atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums VOIP Phones & IP PBX VoIP & Cloud Phones, Hosted PBX, General IP Phones Opinions on Trixbox??

A guy I have been working with for some time wants me to partner with him selling Trixbox. He swears by the system. From what he has shown me, it seems to be very feature rich. I was wondering if you guys had anything to say about its reliability and such.

Trixbox is as reliable as you make it. The customer needs support from a business that understands telephony and networking.

Yes, the system is incredibly feature rich and best of all, no keycodes required! We've installed about a half-dozen so far and they seem totally reliable when utilized with new hardware and Sangoma cards.

The only issues we've had to deal with are in relation to SIP trunks but if you're just using PRI or analog lines, Trixbox is quite comparable to a typical TDM KSU or PBX.

The biggest gotcha: don't expect to build a "square" system with line 1, 2, 3 on every phone. It has been done but does not work properly.

BTW - If you go ahead I would highly recommend Aastra phones for the deployment.

We sell Trixbox as well (among other solutions). It is very feature rich and extremely extensible through the use of AGI scripting. Its very easy to tie IVRs in with databases and other applications depending on business need -- for example, do stock lookups or ticket status updates.

We've got quite a few installed with no real issues related to the system itself, always vendor issues or network issues. We've settled on Dell servers, Dell PoE switches, Fortigate firewalls, and Aastra or Polycom phones with very good luck. Redoing the entire network to support a solid VoIP implementation isn't cheap, but the customer is also (usually) getting a much-upgraded data network over what they had.

Yep, you're not going to get SLA on Trixbox (reliably) at this point. There are some people working towards that goal and it sort of works, but I wouldn't call it mainstream-ready yet. If that's a deal killer for the client -- there's other options that would be a better fit.

As long as you use quality hardware, set up the data network correctly, and follow their best practices, its rock solid. We only do the Pro version so that's what I can speak to -- it does use a stripped down / hardened CentOS and Asterisk core that's not bleeding edge, but stable.

Like any other VoIP system -- it has its place. Use it for what its designed for and I think you'll be very pleased. Try to fit it in somewhere where it isn't a fit, and you'll have issues.

TrixBox is what I would consider fine for most common business use. I couldn't really recommend it if you needed to handle hundreds of lines or run a busy call center. Probably the biggest thing you will have to deal with is lack of a reliable SLA/BLF on the phones, and call parking/pick-up is different. It is a PBX and not a KSU. Other then that it will be capable of providing almost everything else you want from a phone system.

I prefer SuperMicro servers, Sangoma telephony interfaces, and Polycom desk phones. I don't mind Snom phones but just have a preference for Polycom. As far as the network environment goes I like HP ProCurve. The problem with Dell is you can never be sure who's making the switch that week. I believe they like to switch between NetGear, Cisco, and Foundry depending upon what you are buying that week. I also like the free software updates and lifetime warranty with ProCurves.

If you are considering all your options then I would also recommend you look into Elastix. It uses the same front-end configuration wizard (FreePBX) as TrixBox but they don't have a commercial open-source version. Instead they have one software release with all the features in it and make their money through selling support and development.

Just my 2 cents