FtOCC CE Technician is being presented in collaboration with Fonality, a leading open source telephony company and 888VoipStore, the leading source of IP PBX systems and equipment for resellers.

FtOCC CE Technician is a three-day technical certification course designed to train resellers and consultants how to support customers running trixbox CE systems.

Taught by Kerry Garrison, author of the books “trixbox Made Easy” and “trixbox 2.6” as well as Fonality technical instructors, FtOCC CE Technician includes an in-depth look at platform and application installation, carrier setup and integration, network configuration, echo causes and remedies, and other common issues.

FtOCC CE Technician is for Linux technicians and engineers who regularly support client installations. This course is a hands-on way for resellers who are new to trixbox CE to learn the ins and outs and master the basics of installing and maintaining those systems. It covers all of the core operations that a trixbox CE administrator needs to handle on a regular basis.

trixbox CE gives the channel a lucrative way to participate in the rapidly expanding market opportunity for open source products and services. ITEXPO is committed to educating the reseller community on new ways to increase their value in the marketplace and FtOCC CE Technician certification certainly will do that.

According to course instructor, Kerry Garrison, VP Strategy, 888VoipStore, TMC continues to be an authoritative voice for telephony and the data VAR channel. The convergence of the data network and phone networks open up huge opportunities for the traditional data VAR.

Attendees who complete the FtOCC CE Technician courses can expect to achieve the following objectives:

• Install and configure trixbox CE with confidence.
• Resolve installation, administration, and usage problems more quickly.
• Provision your own phones, decreasing turnaround time required for add-on phones and devices.
• Experience fewer problems by avoiding the usual “beginner” mistakes!
• Gain an in-depth understanding of how trixbox CE works (product, process, policy, protocol).

All attendees will receive a free Yealink T-28 IP Phone.

For additional information and registration please visit the trixbox CE FtoCC Page at TMCNET

April 23, 2010

Yealink SIP-T2x series are high performance and affordable SIP telephones that help businesses leverage the increasing benefits of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephone systems. Yealink SIP phones provide HD voice, a broad range of voice codecs, security protection for privacy, and rich telephony features.

“888VoipStore’s market-leading distribution and reseller education and Yealink’s enterprise IP phones give IP PBX resellers a high quality and cost effective IP endpoint solution,” commented David Chen, the CEO of Yealink . “We believe our products provide the best price-performance combination available in the IP PBX industry. The 888VoipStore and Yealink partnership will deliver our products into the US market.”

“Yealink’s products are easy to use, deliver high quality calls, and are available at a very attractive price point,” said Dan Shurmatz, Director of Business Development for 888VoipStore. “Resellers looking to provide lower price point IP Phone to their customers will now have a very compelling device to offer.”

About Yealink Network Technology

Yealink Network Technology Ltd. is a manufacturer of innovative, affordable, and high quality IP voice and video products for the world-wide broadband telephony market. Its comprehensive products, from IP phones to an IP Multimedia phone, offer unrivaled flexibility, scalability and affordability for the worldwide broadband market. Yealink’s cutting edge portfolio products brings the small to medium enterprises and businesses a solution in an unprecedented value and functionality. For more information, please visit http://www.yealink.com.

About 888VoipStore

888VoipStore (www.888VoipStore.com and www.VoipStore.com), a division of American Technologies, LLC, is a leading source for Voice over IP Business Telephone Systems (IP-PBX) and VoIP Communication products.  In addition to providing cost-effective distribution, sales, marketing, provisioning, and logistic services, 888VoipStore offers business opportunities for manufacturers and resellers through lead acquisition, referral, and management programs.  Through its strong commitment to customer service and technical support, 888VoipStore has distinguished itself as a vital industry leader in IP telephony technologies and solution management for over 10,000 business customers worldwide.

Contact:

Kerry Garrison
VP, Strategy
kerry@voipstore.com
1-888-VOIPSTORE
(888) 864-7786
# # #

Many people don’t realize just how easy it is to configure a Digium analog interface card with trixbox CE. Not that it is very difficult with other distros, its usually only a few simple commands, but trixbox CE makes it even easier with one command that configures the card very easily. The same setup-pstn command will work on all versions of trixbox CE since version 2.4.Once you have to card in the system, boot it up, log in as root and type the setup-pstn command. If you see the channels come up at the end then just type amportal restart and Asterisk will restart. Then you need to go into the web interface and make sure your trunks are configured properly. After that, you are ready to make and receive calls.

VoipStore.com Feature Solutions Partner Links

• Digium
• Digium products on 888VoipStore.com
• Fonality / trixbox
• trixbox products on 888VoipStore.com

Kerry Garrison and the team at VoipStore.com have posted another great product overview, this one is on the improved analog cards from Digium.

The Digium® TDM410 is a half-length PCI 2.2-compliant modular gateway card for connecting analog telephone stations and analog POTS lines through a PC. It supports a combination of up to four station or trunk modules for a total of 4 lines.

Using Digium’s Asterisk® software and standard PC hardware, one can create a telephony environment that includes all of the sophisticated features of a high-end business telephone system.

Using an industry-standard bursting, bus-mastering interface chip that is found within millions of PC systems worldwide, and Digium VoiceBus™ technology, the TDM410 eliminates the requirement for external gateways, with industry-leading performance and price. The trunk and station modules are interchangeable, allowing the creation of any combination of interfaces. The optional hardware echo cancellation module provides 1024 taps (128 milliseconds) of echo cancellation for superior voice quality on both trunk and station interfaces. Scaling of this solution is accomplished by adding additional TDM410 or other Digium analog interface cards.

Digium Analog cards, with there interchangeable single and quad FXS and FXO modules can eliminate the requirement for seperate channel banks or access gateways. Digiums commercial, toll-free quality High Performance Echo Cancellation (HPEC) software is available to our analog customers at no additional cost. The optional VPMADT032 hardware echo cancellation module provides the same toll-quality HPEC but without the perfoamce inpact of a software based solution. Scaling of an analog card solution is accomplished by adding additional cards and FXO / FXS modules.

Core Features

• 4 Ports for connecting analog telephones or POTS lines
• Half-length Analog Card
• Up to 4 FXS or FXO Modules
• High Performance Echo Cancellation (HPEC) Software (Optional)
• TDM410 for use with a PCI 2.2 compliant slot

888VoipStore.com: Digium Products Page

Kerry and the team at VoipStore.com have put together this great overview on the Digium TDM800P Analog cards.

The Wildcard TDM800P is a half-length PCI 2.2-compliant, 8 port card for connecting analog telephones and analog POTS lines through a PC. It supports combinations of FXS and/or FXO modules for a total of 8 lines.

The TDM800P provides an industry first with 8 standard two-wire, RJ-11 interfaces on a single PCI bracket. This eliminates the need for multiple brackets, external dongles, or splitters. In doing so, the TDM800P reduces part complexity, cable clutter, and points of failure.

The TDM800P contains two module banks. Each bank supports up to four analog interfaces. The module banks may be filled either with one standard Digium® quad analog module (FXS – S400M, FXO – X400M), or up to two standard Digium® single analog modules (FXS- S110M, FXO – X100M) enabling the creation of any combination of ports

The optional hardware echo cancellation module provides 1024 taps (128 milliseconds) of echo cancellation for superior echo cancellation on both FXO and FXS interfaces.

If the hardware echo cancellation module is not installed, the TDM800P may be used in conjunction with Digium’s High Performance Echo Cancellation (HPEC) software, a commercial and toll quality hybrid echo cancellation solution. Digium’s HPEC provides 16ms to 128ms of selectable near-end ITU G.168 compliant echo cancellation in software.

Using this card in concert with Digium’s Asterisk® software, standard PC hardware, and the Linux® OS, you can create SME or SOHO telephony environments capable of satisfying the needs of small or medium business applications at an industry-leading price.

Digium Analog cards, with their interchangeable single and quad FXS and FXO modules can eliminate the requirement for separate channel banks or access gateways. Digium’s commercial, toll-free quality High Performance Echo Cancellation (HPEC) software is available to our analog customers at no additional cost. The optional VPMADT032 hardware echo cancellation module provides the same toll-quality HPEC but without the performance impact of a software based solution. Scaling of an analog card solution is accomplished by adding additional cards and FXO / FXS modules.

• 8 RJ-11 interfaces on a single PCI bracket
• 8 Ports for connecting analog telephones or POTS lines
• Half-length Analog Card
• Up to 4 Single FXS or FXO Modules, or 2 Quad FXS or FXO Modules
• High Performance Echo Cancellation (HPEC) Software (Optional)
• VoiceBus™ technology

888VoipStore.com: Digium Products Page

The guys at 888VoipStore have published a couple of recent articles showing how to configure these phones with trixbox CE, trixbox Pro, and 3CX.

* Configuring Cisco 7960 Phones with trixbox CE / Pro

* Configuring Cisco 7940/7960 Phones with 3CX

• Part 1 – The Sales Meeting
• Part 2 – The Call Flow Design
• Part 3 – The Quote

Be sure and check out these articles and see if you can improve your own sales.

• FAX SERVER FIX for crash on numerous incoming faxes
• Restore procedure for prompts
• Fax configuration of files form the edit templates – fax over poroviders with Nat support
• Myphone bug in forwarding rules not showing.
• Improved call assistant Speed, performance, freezing issues fixed
• Fixed Install bug in Voip phone dll
• Italian prompt sets NEW
• Added VAD server components to the build
• Fix in call reporter and sql queries
• Voip providers added – G711 IE and voip voice IT

You can download RC3 here: http://www.3cx.com/downloads/3CXPhoneSystem8.exe

You can download the latest 3CX Assistant (with optionally integrated CRM and 3CXPHone) here: http://www.3cx.com/downloads/3CXAssistantSetup_80.exe

Product Information:

Switchvox SOHO remains offered only on the older model AA60 chassis.

Switchvox SMB on the AA60 has been fully replaced by Switchvox SMB on the AA65.

The AA300 has been fully replaced by the AA305.

The AA350 has been fully replaced by the AA355.

The LCD panel offers the following options and menu organization:

• View System Info
  • Administer your PBX at https://IP/admin
• Configure Network
  • Active Interface
    • eth1
    • eth0
  • Set DHCP / Static
    • DHCP
    • Static
  • Change IP Address
    • 192.168.0.20 (Note this is an example, not a default IP)
  • Change Subnet mask
    • 255.255.255.0 (Note this is an example, not a default subnet mask)
  • Change Gateway
    • 192.168.0.1 (Note this is an example, not a default gateway)
  • Change DNS Server
    • 192.168.0.100 (Note this is an example, not a default DNS server)
• Reboot PBX
  • Yes / No
• Shutdown PBX
  • Yes / No
• Reset HTTPs Certificate
  • Yes / No
• Tech Support Access
  • Enable Yes / No
• Restore Web Access
  • Yes / No
• Reset Administrator Password
• Change LCD Password

For Windows administrators who have been looking for a real native Windows application and have been disappointed in the few lackluster products that have been available, things are about to change.

Early this year 3CX released version 7 of their IP PBX software for Windows-based systems. Version 7 was a milestone for the 3CX product in terms of functionality and reliability but was just a little lacking in some features and endpoint support. Within the next few weeks, 3CX will be unleashing version 8 which is set to really put 3CX on the map with enhanced features and third-party hardware support.

Why is 3CX Important?

Other people can tackle the Linux versus Windows debate but the fact is that most small-medium businesses run Windows exclusively and there are many thousands of IT consultants out there that don’t know and don’t want to learn Linux. While products like trixbox CE certainly opened the world of business telephony to many, many people, a solid product like 3CX being available on Windows could turn out to be an even bigger game-changer.

Is 3CX the best IP PBX platform available? No, and nobody is claiming it is….yet. Other systems out there, from companies like Digium and Fonality, have a several year head start on 3CX and while version 7 has dramatically increased the acceptance level to many resellers and integrators, there has still been a few things lacking from it. Version 8, due out soon, addresses many of these issues and brings some the feature set much closer to competing solutions.

Taking a look at 3CX

3CX runs as a set of services and uses a web interface to configuring and manage the configuration. You can either use IIS or the Cassini web server that can be installed during the 3CX setup.

3CX uses the standard SIP protocol so it will work with most every third party VoIP phone that also speaks SIP such as phones from Polycom, Aastra, snom, Cisco, and Grandstream as well as SIP trunking services from companies such as Vitelity and Bandwidth.com.

While the interface may be a simple infinite-tree GUI, it is laid out well and in a logical order making it fairly simple to use with very little training.

3CX Assistant

From a user point of view there really isn’t anything interesting about a phone system. The one thing a user interfaces with is their phone, and even those aren’t that different between the different models that are available.  One thing that 3CX brings to the mix is the 3CX Assistant, a program that melds the desktop and the phone into one handy application.

The 3CX assistant is more than just an app that shows the status of other phones, it also lets you manage incoming calls, call other extensions, make outbound calls, see other people’s status, and chat with other people in the company.

The 3CX Assistant will become an essential productivity tool. While it may not be obvious at first, the more you use it, the more you will depend upon it. Being able to see when something is available or not, chat with them, and manage calls will change the way you interact with the other employees within your company.

No more calling people who aren’t at their desk or having to go through the hassle of sending an email when all you need is a quick answer to something, just chat. Why not just use Yahoo or Microsoft Messenger? Any company that has used an outside instant messenger service knows that inevitably friends and family members end up in employee’s buddy lists. Keeping chat constrained to business purposes helps eliminates those outside distractions.

Pricing

3CX licensing is based on simultaneous calls within the system and not on extensions like most other systems. This can make 3CX much more affordable than other commercial offerings. Inbound, outbound, extension to extension, and voicemail calls all count against the simultaneous calls counter. While this is rather unorthodox for a licensing model, it does mean that every version from the lowest Mini Edition to the largest Enterprise version all have the same identical feature set. There are no extra charges for call queues, bridged servers, conference rooms, or other higher end features that other systems charge extra for.

• Mini Edition (4 simultaneous calls) $350
• Small Business (8 simultaneous calls) $695
• Pro Business (16 simultaneous calls) $1,250
• Pro Business (24 simultaneous calls) $1,695
• Enterprise Business (32 simultaneous calls) $2,250
• Enterprise Business (64 simultaneous calls) $4,295
• Enterprise Business (128 simultaneous calls) $7,495
• Enterprise Business (256 simultaneous calls) $12,50

For more information and to download a free version (see comparison chart for features) for you to try out for yourself, go check out http://3cx.com.