Posts made by brandon220

@Breffni-Potter Of course. I don't worry about not getting paid. I get a check in the mail 2 days after I submit an invoice.

I am slowly weaning them off of the MSP. I do way more now than before. Really, all that is left for them to manage is the mail server. I am afraid to "get in the middle" until it is migrated to one of the hosts as a VM.

@DustinB3403 They were there on recommendation from another company. I try to avoid touching their mail server because it is very fragile. To put it in worse perspective - they were set up as a workgroup with approximately 100 users until 2011 when I came in and migrated everything to a domain on New Years Eve. You would have to see it to believe it.

@scottalanmiller Yes, going by strictly memory though - they were running Exchange 2010 on bare metal (2008 server) and migrated to 2013 on bare metal again but with 2012. No VM for the email. I honestly don't believe there are backups for the Exchange either. If there are, I don't know about it - and I know their network very well for not being employed by them.

@DustinB3403 We are long time friends and he trusts me completely. I have helped their company over the years and made great changes for them. In fact, one of the "higher up" managers had him call me last Friday to thank me for some of the changes I recommended and implemented. He said it has saved them money and avoided constant issues they were having prior to the changes. Craziest part is that while I was there making the changes for the better is exactly when said MSP was remotely creating more issues. They were on speaker in the server room for hours and hours and I heard every word.

I think the main item they handle is the exchange server. They set it up originally. The MSP hosed it up as well a few months ago and had to get Microsoft engineers involved. IIRC it was down about 8 hours. Again, I don't know their rates or what is in the contract.

Yes, the company he works for pays them. They have an agreement, but I don't know the details.

I introduced a friend to Hyper-V as he was wasting resources on physical servers. I installed Hyper-V Server on 2 new host machines and helped him migrate a few servers. A few weeks later, I went back to help with a firewall issue. While I was away, his normal MSP had him blow out my installs and load 2012 Server (not R2) and the Hyper-V role. They said it was easier for them to manage remotely. I'm still puzzled.

@WLS-ITGuy I planned on using a gateway versus the card/cards. I may still pick up a couple for my lab. I'll keep you in mind. The prices on them are all over the place.

I'm planning on deploying 24 SFF machines for a school computer lab. The limited space they have is a big factor. Plan on mounting them on the back of the monitors. Plenty of horsepower for their workload.

I bought an Asus laptop - the most expensive one at the time. It exceeded the requirements to run CAD software. It was horrible. It would hang, freeze, shut down, etc. straight out of the box. Replaced with a new one. Same model. It did the same thing as the other. Returned it and used the money to purchase an HP. I too will never buy Asus again.

Again, I have no issue with running FreePBX as a VM or on a cloud provider such as Vultr. I am meeting the powers-that-be on Wednesday to discuss a pair of host servers to replace their aging physical servers. The pbx VM would be no problem.

I've had the software running about 2 months as a VM in Hyper-V 2016 with zero issues. I've kept it up to date and monitored it. It has 1 vCPU and 4G RAM.

Back to the subject of letting a communications company do the install/setup.... Aside from myself, the only other local company will happily sell them an Avaya system. That's exactly what I'm trying to avoid.

@NetworkNerd The internet bandwidth is 100/100 from AT&T. Everything was analog but I plan to port everything to a SIP provider with the exception of the single fax line. Because I have to have the gateway as well, I can use the fax line as a failover should the internet go down and they need to make an E911 call. I know everyone has cell phones but it's also a CYA thing.

@JaredBusch
I'm definitely not keeping back info on purpose. As for the models and quantity:
S300 x 2
S400 x 21
S500 x 4

The 300s will be for the MDF and a meeting room. The 400s will be in classrooms for the teachers. The 500s will be for staff/admin.

@JaredBusch
The intercom is already spec'd and has the amplifier, interface, etc. I just have to provide them the FXO.

I really appreciate the feedback. I have zero issues running it as a VM.

Don't cringe - I also have to have a gateway device to utilize an FXO/FXS to tie the new "PBX" into the building intercom. This is not my choice but is a requirement of the vendor. I tried to convince them to use the phones as an intercom but the other parts were bid as part of a construction job. I have NO control over the other components. I just have to make everything work.

As for the phones - I have heard Yealink is good kit but a vendor gave us a quote on the Sangoma phones that were very competitive. Nothing has been purchased yet but will be soon.

I do value my client. I will be maintaining the system so I have no issue learning it from start to finish.

I will be purchasing a pair of VM hosts around the same time as the VOIP equipment. I could easily put FreePBX on one of the hosts. I thought about it a lot because the cost of the appliance could go towards the cost of the new servers. I just assumed there were more benefits "license-wise" to purchasing a Sangoma appliance versus just downloading their software. I have not purchased anything yet so the options to have a VM is still an option.

I run an ERL at home and I recommend them too for other SMB/home use. They just work, work well, and are very affordable.

Whataburger patty melt for lunch. Pizza for dinner. You know....healthy stuff!

After many, many hours of research and discussions, I have convinced one of my clients to give FreePBX a try. I'll be honest in saying I have no "real world" experience with it other than testing it in a VM at home. I've worked with plenty legacy PBX equipment - all the major players that come to mind.
They were in the market for a new system and looked to me to give them ideas. At first, I was going to go with Cisco, but I couldn't justify the cost to implement a 25 extension system. Next was Avaya. I have a few clients with the IPOffice 500 system and they have no complaints. I am trying to get away from the "nickel and dime you for everything" model and vendor lock-in too. FreePBX feels like a good fit. I believe we will go with a Sangoma appliance and phones. I though about running it as a VM but they only have 1 legacy server (physical) and no VM host. The cost of a host to run VMs outweighs the appliance cost.
I don't mind learning on-the-fly and will gain tons by setting up the new system. Anyway, enough rambling. If you folks have any pointers or advice, feel free to blast away!