Simple tutorial on setting up a PBX?

October 20, 2007 7:01 PM

Where can I find information on setting up a phone system for a small business?

It seems that most of my Google searches return spam or "we want your money!" links, so I'm asking the hive mind:

I'm helping a friend research a PBX system for his small business. There are two analog lines coming in to the office, and we'd like to have 5-7 extensions within the office. Voicemail, conference calls, and faxing (from a fax machine) capability would be very nice, too.

Also, we'd like to use analog telephones on the extensions if possible.

Where can I find a nice, concise tutorial on setting up a PBX system that routes analog phone calls? Using asterisk would be nice, but ease of setup and maintenance are pretty important.

For the asterisk solution, what hardware is needed to interface with the phone lines?

Thanks!

posted by yellowbkpk to Technology (7 answers total)

I've just been researching this myself. If you want to go open source, a good place to start is TrixBox, which combines all the tools you need to setup a FreePBX (not including the PSTN service).

http://www.trixbox.org

Here's a nice tutorial on how to set it up:
http://www.sureteq.com/asterisk/trixboxv2.2.htm
posted by bumper314 at 7:10 PM on October 20, 2007

I've had to set up phone systems for a small agency two or three times. My best experience has been to identify a local telecommunications company and let them guide me as to systems and equipment... You might want to call around, you may find that the best solution will be offered by an expert in the field.
posted by HuronBob at 7:10 PM on October 20, 2007

I haven't tried it, but there's also AsteriskNow which looks a little less ugly than TrixBox's free version. I can't really answer anything else, as I haven't yet set up an Asterisk machine of my own.
posted by fogster at 7:31 PM on October 20, 2007

I've set up an Asterisk@Home system for a business (I think it's called AsteriskNow these days) and it worked *great* ... you can use either regular analog phones with an adapter, or you can use SIP phones -- either handset, or if you don't care about having a handset, you can use a headset like me.

We were literally up and running in a few hours after I finished the configuration.
posted by SpecialK at 8:21 PM on October 20, 2007

Asterisk.
My recommendation is to learn the backend config files by hand. Just to understand how it works - then by all means use a GUI.

You will be glad you did.

Also trixbox is a convoluted POS. FreePBX is bloated as well.

My vote is to spend a bit of money on www.thirdlane.com if you want to use a GUI.

It's a lot nicer and still inexpensive compared to a traditional PBX system.
posted by evilelvis at 7:01 AM on October 21, 2007

Also, know that two lines will likely not be enough for 5-7 people. Two lines means one person gets to talk on the phone while a fax is being sent, or two people can call out while nobody can call in, and so on. You may want to do a little "walk around" research during the day in the office to see how many simultaneous calls you have to account for.
posted by rhizome at 9:12 AM on October 21, 2007

I would think asterix would be overkill. You still need to pay for the hardware if you want handsets etc.
I would suggest ebay for a small used analog system. There are a lot around as corporate users replace small office systems with VoIP stuff.
I would add a third extension too.
If it is a green field set up (i.e. he doesn't need to keep an existing number) you might want to see what the voice over IP operators can offer. They may well be able to deliver all the services you need cheaper. Here I would look at Engin, but I suppose you might try Vonage?
If this is more than you want to do, the local independent IT guys often do small PABX setups.
posted by bystander at 9:46 PM on October 21, 2007