Pbxes.com?
 

Can someone please explain the uses of both paid and free accounts on pbxes.com? I saw a demonstration of using it to make video calls with the SipDroid app on Android phones but I've also seen it mentioned here. I'm afraid I don't quite understand what Pbxes will do for me.

I too would appreciate a good concise explanation of the benefits etc. I have been thinking of setting up something for callback, but have failed to see the forest for the tree's.

From the tiny bit of research I have done, and by reading http://www.prepaidgsm.net/forum/call...ading-com.html, I think the main difference between paid and pro seen by people like you and I is callback. I may be wrong, but from what I can make out, in order to setup your own callback server, you need to have at least a Soho account at €3/month. However, that only gives you only one callback channel, and I'm not sure if that is enough. I think there is some confusion about what CLI their system see's depending on whether you are in the country or out.

I'm sure bbob will be able to shed some more light on the matter.

I have been using pbxes for 4 years now.

I was a happy user but not anymore. I use pbxes for all my call, incomming did number, outgoing trunks etc.

Reliability has been become a problem the last year.

First they had lots of trouble with their paris server, too unstable to the point where they closed it.
Some hdd problems on several servers. Seemed like thet were using a simple raid 1 software based.

The have a failsafe system where paid accounts are moved to another server in case a sever has problems. Problem is that this takes time and most of the time it you will notice problems and if you are lucky you could still reach the control panel to move to a different server by hand. Many times this is not possible and you have to wait.

As said I have been using them for 4 years or so and reliability has become less and less. It might be that they fill their servers with free accounts at the cost of paid accounts.

communication is almost zero and rude. So you have to rely on the forum and other users to help you. You should know a bit about configuarion to get it to work.
Price for a premium account is still ok 11 euro but vps servers where you can for example run your own asterisk based pbx like elastix are becoming cheaper and cheaper.

Free account have no callback and premium is limited to 3 callback numbers.

The main problem with callback is caller id. For example my dutch phone can have 3 caller id's depending on network and where I am.

+316xxx
00316xxx
316xxx

This means you will have to fill in all 3 to activate a callback. using these 3 you have used the maximum number of callback number.

For this reason I just setup a dedicated did number that responds to any call and calls me back on my cellphone.

As for videocall I have seen a online demo and looks nice but I don't know if it's really that usefull. Other user has to login to a special page to see the video stream and it's more something they made for themselfs to paly with than really usefull. They could have better spent more time on reliability.

At the end of the year I am looking at moving over to running elastix new 2.0 version on a cloud based vps. This should give me more reliability and more options, no limit to callback numbers.

1 Big advantage also of having your own sever is not sharing an ip with ther users. 1 big pbxes problem is the use of betamax accounts and free minutes. These minutes are limited to an ip address and on pbxes you share this with 50 or60k other users. This really means no free minutes.

Using online pbx you can setup your own cheap callback system.
I am now using smartvoip.com costing 5 eurcents to call a uk mobile.
voipgain.com should even be cheaper at 3 eurocents.

When I would use voicetrading I pay 9 cents but would have the advantage that I could forward callerid of numbers that are forwared to my mobile.

Thanks bbob. I wonder how some of their competition is like. Compare Virtual PBX Services | Virtual PBX, RingCentral, GotVmail | PBXCompare.com

Briefly... I have one short question. I know cloud based computing is generally better but how easy would it be to put together your own dedicated callback server sat in your home? I mean most of us have broadband at home, and leaving a machine sat switched on under your desk doesn't seem like too much of a problem. Could this be set up fairly easily in Asterisk or even another dedicated PC/linux based application?

I guess I'm looking at VOIP from a really novice level, because I understand only about 50% of what bbob has written.
I think I understand this. By doing some other reading I understand that Betamax sometimes permits free call-out to various destinations. From what you wrote I gather that all Pbxes.com users are lumped together and quickly hit a limit for these free minutes. Is that right?

Thanks. That's a pretty good explanation of what virtual PBX does.

Correct when you use betamax at home (not through a pbxserver on the net) you have your own unique ip. Betamax limits free calls based on ip.

When you call thru say pbxes using betamax, betamax sees the ip of the pbxes server. That ip is shared by many users and thus free minutes are shared by many users all using the same ip.

Nice site but when I see the solutions they all seem to come with outbound calling and you can't setup your own outbound provider. Many pbxes are doing this thus limiting you. When you need is just a pbx where you can setup any provider. pbxes.com does have this.

Yes you can setup a small server at home to do the job. But be carefull and check your energy bill. Say your server eats 50 watt per hour = 1.2 kw per day = 438 kw per year. This can cost you 40-60 euro on energy alone. Than writeof of hardware.

But if you only want to use it as callback, trixbox is an open and there are many more open source astersik based solutions you can setup. Asterisk itself is not very user freindely. Trixbox asterisk@home or elastix are a better choice

You are than also not limited to 3 callback numbers like pbxes.com is doing.
downside you need to spent some time setting it up and do some security settings so the system is not hacked.

Good point about energy consumption. That's something we never really think about these days! ;) I recently have also been switching the router off while leaving the house, so there would be the cost of that to take into consideration as well.

Anyhow, I think I have an old laptop that can be used for this.. though they're not really designed for continuous operation. It only draws around 15W, though with the CRT off, it will draw even less. In any case, that should draw less than 100 KWh per year and therefore bring the cost down to less than 10 euros/year!

I think the Americans on this forum will be able to confirm that they pay considerably less per kWh than us Europeans.

By the way... I know this is madly off topic, but why on earth has some budding entrepreneur not created a small solar powered server yet? It would just need a battery to keep it going through the night. Wouldn't that be nice? No wires.. no hassle, no going down when there is a power cut or current surge.

And of course it would nicely complement the solar powered Mifi router that is hanging on the lamp post outside where the HSDPA coverage is best! ;) Actually... I think the second idea is even better! I'm sure someone has thought about that by now!

Payback time on solar panels just takes to long. Their are eu countries that subsidise buying panels for your house.

That said come campers or vactionhouses have solar power because there is no electicity. But if there is electicity it's cheaper that buying solar power. And you can always go for green energy in many countries.

Found a nice very small pbx that needs very little ram and can run from small dedicated machines.

Just don't know if it supports callback, it says to have all asterik plugins.

Askozia Embedded PBX Solutions - AskoziaPBX

You can download and burn a cd and install it.

Yes, this is completely true for big domestic systems that feed into the grid. However, a small server based on laptop technology (and ideally running a solid state hard disk) would only need a 15W solar cell which can be bought for around 60 Euros. Maybe I should just build my own at some point! :) e.g. Based on an inexpensive netbook with a decent battery.

Thanks also for the link for the Askozia pbx. I will try and investigate that this weekend.

By the way, I found some old PC based software which seems to configure a bridge between 2 SIP calls on a PC running back at your home. It is meant for bridging an incoming call on one DID to an outbound SIP call (any provider), but it can also be configured for callback. From the user guide, it seems to be very easy to use and set up. I know this can all be done if you are Asterisk savvy but for an amateur like me this seems pretty perfect. Unfortunately, the software costs $29. However there is a 15 day evaluation period. I have not tried it yet, as I may save my evaluation period so that it occurs during my holiday when I will need to make use of the callback. Knowing my luck, the evaluation version will not allow callback.

The software is called dialbridge and it can be found here:
VONaLink - DialBridge for Windows

Info on the callback method can be read here:
VONaLink DialBridge for Windows User Guide

Many years ago I did have a windows based callback server. Only problem was that it only worked thru analog or isdn lines. I had a isdn card in my server, called my isdn number go busy tone and the software would call me back thru the isdn line. I would than get a dialtone and would call out on the second isdn channel.

This was still in the days that lichtenstein numbers were cheap to call.

I tried at that point to get if working thru voip and could only do that by hooking up the isdn card to a fritzbox voip modem. So yes you can do it but you need a good isdn card and it might be easier setting up a small asterisk based sever.

So far I did not find any dedicated windows based callback software that works with voip. asterrisk for windows does not support it, axon antoher windows based pbx does not support callback, 3cx also windows based no callback.

Your link looks nice but as far as I can see there is only 1 voip provider you can use. So that voip provider must supply you the incomming did number and you also have to use it for outgoing calls. This makes you depend on 1 voip provider. But maybe you can use a betamax brand that still has an incoming number with the account, than it might work.

Other thing I don't know if you can add more than 1 callback number if not you would have to use the did number only for callback.

But the provider that you intend to use for outgoing calls doesn't necessarily have to also supply the DID. Don't most 3rd party DID providers allow you to forward the DID to any SIP address? In that case just forward it to the same SIP address of the provider you intend to use for outbound calls. (e.g. one of the Betamax brands). This way you can use the software with just one SIP account.

Yes did not think of that but you could use it like that. Forward your did number to the betamax sip address would indeed limit you to only using 1 provider. Test it and see if it works.

I will and let you know how it works.