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Re: [News] Linux-based PBX Challenges Telecoms

begin  oe_protect.scr 
Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
> Open source PBX calls on telecoms
> 
> ,----[ Quote ]
>| Faced with the high cost of buying a traditional telephone system, Digium
>| CEO Mark Spencer made use of his own programming skills to create
>| Asterisk, an open-source alternative.
>| 
>| Spencer had helmed a company called Linux Support Services, when he
>| decided to create an open source-based PBX in 1999 and dubbed it,
>| Asterisk. He then changed the name of the Huntsville, U.S.-based
>| company to Digium, shifting its focus to provide support and
>| consulting services for the Asterisk open-source platform. 
> `----
> 
> http://www.zdnetasia.com/insight/communications/0,39044835,61952445,00.htm
> 
> 
> Earlier today/yesterday:
> 
> University dumps Cisco VOIP for open-source Asterisk
> 
> ,----[ Quote ]
>| SHSU is in the process of moving its 6,000 students, faculty and staff off
>| of Cisco CallManager IP PBXs and a legacy Nortel Meridian PBX over to Linux
>| servers running Asterisk...
> `----
> 
> http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;1646405846;fp;4;fpid;78268965


Asterisk is very good, it does, mostly, work.  It's not got the top-end
features of big PBXs, and lacks certain particularly difficult-to-do
features, such as big conferencing bridges, but I suspect it'll only be
a matter of time before those capabilities arise.

It has one interesting feature, which is both advantage and flaw,
depending on how and when it's used, which is that the IAX protocol runs
the signalling in-band with the media stream.  This is great for
crossing nat-firewall boxes, /but/, leaves things vulnerable.  It does
also support SIP, however, which can be used out-of-band (and should be
if five nines plus are needed).

Wide-scale networks cannot afford to have signalling, media and
management planes combined - it's too risky.

Still, I'm a huge fan of asterisk.

-- 
| Mark Kent   --   mark at ellandroad dot demon dot co dot uk  |
Fill what's empty, empty what's full, scratch where it itches.
		-- Alice Roosevelt Longworth

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