Which Card To Get?

James B. August 21, 2012 Asterisk Users 3 Comments

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We are investigating the possibility of using Asterisk in a KVM based virtual machine to handle connections to and from our HylaFax service. Our current set up uses a dedicated host with external fax modems. What I wish to know is what interface card would the list members recommend for a proof of concept trial?

We currently have two incoming fax lines and five vox lines all POTS. Our physical internet connection is fiber but I could not tell you exactly what type of service it presently carries. It is upgradable to a considerable extent in any case.

We are planning to move to VOIP as an adjunct to this project. This is secondary to getting the fax system moved but we would like to avoid having to install additional hardware for VOIP once the fax portion of project is complete and the service transferred.

What are our options?

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3 Responses to “Which Card To Get?”

  1. Doug Lytle said:

    Aug 21, 12 at 9:50 am

    We have found that Asterisk in a VM with a digital card does not work (At least under VMWare ESXi 5 with PCI pass though). The timing on the card tested with dahdi_test were awful, sub 80% on average.

    The same card on a bare metal machine was %99.998 on average.

    Doug

  2. Shaun Ruffell said:

    Aug 21, 12 at 9:51 am

    Hopefully if someone else has a different experience they will speak up, but I’ve not personally heard of any cards working reliably in a PCI passthrough mode. This could e a problem if you intende the KVM
    guest to handle all the card communication.

    You could get an analog gateway, or setup another small system to host any cards you get to act as a gateway, and keep most of your logic on the KVM.

    Cheers, Shaun

  3. Danny Nicholas said:

    Aug 21, 12 at 9:54 am

    —–Original Message—