New small business Voip system up and running
Nov1
Well it’s been a bit of an epic – mainly struggling with diverse hardware and getting Telecom to give up the Wanaka Wastebusters number. But the new internet based phone system is now up and running.
The system:
- 4 x lines on standard phones through 1 x Linksys ATA and 1 x WAG with 2 ATA ports
- 4 x people using softphones – X-Lite
- 1 x Linksys SPA922 VOIP deskphone
- Auto attendant on main calling in line
- Eftpos and Fax on a POTs line which also carries the ADSL
- Voicemail on all extensions with voicemail sent to email addresses where necessary
Lessons so far:
- Linksys ATA’s seem to be more reliable and give better call quality than a software phone on a PC.
- Starting out with one sort of end point (ATA’s) would have been easier. Having people on three different solutions makes config and customization a bit of a nightmare.
- The free version of X-Lite does not do a blind transfer, I haven’t found a free softphone yet that does but will try Zoiper tomorrow.
- Without a local digital PBX (Wastebusters is using the Kiwilink service) you are restricted to the options that the external service offers on their (usually Asterisk) setup. In this case a limit of 9 speed dial numbers restricting the pool of possible blind transfer speed dials.
Savings
- Reduced monthly rentals by around $200
- Cheaper calling costs
- Flexible extensible PBX features, mostly changeable through web interface
Fenestration fustration – antivirus
Nov0
I would rather be worrying about windows of a glass variety – but in order to design on a computer I accept there is a maintenance cost. My Windows XP T61p is slower, mainly due to a full disk, than ever and I hate over bloated antivirus software that advertises to you at every opportunity (in this case Avira).
I have always thought good antivirus should be part of an operating system, after all who knows the internal workings of a platform better than the developer? It has always irked me that after buying Windows you then have to buy or find a kindly free provider for a key operating system component – protection from virus’s.
Over the years I have used a paid for Nortons license (horrible and slow), a free AVG edition (actually quite good) and a free Avira (German software? Had to try it but horrible popup ads). So it was with pleasure I installed Windows Security Essentials a few weeks ago, its small, fast and unobtrusive. And totally free – ie: no ads. I then went on to replace Nod32 on 8 computers saving Wastebusters $400 a year. So far the experience has been exceptional.
I also disabled the Client Security Solution in the Bios which has made a small difference.
Display link…yummmm…
Feb0
I went looking to buy a new monitor today – and ran into something interesting. I rarely get excited about new hardware…but…I imagined something like this four years ago and now it’s here!
I always thought monitors would ultimately be a similar resource to a computer as a webcam, keyboard or mouse. Imagine getting rid of the annoying cables and being able to chain them together USB style or use small 2.4ghz wireless connectors. Your monitor could be on the other side of the lounge and you could play your movie to it from your laptop with no string connected. Ah bliss – they are here.
There are only Asus ones in NZ so far I think, and surprisingly Dell doesn’t show any. I think I’ll have to wait till there is a bigger range…
Ubuntu, VMware and Graphics applications
Feb0
I have had an excellent experience running Ubuntu under VMPlayer on XP as my development webserver. It’s faster than WAMP and easily transportable.
So, when it came to rebooting Merles Dell 1330 which has had consistent networking issues with Vista I thought, hell, we could have Ubuntu running on the wee guy and Vista running as a guest under VM.
This would have the benefit of the guest being easily back-up-able with the apps installed and transportable across computers.
Turns out that is good in theory and not in practice, mainly because running graphics apps is so ram hungry (I think). Vista with apps took up over 20gb and was crazy slow.
So it is back to Vista, a shame because Ubuntu 8.10 was amazing. It recognised all the hardware first go and was a fast joy to use.
Clients
