James- I'm not sure about Nortel, Lucent, or any of the other manufacturers, but I know you can pick up a 3COM NBX off of ebay for 1/3 the price of it brand new. They are usually posted with different variable line cards, so you can read the descriptions and get a little education from there as to what you may want. Keep in mind that E1/T1 still applies to Europe as opposed to North America, so you would have to make sure that your Multi-Flex trunk card on your 26xx/36xx/AS5x00 router can support that type of trunk connection directly to the P(A)BX. Also, keep in mind that you may just have scenarios where you used E&M lines, so getting the appropriate router equipment for that will serve just as well as if you were trialing the Analogue FXS/FXO line options.
The thing to keep in mind is there are several combinations as to how you want to "soup-bowl". One thing to note about the 3Com NBX- it's web-administered, as compared to some of the other P(A)BXs that are administered via one of the "admin" version telephones, or via terminal service connection with a bunch of cryptic commands. While the web gui would be a crutch initially, it'll sure help learn the XYZs a whole lot faster... of which the XYZs are going to be fairly the same across most P(A)BX vendors... just like configuring routers for different vendors- TCP/IP is still the same no matter how you slice it. That's my .25 for the month. It's all mere opinion, of which is always open to modification based on new information :) HTHs! Mark Odette II -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Saturday, January 19, 2002 11:18 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Home-use PABX [7:32584] I have a home lab just now consisting of a number of routers for data. I would like to get more in to the voice side of networking and wonder where best to start. My thoughts are to buy a small second hand PABX with E1 and ISDN PRI lines but I'm really not sure if that's how a PBX would be provisioned. I guess that older PBXs would have analogue lines which would not connect to my routers as I want them to, though some analogue mixed with the above digital would be OK. Of course, cost would be a major factor but I haven't as yet seen anything for sale that looked like a digital telephone switch. So, that's the problem. As a starter for ten I would be grateful if someone could point me in the right direction. Thanks. - James Message Posted at: http://www.groupstudy.com/form/read.php?f=7&i=32589&t=32584 -------------------------------------------------- FAQ, list archives, and subscription info: http://www.groupstudy.com/list/cisco.html Report misconduct and Nondisclosure violations to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
