Skip to main content

Hotel Phone System (VoIP)

Hotel Phone System (VoIP) Hotel Phone System should be a must for most hoteels or motels, which has been using Analog Phone System(Analog PBX) in past decades.  There were some technical and financial issues if swifting to IP-PBX: 911 service IP-phone expensive than analog hotel phone Ethernet cable running Billing System Solution for replacement: e-911 are supported  VoIP gateway Sharing same Ethernet cable with IPTV A2billing Module for IP-PBX Therefore, you could  build a PBX  for hotels or motels if you are the owner  Analog VoIP Gateway For Hotel Phone System IP phone is recommended because many functions can work only on IP phone, but IP phone still expensive than analog hotel phone. Alternatively, hotels or motels can use VOIP gateway instead. In addtion, no need to run Ethernet cable. Software for For Hotel Phone System Issabel FreePBX FusionPBX You should consider Issabel or FreePBX first:Issabel with very friendly Web console and almost all modules are...
Post a Comment

PBX on Raspberry Pi

PBX on Raspberry Pi




PBX on Raspberry Pi works great, also works on some weaker ARM devices.



Pi PBX

FreePBX on ARM CPU

ARM CPU was only embedded on simple devices to execute light-duty tasks in the past. However geeks contributed much to modify factory firmware and let these devices boot from external USB drives. Arch linux or Debian can work well on them.  Then  Asterisk and FreePBX were successful to be installed. Howerver, Raspberry Pi could run whole Linux system well, afterwards many Pi’s followed.

Below devices were tested:

  • Dockstar
  • Poloplug
  • Goflex Home
  • Goflex Net
  • Raspberry Pi 2
  • Raspberry Pi 3B
  • Raspberry Pi 3B+
  • Raspberry Pi 4
  • Raspberry Pi Zero
  • Raspberry Pi Zero W
  • Orange Pi Zero
  • Orange Pi One
  • Orange Pi PC
  • Orange Pi PC 2

As the CPU on some devices were too weak and on-board memory much limited: 128-256MB,  the installation process was quite painful. It usually took hours to complete it. Such  PBX just works. two or three simultaneous calls may stuck it.

However, except Raspberry Pi Zero,  all Raspberry Pi and Orange Pi we tested could run either FreePBX or FusionPBX well.

Raspberry Pi as PBX server

Rencetly years ARM developped its structure quickly. A famous SBC: Raspberry Pi first generation unveiled on 2012. However, It came with Broadcom BCM2835 CPU and 256MB memory and not powerful, but the price was only 35 dollar.

When Pi 2B unveiled in 2015, people began to be exciting because its CPU became 4-core A7 900MHz Broadcom BCM2837 with 512MB/1GB RAM. Afterwards, many project inlcuding PBX server were started.

PBX can works on Pi 2B smoothly, some people began to challenge Elastix, and finished another PBX project: Î¼Elastix

μElastix

μElastix was released in 2012. It based on 32-bit PC version Elastix. This project stopped very soon after. CentOS and Debian didn’t officially support ARM-CPU and Raspberry Pi, so needed much time to modify, compile and debug.

You can visit here for more information.

Install FreePBX on Raspberry Pi

We can easily install FreePBX on Raspberry Pi 2/3/4 and Zero W, but recommend Pi with 1GB memory as your PBX server. Therefore, Raspberry Pi 3 or 4 is recommended for the sake of better performance.

Let’s start with Raspberry Pi 3B and install FreePBX on it by official instruction.

FreePBX provides detailed tutorials how to install FreePBX on CentOS, Ubuntu, Arch LInux and Debian/Raspbian. Choose what you like to have a try.

Official tutorials for different Linux Distro:

Install FreePBX on CentOS 8

Install FreePBX on Unbuntu 18.04

Install FreePBX onDebian 9.6

Install FreePBX on Arch Linux

FreePBX isn’t totally free. Some commercial modules need to pay, but free modules are enough for small business or home use. 

Install procedure:

  1. Get a 16GB or 32GB micro SD
  2. Download image file of Raspiberry Pi OS from the official website
  3. Write image file to one microSD card by disk writer, like Raspiberry Pi Imager
  4. Creat a blank txt file on boot partition and rename as “SSH” to enable SSH service 
  5. Insert SD card to Raspberry Pi and power on it.
  6. SSH login by user: pi with default password: raspberry, then enable root login and SSH login by root.
  7. Afterwards, install Asterisk and PBX according to the official tutorial for Debian because Orange Pi OS is developped from Debian and has more compatible with Debian packages. 

Install FreePBX 15 on Debian 9.6

PBX on Raspberry Pi with FusionPBX

FusionPBX is another option and could be installed on Raspberry Pi 3/4. FusionPBX is developped from Freeswitch. Its structure is different from Asterisk and FreePBX, so you need some time to learn it.

FusionPBX only supported x86-CPU in the past. Although it could be installed on Raspberry Pi, but there were many bugs. However, FusionPBX can run on Raspberry Pi 3/4 smoothly after its founder updated installing script.

We experienced Trixpbx and Elastix diseappeared in the past.  It’s absolutely worth to take time to put FusionPBX on standby because nobody can guarantee FreePBX free forever, and it will bring funs to learn a new system.

Much easy to install FusionPBX  on Raspberry Pi 3 or 4,  just needs two-command lines.

Install procedure:

  1. Get a 16GB or 32GB micro SD
  2. Download image file of Raspiberry Pi OS, or CentOS, Ubuntu for Raspberry pi first.
  3. Write image file to one microSD card by disk writer, like Raspiberry one Imager ( download from Raspberry Pi official website) or Etcher for other linux.
  4. Creat a blank txt file on boot partition and rename as “SSH” in order to enable SSH service 
  5. Insert SD card to Raspberry Pi and power on it.
  6. SSH login by user: pi with default password: raspberry, enable root login and SSH login by root, then run below commands.
wget -O - https://raw.githubusercontent.com/fusionpbx/fusionpbx-install.sh/master/debian/pre-install.sh | sh;

cd /usr/src/fusionpbx-install.sh/debian && ./install.sh

After installation is completed, terminal will generate user name and password, then open the browser, input IP of raspberry pi and login with username and password.

FusionPBX installed on Ubuntu, FreeBSD and CentOS

Ubuntu 18.04

wget -O - https://raw.githubusercontent.com/fusionpbx/fusionpbx-install.sh/master/ubuntu/pre-install.sh | sh;

cd /usr/src/fusionpbx-install.sh/ubuntu && ./install.sh

FreeBSD

pkg install --yes git

cd /usr/src && git clone https://github.com/fusionpbx/fusionpbx-install.sh.git

cd /usr/src/fusionpbx-install.sh/freebsd && ./install.sh

CentOS

yum install wget

wget -O - https://raw.githubusercontent.com/fusionpbx/fusionpbx-install.sh/master/centos/pre-install.sh | sh

cd /usr/src/fusionpbx-install.sh/centos && ./install.sh

FusionPBX Community Support

As less people sticked with FusionPBX, you might take more time to get community help. Go to below forum for your questions.

FusionPBX on ARM

SD card for Raspberry Pi

Raspberry Pi 3/4 is powerful enough for small office. SD card has limited times for writing/Reading. We recommend to cost a little more to buy Endurance Cards of Samsung or Sandisk for formal uses (office).

Samsung Endurance Card

Sandisk Endurance Card




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

FreePBX vs. FusionFBX

FreePBX vs. FusionFBX FreePBX vs FusionFBX has been being a topic for many years. Both FreePBX and FusionPBX are great projects, but two systems have different sources and architectures. Actually both are the Web-Gui developped from Asterisk and Freeswitch instead of command lines. FreePBX FreePBX  is developped from Asterisk on CentOS Linux, also support other Linux. FreeBPX provides free Distro disk. Most modules of FreePBX are free, but commercial modules need to pay. Some  PBX  projects were also developped from FreePBX, like  Trixbox, Elastix and PBX in a Flash . Pros: Free Distro. Based on CentOS Friendly Web-Gui Easy to use and configure Long History Wide Community  Support Support Arch Linux, Ubuntu, Debian, Raspbian Support both x86 and ARM CPU Good support for telephony hardware Cons: Not all modules are free, some commercial modules need to pay. Web-Gui uses much system resource. However, a powerful ARM-device like Raspberry Pi 4 might not have such p...
Post a Comment
Read more

PBX on Chromebook

PBX on Chromebook PBX on chromebook works great! Especiall for the chromebook with x86 CPU.  Most IP-PBX are developed on x86 PC first. Linux distro also developed on  instruction sets of x86 CPU. Therefore, you’d better to choose an x86 PC or chromebooks for your first PBX server.   Google usually supports chromebooks about 5 years. Afterwards these chromebooks wouldn’t get the update on system, chrome browser and security. Lots of old chromebooks were dumped into 2nd-hand market every year. You could spend less than 50 dollar to get an used or refurbished chromebook from ebay, Amazon or bestbuy. However it will bring security issue if these old chromebooks wouldn’t get securty update from Google. Can we swipe off Chrome OS and install Linux, then modify it to a PBX server? The answer  depends on what chromebook on your hand.  In order to install linux on chromebook, you need to replace factory BIOS by customerized one. Go to  Mr.Chromebox.tech  ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Get a free PBX?

Get a free PBX? Get a free PBX? Absolutely possible if you have some unused old PC, chromebook or ARM-device, but you need basic knowledge on computer and Linux. Free hardware: For a beginner, the cost on hardware might not be a problem because you could build a PBX on virtual machine like VMware or virtualbox. However VMware is not free product, so you can start with free virtualbox. Alternatively, you can use some old unused device or PC to have a try.  Asterisk and freepbx can works on below equipment. Old x86 PC with min. 512MB memory and at least 1GHz x86 CPU Chromebook or Chrombox: need to flash BIOS and boot from external USB drive ARM devices:  below devices were tested. Dockstar Pogolug GoFlex Home and Net Raspberry Pi:  Zero, 2, 3 and 4 Orange Pi: One, PC and PC2 Free software for a Free PBX: FreePBX AsteriskNOW Issabel FusionPBX (Freeswitch) PBXinAFlash OpenSIPs Kamailio OpenPBX 3CX (kind of free) As a beginning, FreePBX is recommended because it has friendly w...
Post a Comment
Read more