Setting up a PBX for Israel<->US communication

[ik]

On Sat, Jan 31, 2009 at 5:49 AM, Ori Berger <linux-il at orib.net> wrote:
> Least year, there was a thread discussing set up of an asterisk system,
> which included a description by Arik Baratz (see e.g.
> <http://www.mail-archive.com/linux-il@cs.huji.ac.il/msg52213.html> and
> <http://www.mail-archive.com/linux-il@cs.huji.ac.il/msg52276.html>)
>
> I am planning to set up something similar, and before I embark, wanted to
> ask anyone on the list if they have anything to add to that discussion. From
> looking around, it seems that:
>
> - VPSLink is still the cheapest VPS host at $8/month (or $80/year) for
>  64MB of memory. It seems like the OpenVZ package is better suited
>  than the Xen package, being less resource intensive. And from past
>  experience I would bet on Debian -- however, can anyone here share
>  their experience (Arik?). Will "apt-get install asterisk" be enough,
>  or will I have to compile everything myself?

If you are only going to install it for VoIP without any PRI/FXO
support then yes, if you require to also provide support for
PRI/FXO/FXS then you will require to compile the dahadi/zaptel drivers
(they are kernel drivers so m-a can help you with it after using make
menu to choose what to compile.

>
> - grnvoip still seems like the cheapest termination service - but
>  only provides SIP connection, whereas voipjet, still competitive,
>  provides only IAX2. Any recommendation here? IAX2 is supposed to
>  be less resource intensive than SIP, but I don't know if that'll
>  matter on a 64MB machine routing at most two calls.

IAX2 require only one UDP port, while SIP requires a big range of
ports to be open.
However you can use tunneling with SIP, so it will work only with
"one" port (good for NAT and firewalls).

Personally I prefer IAX2, because it is less complex and less security
hell, but they both doing the work well.

>
> - didww.com is competitive on DIDs ($3/month for 077- number in IL,
>  $10/month for 03- number, $2/month US number), but other such as
>  diamondcard.us provide same prices, and also do termination (although
>  not as cheaply as grnvoip or voipjet).
>
> - Any positive or negative experiences routing SMS between those
>  systems?
>
> Does anyone have experience, specific software versions and/or configuration
> scripts to share with regards to such a setup?
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Ori.
>

Ido