Anyone here set up Asterisk or Trixbox recently? Was it difficult and who are you using as a service provider? I've got an extra box here and have been wondering about experiences with the set-up process Cheers!
I've thought about it but found over a long time the electrical bill can just be a waste of my money. I think i worked it out as £60 a year. Asterisk is a very powerful system though, good fun to try .
My old computer system that I have running generally uses about 37 watts of power. When it is working it bumps up to 57-63 watts. I used a Kill-A-Watt meter to test my trixbox system the other day and it averages 45 watts. Using this link I found out the energy cost in my state is ~8.5 cents per kwh. 394.2 kwh X $0.085 = $33.51 for a yearly electricity cost. I can't imagine that electricity is that much more expensive in the UK. Even my brand new system wouldn't come anywhere near £60. I found it much easier to setup than I imagined and it is quite a powerful little system. I find it does more than I really need and the geek in me is trying to figure out more features to use trixbox for. Which VOIP provider you use really depends on a number of factors. The most important being: 1. Where you are physically located? It is ideal to connect to a semi-close provider. 2. Are you looking for DIDs for inbound calls? Which country? How many minutes per month? How many channels (concurrent calls)? Are you looking to keep your number? 3. Where are the majority of your outbound calls to? How many minutes? The good thing about trixbox is that you can set up multiple providers and set up applicable outbound call routes to route your call to the best provider for that function. Feel free to chat with me if you'd like to know more.