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asterisk_boy
join:2003-11-25
Brooklyn, NY

asterisk_boy to tbclark

Member

to tbclark

Re: Very happy with Asterisk and iConnectHere (ICH

The messages on this chipset when involving Linux discussions seem to be SEVERELY against using any boards having this chipset in it. Apparently Linux either has NO or poor drivers for this winmodem board.

I'd vote with getting RELIABILITY versus doing it on a string budget and spending 6 weeks tweeking a driver.


yes, and that's why it is important to support digium by buying their card -- they spent a lot of time and money writing an free, open-source driver for it. I'm not talking about a regular modem driver, I don't doubt that existing linmodem drivers for it are poor at best. what digium wrote is a specific voice-channel driver that takes advantage of the card's full-duplex abilities, and trust me, they wrote a damned good driver.

there is no question of reliability, if you buy digium's version of the card they stand behind it 100%.

the other nice thing about digium is that they have always been excellent about exchanging hardware at no cost to you if it ever does start acting a little buggy, and even letting people upgrade for free when a newer model comes out.

3 months ago I bought the devkit-tdm from digium. 3 months ago I was unemployed and really could not afford it, but I bought it anyway. later I found out about the x101p, and I was a little annoyed, but I never felt turned off. I am glad that the money I spent goes to support development of asterisk. I did not feel mad or that I had been tricked; after I thought about it for a while, I understood exactly the reasoning behind the x101p.

like any winmodem, the value is in the driver and not the card itself. does the fact that the driver is free and open-source make that value any less? I do not think so.
tbclark
join:2003-08-08
Durham, NC

tbclark to joako

Member

to joako
said by joako:
Have you tested faxing with ICH? Have you tried setting caller ID numbers with ICH?

Re faxing--yes (receiving machine) and no (sending machine). I only tried once, and the receiving machine received a good transmission and was happy. The sending machine generated an error Status: Invalid response to EOP and considered the fax unsent. Since that was the last transmisison, the receiving machine did not care. I would guess that, with a little tweaking, it would work much of the time.

Interesting question about caller ID. Yes (VoicePulse) and no (ICH). VoicePulse accepts cid information via iax2 and subsequently sends it out with the call. ICH does not. I sent an email to customer service, and their response was "not at this time." I intend to pursue it, though. It probably wouldn't take more than 5 lines of code, and there are significant benefits.

joako
Premium Member
join:2000-09-07
/dev/null

joako to tbclark

Premium Member

to tbclark

Re: Very happy with Asterisk and iConnectHere (ICH)

I do not know about the chipset, but I do know that the current "X100P" card that digium is shipping (X101P) is the same (including FCC ID) as this modem: »www.compgeeks.com/detail ··· AMI-IA92
voorj
join:2004-01-04

voorj

Member

Anyone able to configure successfully with the modem above mentioned?

williamray507
No More Mr Nice Guy
Premium Member
join:2001-10-04
Huntington, WV

williamray507

Premium Member

said by voorj:
Anyone able to configure successfully with the modem above mentioned?

I dont know if anyone has but as soon as i get the extra money im going to give it a try.

The Beer
I Love It When A Plan Comes Together
Premium Member
join:2001-07-24
Lincoln, NE

The Beer to tbclark

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to tbclark
You know here is my 2 cents on this...

I bought 4 of the knock off modems to try and get them to work without success, I mainly did this because at that point I had been unsuccessful with Asterisk all together and was not about to give them $100.

I then bought 1 card from Digium and it worked, works great.

Ok now we come down to the Asterisk evil...
Little or no documentation.
The support "Forums" either IRC or the lists will flame you to death for asking any questions.

Ok they have my $100 (They deserve it) if you are willing to learn and loose sleep, it's still worth $100...

Now I would like to connect my packet8 line up, is that worth another $100? Not really.

It would be nice if the dev kit came with a way to make your own modem, even if it had some kind of "We will kill you if you tell" attached.

There are obviously a group of people who know how to make the $10 modems work, they just don't share, Should they?
Would you pay Digium if they did?
Doubt it.

joako
Premium Member
join:2000-09-07
/dev/null

joako to tbclark

Premium Member

to tbclark
In the file: zaptel/wcfxo.c, at Line 946 you'll see this:

static struct pci_device_id wcfxo_pci_tbl[] __devinitdata = {
{ 0xe159, 0x0001, 0x8085, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, (unsigned long) &wcx101p },
{ 0x1057, 0x5608, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, (unsigned long) &wcx100$ };

change it to

Now change the wcfxo_pci_tbl[] in zaptel/wsfxo.c to:
static struct pci_device_id wcfxo_pci_tbl[] __devinitdata = {
{ 0xe159, 0x0001, 0x8085, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, (unsigned long) &wcx101p },
{ 0xe159, 0x0001, 0x8086, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, (unsigned long) &wcx101p },
{ 0x1057, 0x5608, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, (unsigned long) &wcx100$ };

This is required because the PCI vendor ID is different in the Digium card. But the cards are otherwise identical.
Templar
Premium Member
join:2003-12-11
San Jose, CA

Templar to joako

Premium Member

to joako
said by joako:
They change the PCI vendor ID via a resistor, simply modify one byte of the source code and it will detect it as the X100P

and later:
said by joako:
This is required because the PCI vendor ID is different in the Digium card. But the cards are otherwise identical.

Looking at your modified source code, the change from 0x8085 to 0x8086 appears to be the one byte you referred to earlier. The resistor change was apparently used to produce the revised "pseudo-vendor" code in the much more expensive Digium card. This was an obvious move to make sure the cheaper card would not be recognized and, therefore, unusable. Hardly a way for a company to gain support and customer loyalty.

underattack
Join Dshield.Org
join:2003-06-23

underattack

Member

Re: Very happy with Asterisk and iConnectHere (ICH


Hardly a way for a company to gain support and customer loyalty.


I disagree. The cards sold by Digium are sold with a given level in support. You buy more then just a board and some electronics soldered to it. A change in the PCI ID is appropriate to later identify Digium cards if there should be a support issue. Otherwise, you buy 1 Digium card, and 10 'no names'. As a no name card fails, you just send it back to Digium.
Templar
Premium Member
join:2003-12-11
San Jose, CA

Templar

Premium Member

Your thoughts are interesting, but unconvincing. The main issue here is: are the facts correct as they have been presented, i.e., Digium is selling a very inexpensive card with a questionable modification which only gives added value to the modifier (Digium) and not the end user.

The financial support of Digium to continue to develop * is, in my mine, another matter altogether. Many software companies today started as "shareware" producers. Remember them - they "gave away" programs and we paid them what we felt the program was worth if, and only if, we wanted to.

I said earlier in this thread that:
quote:

However, if I were to buy an Wildcard X100 for the price Digium is asking and then later learn that I was actually shipped a cheap PCI modem of which I already have several, I would be totally turned off. If this is the case, I would strongly suggest that someone send me a private email thru this forum (possibly from Digium) and clarify this matter or risk losing someone who may well become a strong supporter downstream.
My feelings have not changed since then. If you wish to win me over demonstrate that what has been alleged is not true. Otherwise, save the "drum beating" for another time.
Templar

Templar to underattack

Premium Member

to underattack
said by underattack:
A change in the PCI ID is appropriate to later identify Digium cards if there should be a support issue.
My experience is that companies want the serial number, and in many cases, proof of purchase in the case of "a support issue", rather, than making modifications to the equipment.

Also, many companies are charging separately for support rather that "hiding" it in excessive cost markups which you seem to be implying is most of the value of the Digium card.
voorj
join:2004-01-04

voorj to tbclark

Member

to tbclark

Re: Very happy with Asterisk and iConnectHere (ICH)

said by tbclark:

So if you're thinking about building Asterisk--go ahead. It's well worth it. I love the call supervision it provides. And there are some very good choices for voip providers.

Could you please explain how to connect your home phone line to the asterisk box and asterisk system to pstn/ich/vp? I am really interested in h/w parts you are using. I understand that you are using x100p digium card. How many of them and if you are using any other h/w what are they? I am planning to build a low cost home PBX system.

joako
Premium Member
join:2000-09-07
/dev/null

joako

Premium Member

The X100P cards connect one phone line each. If you want to connect analog phones to asterisk you need either something like a Cisco ATA 186, Sipura SPA 2000 or the Digium TDM400P (which I would recommend for use with ADSI phones, nothing else would be compatible)

Or you can just use IP phones, but stay away from Grandstream.
tbclark
join:2003-08-08
Durham, NC

tbclark to voorj

Member

to voorj

Re: Very happy with Asterisk and iConnectHere (ICH

I took a different hardware approach. I already had a number of analog phones in my house, 2 incoming lines from Verizon, and an fxo doorphone. So I watched on ebay for several weeks and got an Adtran TA750 channel bank for about $250, then bought a Digium T100P to go with it. Unfortunately, I don't think there's any way to get a good price on the T100P. I still saved money on Asterisk, though, because I already had a TalkSwitch 48 and sold it for somewhat more than the new Asterisk hardware cost me.

Haribole
@ibm.com

Haribole

Anon

this discussion is very interesting. I am working on putting together an Asterisk system soon. was wondering if the the winmodem card's "line-in" and "line-out" ports function as FXO and FXS ports?

thanks

alphac
@pool80180.interbusin

alphac to tbclark

Anon

to tbclark
Greetings from Italy!
I've buyed an intel card from computer geeks, I'll try to make them work with asterisk, did anyone tried yet?

I won't pay 100$ for entertainment use... sorry
powercx
join:2003-11-26
Fremont, CA

powercx to tbclark

Member

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Re: Very happy with Asterisk and iConnectHere (ICH)

I have 2 unix box that will be converted into Linux Redhat 9.0 and will be getting 2 Digium Card. I have no clue how to use Linux, is there a site for dummies that I could look up online like webmonkey.com for programmers?

The Beer
I Love It When A Plan Comes Together
Premium Member
join:2001-07-24
Lincoln, NE

The Beer

Premium Member

Yes A real nice gentleman named Andy Powell wrote this document, it will take you from blank CDR's and a PC to a working Asterisk system (For the most part)

»www.automated.it/guideto ··· risk.htm

I used his guide to build my first box, Met Andy at VON last fall and I'm sure he would like any and all feedback on his document you could give him!