Cisco is a big brand for network equipments. Most enterprises, government departments, etc are all using Cisco equipment in their networks. How about small businesses? Unfortunately, Cisco is a big brand and it is also an expensive brand, while all the big businesses and government bodies can afford to use the Cisco equipments, the small businesses are not able to afford that in most of the case.
Recently, I helped a small business to setup VoIP PBX with multiple ADSL2+ connections. If you consider the above case with all cisco equipments, let’s have a look what was in my mind:
– Cisco 2821 with CME
– Cisco 7911 handset x 13
– Cisco 7961 handset x 2 (for reception)
– Cisco HWIC-ADSL x 2 (for 2 ADSL2+ link)
– Cisco Wireless AP HWIC
It will be too much for a small business to afford the above system. Of course, I didn’t suggest the above system to that small business. The below setup is what I set up for them.
– A mini PC using Intel chipset with Debain OS, Asterisk PBX and FreePBX
– Cisco 877 router
– Linksys ADSL 2+ router with Wireless
The total hardware cost is less than $1000. Linksys ADSL 2+ will be dedicated for wireless LAN internet connection and be the backup connection for the VoIP PBX. The Cisco 877 will be dedicated for VoIP and if there is any problem with the Primary Link, it will fail over to the back up linksys ADSL2+ back up link. To achieve auto failover on the cisco 877, I just used the IOS feature track and ip sla to monitor the adsl link, when it fails, it will remove the 1st default route and the 2nd default route which routed via Linksys ADSL2+ will be installed to the routing table on the 877 automantically.