I have Starplus STS and I am trying to deploy Asterisk to work with it. Did anyone here do it?
Potential problems, suggestions, is it possible at all? Even though I use STS for 3+ years (can make changes in programming myself for the most part) and play with Asterisk for quite a while I am still very new in telephony. My reasoning for such project is: save my investments into Vodavi equipment, have Vodavi stuff as my back up. Since I am just starting I will have lots of questions...Thanks in advance to those who can help!
What is the reasoning to using an IP system in the first place? The STS (for the most part) is a rock solid product for a business application that is not in need of IP features. If you are looking for a true replacement for a digital key system, I believe the Asterisk will fall short for you. However, you could make it work. For deploying it alongside the STS I have not herd of that, but others here can probobly help you out more.
Steve
Welcome to the board, Oleg! I don't think you'll find a lot of help for configuring the Asterisk on this site. Most of the participants on this site are telecom professionals and quite frankly, don't have the time to mess with Asterisk.
However, you could use a couple of ATA's (Sipura, Cisco, etc...) to connect to a CO port on the STS. Good luck.
Thank you for all answers / opinions.
I totally agree: STS is a rock solid product and I love it. There are at least two reasons why I want Asterisk to work for me as well.
1. STS has limitations 24 CO's 48 STA right? By deploying Asterisk I can go beyond this.
2. Other locations of our company has to be a part of our phone set up. Meaning people there would have extensions just like in central office.
I could continue...
On the other hand, as I said in my original post, I do not want to waste money and time we invested into Vodavi. Again I like this rock solid product (STS). It is a good back up solution if something goes wrong with Asterisk.
Since STS can work with PBX/Centrex and Asterisk is a PBX I suspect that it is possible to make them work together.
Oleg good luck with your project. You may have to bounce between the Vodavi and Voip forums to get your answers. There are a few people here that work with Asterisk and lots of Vodavi help. Intergrating the systems together is new for most people I am trying to learn that process myself. Ask what questions you have and keep us posted maybe we'll all learn something. :thumb:
Oh! BTW I did configure Asterisk. I do have a live working setup in two locations looking like one office. The question was about how to make it working with STS. I guess if those telecom professionals would find time to mess with it they would be impressed with what Asterisk has to offer.
Thanks metelcom! I just today was talking to the guy who helps me with STS (when I can't find solution myself - today it was no documented [644] function) about the integration and he said that he doesn't see it to be a problem. So next week or so I expect myself to try it - I'll inform on progress. Did you do anything already to make it work? Any suggestions? Mistakes to avoid? Thanks again!
I am just setting up my first 2 boxes. My main goal is to use the Asterisk for auto attendant/voicemail and Voip to remote extensions.
I beleive there are two ways you can intergrate with the STS
FXS port in Asterisk going to CO port on STS
FXO port in Asterisk connected to SLT port on STS
Yes this is the way I am going to do this
> FXS port in Asterisk going to CO port on STS
and again acording to my outside STS consultant it should work just fine and then it will be only the matter of configuring the right way the dial plan in asterisk (extensions.conf) and assigning ringing stations on STS which may be challenging depending on the goals I (well - you)
have in mind. I'll keep posts here...
Oleg,did you ever have any luck setting this up. I have a STS with one SLT hanging off of it going to a Asterisk server. I then have 8 lines off that at home offices.
Currently the home offices can call outside CO lines or internal extensions without a problem. However, Internal extentions on the STS system cannot call the voip lines.
I planned on fixing this by setting up a incoming calls conf for asterisk that will answer incoming calls. Then tell the person to dial an extension.
So for Internal STS users to call a VoIP user they will have to first dial the SLT extension then it will prompt for the voip extension they want. Kinda cludgy but think it will work. Only big problem I have with integration between Asterisk and STS is callerid don't work on SLT ports
Please advise if you got anywhere with your solution.
Thanks
PS> Here is an email reply with my setup might help anyone looking to integrate STS and asterisk. I like STS but need to have a few remote phones at home offices etc.. Asterisk is a cheap way to do this using one of our existing linux servers and a $14 X100p card from ebay connected to a SLT port on the STS:
I thought about using CO but then you would not be able to dial say "100" from VoIP and send the call to STS extension 100. Right now I have something like this on my asterisk:
Extensions.conf------
[general]
static=yes
writeprotect=no
[globals]
TRUNK=Zap/g1 ; Trunk interface
[sip]
ignorepat => 9
exten => _1XX,1,Dial(Zap/1/w${EXTEN})
exten => 200,1,Dial(SIP/voip0,20)
exten => 201,1,Dial(SIP/voip1,20)
exten => 202,1,Dial(SIP/voip2,20)
exten => 203,1,Dial(SIP/voip3,20)
exten => 210,1,Dial(SIP/officetrail0,20)
exten => 211,1,Dial(SIP/officetrail1,20)
exten => 212,1,Dial(SIP/officetrail2,20)
.....
exten => 8,1,Dial(Zap/1/)
exten => 8,2,Congestion
exten => 9,1,Dial(Zap/1/w802)
exten => 9,2,Congestion
----------
So currently this works and if a VoIP user wants to dial a user on STS they just dial the extension, say 100 or 102 ..etc from the voip phone. Then it sends the call out the trunk (X100p) which is connected to the SLT port on the STS.
So hitting 9 on voip will get them an outside PSTN line to dial an outside line. Hitting 8 will get the internal bbbbbbbbbbbbeeeeeee noise when u pick up a Vodavi STS phone which then will let you dial say voicemail etc... If a VoIP user wants to dial another Voip they just dial the 211 or 201 etc...
So my only remaining complaints with this setup are:
A) No CLID into/out of VoiP due to SLT port not supporting
B) STS phone users cannot dial VoIP users from the STS phones.
To fix B, I am thinking about setting up another line as a CO Line going to my asterisk then whenever a starplus user wants to dial a VoIP user they just have to pick up that CO Line. My other option, is to just create a incoming call menu system on the VoIP / SLT port on the asterisk. Then STS user will just have to dial the SLT port extension then will be prompted to dial the VoIP extension they want (200,201, etc) ....'
I started playing with the later and have something like this thus far for a test:
exten => 40,1,Answer
exten => 40,2,Background(this-call-may-be)
exten => 40,3,Background(recorded)
exten => 40,4,Background(for-quality-purposes)
exten => 40,5,Goto(submenu,s,1)
exten => 1,1,Goto(default,voip1,1)
This is just a test so I dial 40 from VoIP then if I hit 1 it will send me to voip1 user. Still needs some work as it's not working right.
Let me know if you can add anything to any of this and hope it helps.
-Phil
Hello xpman,
thank you for sharing your experience. I'm very new to traditional telephony and researching on the subject Vodavi-Asterisk integration. If you did not read it yet, I would recommend you to check
https://www.voip-info.org/wiki/view/Asterisk+legacy+integration. There are few integration projects described which may give you some new ideas.
In my case I would like to integrate using dual T1 card in Asterisk box, which will be connected by crossover T1 cable to Vodavi and other port to Phone company T1. I believe it will allow CLID between systems and flexible use of traditional T1 and VOIP by both legacy and VOIP phones. I'm totally unaware how to program Vodavi and if somebody could point me into the right direction I would greatly appreciate it.
Thank you,
Vadim