Hello,

Again, this is something I've been looking into: VOIP.

One of my friends who works for a SaSS provider is big into VOIP and has set up his own environment. After giving me some tips, I've begun to think about how I could offer it as a "hosted" service.

Before I do this, I need to get a better understanding of what server specs I'd need to run & also the software needed on the servers.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Many Thanks,
Nick

Nick,
Broadsoft by Broadwork comes with SUN or IBM Hardware... unless you want to develop your own stuff with Asterisk... but you still need to think not just about server switching server or pbx... but more about your business model what you want to do with voip

Nick,
Broadsoft by Broadwork comes with SUN or IBM Hardware... unless you want to develop your own stuff with Asterisk... but you still need to think not just about server switching server or pbx... but more about your business model what you want to do with voip

Thanks for the info, I haven't seen or heard of Broadsoft but I'll take a look around.

Well, at the moment it's a bit sketchy on what I want to do, I just want to set up a VOIP server and mess around with it before I decide to go further.

Broadsoft is used by Logic Voice, Verizon, AT&T and many other big boys.

Best thing would be to get a cheap dedicated server, install Ubuntu + asterisk + freePBX and there you go. I run multiple asterisk Vm's under Ubuntu KVM and they run great. I always have one vm to test new features and dial plan before exporting them to production pbx.

I made a nice how-to for ubuntu + asterisk if you want.

It is also very important to have a low latency network - The lowest the better the quality.

Take a look at PBX in a flash. It's a Asterisk distribution with a easy to use GUI. All you need to do is setup your trunks and you are ready to go.

http://pbxinaflash.net/

They aslo have server specs on their site as well.

You have no idea what you want to do with voip? Use it for your self, sell it to home users, provide sip trunking for ip pbxes to businesses, provide hosted pbx services...?

If you are serious about voip business, get a box with Centos and ask morbilling to install their software and you will be up and running in no time.

You would still have to form a partnership of some kind with a termination/origination provider to get the actual "dial tone" service and DIDs, as well as figure out your FCC compliance procedures, and choose an asterisk or similar platform to actually power the service (assuming you're talking about selling a hosted pbx type service...?) If you are doing that you'll need a multi-tenant version of asterisk or a platform like broadvoice.

These are just a few of the most important parts of getting set up that come to mind - and likely the most challenging.

trixbox is easy to setup http://www.trixbox.org/ and robust
and they have a VMware appliance that make it very easy to deploy!!!

check out www.freeswitch.org

>> check out www.freeswitch.org
>>

Just using a media server like FreeSWITCH cannot help. Please read first on what you want to do and then you will have better ideas and what to ask here.

Please read up on the SIP RFCs and some good book on VoIP!