Meeting Announcement and Agenda
We had 37 people attend the March meeting. I think that is great considering it was “off cycle”. In January we had 23, in February we had 30. So, that’s a good trend. We’ve also had as many as 22 people in our “virtual meeting” at irc.freenode.net #gatorlug.
Several budding engineers are thinking about ways to move the presentation display so it will be easier for a group that large to see it more clearly.
The group consensus was to extend the Logo submission period until the next meeting (April, 19). It was suggested to me that I should accept votes from people who send their vote to the meeting with someone who can vouch for it (if they can’t make it in person). I’m still thinking about that. I’m pretty sure I *don’t* want to take votes electronically. But, if someone wants to send me an argument for it, I’ll consider it.
We’ll try to have icecast working for the audio in time for the April 19 meeting.
Michael Crown from the VoIP Connection did a presentation for the group and donated the following equipment to support the group:
This equipment is brand new and we will auction it off at the April 19th LUG meeting. Michael is also making a five percent discount available. Use the coupon code 'gatorlug'. If you are in the market for VoIP equipment please consider The VoIP Connection to thank Michael for his donation to the group.
I'd also like to thank Bill Merriam for his presentation. The bit about putting telemarketers together in a conference call was hilarious.
Here are some useful Asterisk links that were discussed at the meeting.
http://www.thevoipconnection.com
http://www.asterisk.org
http://www.voip-info.org
http://gatorlug.billmerriam.com
Bill has also posted some great links in an article here.
Finally Updated!
OK, here's my picks for VOIP Providers with Gainesville numbers. Sorry for the delay but I figured I'd better get something posted soon or someone might come looking for me. :)
One tip I can share is that I have spent a lot of time on Freenode IRC in #FreePBX. It's a great place to meet people and see how Asterisk is being deployed firsthand.
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Definitions/Criteria
Some of the things you want to look for in a DID Provider:
Affordable DID (Direct Inward Dial) Numbers
# of Channels: The number of channels that can simultaneously be used. Some providers limit channels per DID, some limit them per account. Pay close attention and make sure to ask what the number of channels you will get is and make sure they can clarify what the cap is.
SIP/IAX2 Connectivity for Asterisk: Do they allow Asterisk on their network? Some block asterisk because it has a tendency to be greedy of their resources. Not to mention it can trunk an entire business using a residential VOIP trunk, and they lose out on money. :)
Hard/Soft Limits or quotas on minutes used: Are there any minimum or maximums before overage fees are assessed?
Control Panel: Can you instantly add/remove services online via a control panel, or do you have to put in a support ticket and wait to get anything done? More specifically, are they the real provider or is this a middleman/reseller?
Failover: If your circuit is down, can they forward your DID numbers to another PSTN line? This is useful for residential and critical for business.
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Pay-as-you-go Category
1) My favorite pick and The #1 overall-value winner is Vitelity. They met all my criteria and won hands down. Their per-minute rates make not going with an unlimited plan actually affordable. They are currently running a special, you can make up your own toll free number (provided it's available) and they're waiving the $10 connection fee for this week only (through 11/13 I believe). Toll Free DID's are only 0.50/month and incoming calls on your toll free DID's are 0.019/minute (which is down from their previous 2.5c/minute).
Vitelity's Gainesville numbers are on Level-3's backbone and start at 1.49/month and $0.011/minute (yes that's 1.1 cent per minute) but be careful as some GNVFL DID's have different per minute rates. One other caveat is they won't help you tweak your IAX2 settings. Any complaints about call quality on IAX will have them immediately tell you to switch to SIP. Otherwise I've been very impressed with them as a provider and use them for my home office and at work.
2) TelIAX. Pay as you go, but a little more expensive per minute and per month on the DID's. They also offer unlimited plans BUT they've got a "softcap" of 1500 minutes after which they will start hassling about overages. Because TNSTAAFL.
3) Junction Networks. They are much more pricey in the per-minute department but they have a huge level of redundancy and failovers. They are marketing themselves towards business customers only.
Honorable Mentions:
1) VoipSTREET - Asterisk/Trixbox friendly.
2) VoicePulse Connect - features sliding scale rates based on the market you're calling to/from. Also geared for Asterisk. NOTE: This is different from standard VoicePulse.
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"Unlimited" Category
1) Viatalk. They don't "officially support" Asterisk, but they don't block it from their network, either. I have not tried them, but they have reasonable rate plans and I have read good reviews in their favor.
2) Broadvoice. While their pricing is attractive, their attitudes suck, and they won't help you get connected with Asterisk. It is touch and go, they are constantly changing their system as they grow and it breaks asterisk. There are tons of asterisk people out there who use them, but it takes a lot of tweaking and hair-pulling to get the service to work consistently. Just ask jwiens. :)
3) TelaSIP - This one has had mixed reviews. Need to do more research on this one.
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Stay-far-away Category
1) "Sellvoip.net" aka Blue Voice Networks. This is a two-man operation. I signed up and have been unable to get my DID to work with them. Outgoing calls seem to work, but I can't register with any of their SIP servers. They are a paid advertiser on trixbox.org, but they were so overwhelmed with business that they can't handle it all. Avoid them for now until their growing pains subside.
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Disclaimer
This is by no means a complete list of VOIP providers. It is a dynamic and growing business market. VOIP should not be considered a primary means of telephone connectivity. E911 service is not always available. Furthermore, the reliability of the connection rests primarily with your internet provider, so should it go out, your VOIP will too. As things change I'll be sure to update what I find.