Need help setting up a VoIP PBX system for your business or just want the flexibility of one for you home phone then read on.
If you’d prefer to have us setup your phone system then skip to the ‘What are our options’, section or have a look at our pre-built systems. If you want to do it yourself here’s how to do it.
Initial preparation and setup
- Download the latest stable version of Freepbx from https://www.freepbx.org/downloads/
- Burn the ISO to a bootbale device such as a CD or DVD.
- The ISO is a complete Linux image configured with Freepbx and as much as you could run the configured operating system as a Linux O/S it’s best to think of this as a single application installation, a bit like a Docker image. As such if you loaded it as the base O/S on a new computer, that’s all the new computer would do – just run Freepbx. Unless you have a low spec computer & a lot of extensions/users, then you may want to run it as a virtual machine in something like Virtualbox. Google Virtualbox and you’ll find lots of information on how to install it and what it can do for you. For the purposes of this ‘tutorial’ I’ll assume you’re running it as a VM in Virtualbox but the principle id the same.
- Create a New VM
- Assign the ISO image to the Virtual machine. This will ensure when the VM boots the ISO image boot sector will be read and begin the installation process for Freepbx or specifically the Linux OS that is hosting the Freepbx application.
- Follow the instructions and make a note of the login and passwords.
- Once complete reboot the VM.
- Once it’s rebooted you should have the following prompt in the VM window
- At this stage your Freepbx instance is up and running. Freepbx runs an internal web server for the administration GUI. Find out the IP of your VM and point a browser at the address. All being well you’ll get the
admin screen as per the picture - At this stage you’re ready to setup Freepbx to your requirements.
Connecting to an outside trunk provider
Will be published soon as part 2…
If you simply want to use Freepbx internally and not have the facility to receive or make outside calls then this section doesn’t apply. All you need to do in that instance is setup your Users and Extensions and off you go. Lots of information available so I’ll let you google that.
If however you do want to make and receive outside calls you will need to subscribe to a trunking provider and purchase Direct in dial (DID) numbers to associate with your Freepbx system and users.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][/vc_section][vc_row][vc_column parallax=”content-moving-fade” parallax_image=”344″][vcex_heading text=”What are your options?”][vc_column_text font_size=”20″]Our PBX of choice for providing VoIP connections is the Asterisk back-end with FreePBX for web based administration and additional security. Below are the three main options when considering your VoIP solution. Ongoing support and set-up can be provided by Lucitech Computer Solutions (LCS) for all options.
Assisted
- 6 DID numbers
- 1 PBX VM
- 1 EC2 Cloud Instance
- 1 static IP
- Configuration
- *Support available
[/vcex_pricing][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vcex_pricing plan=”Managed” cost=”from £50″ plan_size=”16″]
- 6 DID numbers
- 1 PBX VM
- 1 EC2 Cloud Instance
- 1 static IP
- Configuration
- Administration
- *Support available
[/vcex_pricing][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vcex_pricing plan=”Self Service” cost=”from £20″ plan_size=”16″]
- 3 DID numbers
- 1 PBX VM
- Configuration support
- * Additional support available
Cloud Hosted with web based administration
This solution is possibly the most robust and scalable and doesn’t involve any additional investment in hardware.
All processes are run inside a self contained server hosted in the Cloud e.g. Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) by Amazon Web Services (AWS).
We build a local instance of the Cloud Image with a fully configured PBX ready for deployment. The build can be hosted in a number of ways but for the purpose of this option we’ll focus on EC2 deployment.
AWS supports the following virtualization environment
- VMware — Export an OVF Template on the VMware website
- Citrix — Import and export VMs on the Citrix website
- Microsoft Hyper-V — Overview of exporting and importing a virtual machine on the Microsoft website
- Microsoft Azure — Download a Windows VHD from Azure or Download a Linux VHD from Azure on the Microsoft website
Given our desire to use open-source tools, VMWare is the approach we’ll use. Technically VMWare is a commercial package, but using VMWare Player as a conversion tool, we can migrate our VM from Oracle VirtualBox which is Open Source, to AWS.
It is also possible to export generic OVF files from VirtualBox and this is an alternative approach, but we like to test the instance in multiple environments before deployment.
AWS Deployment
The virtual image will reside in what’s known as a bucket.
We won’t go too far into the details of AWS but essentially a bucket is a storage location. Before anything can be uploaded into this storage a number of service roles need to be created and assigned of which again we’ll not cover here. Suffice to say if we provide VoIP services to you it will be done by our engineers.
Once the image has been uploaded the VM will need to imported at which time a new instance will be available for activation. It’s this instance that will run as a standalone server and manage your VoIP SIP connections.
This is very much a simplified description but hopefully it provides enough detail to give you a feel for how it works.
If this is of interest then please get in touch to discuss the next step. For setups to about six extensions, minimal machine resources are required hence a lower or free service cost. As this is cloud hosted we can also scale the computing resource as required to ensure it continues to deliver a reliable service. Contact us for further details.
Cloud Hosted with LCS Support
This option is identical to the Cloud Hosted with web based administration but with administration provided by us.
We take care of building and hosting your PBX in AWS. You can choose whether to take on the day to day administration of the telephony service or have us do it.
Technical support is also available with flexible plans if your intention is to take on.
Self Hosted
With this option we provide a fully configured server in either a virtual machine or as a disk image.
This can be downloaded from our site, or if you choose to have us manage the set-up we’ll do a site or home visit with the necessary files.
For security reasons we suggest clients run the software in a virtual machine. This creates a contained environment and allows for more targeted security, especially if you’re looking to connect via mobile networks and/or away from your base.
Following the open source ethos, we recommend Oracle VirtualBox which can be downloaded here. Once installed you will be able to import the virtual machine we supply, set-up your firewall and have a fully functional, enterprise level PBX.