Which PBX do you recommend: MSS, 3CX, Axon, PiaF, Elastix

[zaheer002]

thanks a lot, i've installed the asterisk under fon, but I still get errors, so your post is very helpful. Thanks a lot.

[zaheer002]

I am grateful to Aaron for providing the SS service and the time he invests for free for us to be able to use it for free.

After SS went down the other day, I decided to install 3cx to see what it was like. I understand that SS is an experimental service and with that comes the risk of downtime, Aaron has been upfront about this, and it's a risk I'm happy to take. We rely 100% on our VoIP for outgoing, incoming, and emergency calls so needed to get it up ASAP. I contemplated installing Trixbox but as I'm a bit of a noob with it and coupled with the limited success I had with Asterisk in the past put me off. Actually I WILL be having another go with Asterisk on the Fonera once I get a little Trixbox experience. I suppose I could set up the Trixbox and then copy over my sip.conf and extensions.conf file from my Trixbox to the Fonera running 1.4 Asterisk and hopefully that will allow me to cheat my way into having Asterisk running on the Fonera with minimum pain !

Anyway, after SS went down the other day and not knowing how long it would be down for I thought I had better set an alternative up before I suffered injuries from other members of the household. I had looked at 3cx in the past but didn't think it would be that great, and it required P4 hardware which is my main machine so didn't want to install it on my main machine. I had tried other Windoze based PBX such as MiniSipServer, Axon, and SIP PBX2 in the past and managed to get them set up but noticed that sometimes SIP PBX 2 would deregister itself. It was probably an error on my part as I was rushing around trying to set them up and didn't give it the time I should have to be fair. However, all three programs consumed very little resources and ran happily on the P2 so I will definately give them another go at some point and report back. With that in mind I thought I'd try 3CX as that sees itself as a grown up PBX for windoze. I managed to get hold of an older version from a few years back and it is running on my P2, 350MHz, 128MB RAM successfully.

Currently I have 2 extensions registered, 1 of these is an external extension, and 16 VSPs registered. They system could do with a bit more RAM but appears fairly stable. It is totally point and click and I had the basics setup within a hour or so, considering that I had never used the program before, I thought that was quite good. I am only using the basic features such as LCR, Follow me, and time based calling at present and I was surprised how easy they are to set up.

The fact that it runs on Windoze and quite old hardware is a big bonus! Overall I am quite pleased. I really didn't think it would be so simple.

I have deregistered my VSPs from SS and will test the new 3CX system out for a few weeks to check stability. I'm going to come back to SS after that and install Trixbox on the P2 and Asterisk on my Fonera to see if I can get it going. Would be great to have a 5W Asterisk box!

[beaver]

Just read this thread last weekend. nice work, zaheer002 and BigTex as well as.
PC solution is not green, I am reluctant to go. I would first consider the method by BigTex. looking for a good deal on ASUS router.
zaheer002 mentioned many time his "old" PC( thank you for so many tests of various PBX applications). what's the electricity consumption? it's hard to obtain any old PC around these days. but it may be cheaper than a router. Possibly I will go a very old laptop. at rating 100 watts, 50% load, annual electricity bill will be $26 (438kwh).

[BigTex]

I'm still happy with the ASUS solution I described earlier. It's been very reliable for months now.

[zaheer002]

My PC is a Dell P2, 350MHz, 256MB, with 40GB IDE HDD, slim line, very quiet, consumes I would suspect around 35 Watts as a PBX. My employer was throwing it out so I said I'd take it rather than it ending up on the tip. Processor consumes around 20-25W according to Intel (maybe that's at full whack???), HDD comes on now and again, probably 5W, Lan card a couple of Watts, the CPU load is only 5-25% usually so about 35W are consumed, maybe less????. Although I would have liked a lower Wattage solution, it doubles as a NAS, BitTorrent, Usenet downloader too, plus no more FUP with Betamax so may be worth paying the extra

I have installed Asterisk 1.4 on my Fonera following the advice of Wilson above, but not had time to configure it. I would have liked to have bought an Asus as some models have USB ports which can be used to mount Asterisk on them, but have not seen many about on ebay or at retailers here in the UK.

[BigTex]

The ASUS WL-520gU that I use (includes USB port for a USB drive) is on sale at the moment at newegg.com for $35 (shipping included, after $10 mail-in rebate). I don't know about UK options, though.

[beaver]

zaheer002,

Are you still going to post your test review on some or all of below?
Windows PBX
SipSorcery version local version
3CX
Axon
miniSipServer. This one is not free. need to apply for a free-license.
SIP PBX 2

Linux ??

I know there are many reviews on various forums but I prefer to read posts by users from SS forum.

[skynetbbs]

People who are using Asterisk on a Fonera device can perhaps update this wiki page : http://wiki.fon.com/wiki/Plugin_asterisk
The openwrt/luci project on creating a minimal gui interface has halted for more than 12 months

[zaheer002]

zaheer002,

Are you still going to post your test review on some or all of below?
Windows PBX
SipSorcery version local version
3CX
Axon
miniSipServer. This one is not free. need to apply for a free-license.
SIP PBX 2

Linux ??

I know there are many reviews on various forums but I prefer to read posts by users from SS forum.

There are already comprehensive reviews on the sipsorcery local version, I have installed and tested the above PBX's and posted my comments on them. I posted about their capabilities and the bugs/limitations I found in them. I am currently using 3CX system and it is working reliably enough so I have no intention to go backwards and re-review the other PBX software at this stage. My next project is to get the Fonera with Asterisk 1.4 running for a 5Watt PBX. There is nothing stopping you from have a go at using them yourself and posting a review, I would be interested in other opinions of the software

[beaver]

Thanks for your update.
3cx needs .net. so I am using minisipserver. but sounds not good for me. I will run more tests.