are lloking into expanding our phone systems now, I'd rather pay to get it right once, with a company there to call on to support issues.

It's a great looking program though! Hopefully some low cost solution will be able to be used by this!

I dont know anything about phone systems.... I understand how to setup Asterisk after a 20 min read of the config guide

I really think it has promise

If you are looking to expand your phone systems, I would SERIOUSLY look at it. It is VERY powerful.
I can have hundreds of VOIP extensions as well as analog phones connnected with hardware interfaces. T1 interface cards can be purchased.

You said that your would rather pay to get it done right. Fair enough. If you want to change anything you need that company to maintain it. vs using a web interface!

[flyboy747]

I would definately have to recommend Asterisk. I just recently got into it a few months ago and it is very powerful.

I posted a link in another thread, but if you're not a linux guru or just want a ready to run Asterisk install, check out Asterisk@home. You just boot up to the CD and hit one button to start the entire installation process of CentOS including an Asterisk install. You can use a web interface (AMP) to get everything configured and you're ready to go in under and hour.

http://asteriskathome.sourceforge.net/

Thanks flyboy for that link. I didn't know asterisk at home used CentOS. I use CentOs and its great

[chickenrob]

I know this is an old thread but this is a great idea for churches. I have set up a system at home for learning purposes (the $5-10/mo phone bill is nice too) and just this last weekend set up a Church Boys camp with a system. We used super cheap grandstream ata's, fxo's and a couple 4 line office phones. grandstream dot com I used a literally $7.50 dell machine I got at a garage sale with trixbox trixbox dot org which is a really east asterisk/linux on a disk. Just pop the disk in the machine, install trixbox, set up the network and log into the trixbox's built in html pages to administer your phone system. This is the first year the camp will have many features like voicemail and password protected outside lines. We also have a special nightime condition set up with a seperate ring group so the phones in the lodge won't ring durring camp fire. once you have everything set up the system is very reliable and trouble free. Next year we will be getting alittle fancier and setting up a system where staff and counselors can have a special password for long distance calls (the camp is long distance from most people's homes) where the system will individually log their minutes and set up an invoice automatically. I guess the point I am trying to make is the great thing about asterisk is that if you can dream it, asterisk can pretty much do it. I have my home system set up so I can call home and check my email and the system will read them to me. Lots of FUN!

[BenHT]

We use Asterisk at work - it took a while to get it set up the way we wanted it and I think the latest version is supposed to be better but it's stable (20 people and 4 shared lines) and we only have one standard line as a backup.

I'm going to recommend using it in church when the new building is done.

One complaint though is definately the phones we use. Most people run an application on their computer but a few have hard phones - these are much easier to get on with just because people are used to picking up the phone. However, it's surpisingly hard to get good quality ones (that plug into the network and NOT your PC).

[arwes]

Asterisk is some really neat software, we were looking at it quite seriously when we almost needed a new voice mail server. Our vendor finally did a version upgrade which fixed the majority of our problems, otherwise we would've bolted.

[tedanderson]

Most people run an application on their computer but a few have hard phones - these are much easier to get on with just because people are used to picking up the phone.

That was the initial issue that I had many years ago when people were telling me how internet phones were going to replace land lines. I said that this could work only if the phone was STILL a phone. I mean who has the time or patience to boot their PC, load the applicaiton and use a headset when they just want to make a 2-minute phone call.

[scottb]

Asterisk is great! I setup a PBX for 20 users and with Polycom phones. The phones were $100 each and the SIP trunks were pay as you go (2) trunks per line. You can even move your number if you wanted to go with someone else. It has worked flawlessly! ACD, DIDs, Call routing, Groups and really anything else an expensive system can do.

I even heard that Cisco feels they are legitimate competition.

[tedanderson]

I am using a mixed enviroment of Aastra phones and Polycom units and the system works great but the only major problem that I have with it is the delay factor. I don't know if I need to upgrade to stronger codec or if my internet connection is fluctuating. I'm also learing how to write and edit call flow scripts so that I can make the system do EXACTLY what I need it to do and make my business look larger than it really is.