Project:VOIP

A few members had been interested in playing with VOIP/SIP things, mostly involving connecting the space phone line to the internet and doing voice menus, sip accounts for members, group chat, joining the Hackerspaces Call in, getting linked up to other hackspaces, etc.

Tom recently got hold of a pair of linksys/cisco SPA942 which are now in use in the space. ciborg_ is looking into getting some Cisco 79X0 phones donated - these are much nicer phones!

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Functional features:

• Internal dialing between floors (really easy rather than going back and forth back and forth to talk with someone / do something)
• External incoming calls
• Conference room function
• Exterior delivery gate phone
• Toll-Free Outgoing dialing (0800 style nums) / Banned dialing for others (recording: 'why not borrow a friend's mobile?)
• General telephone information provided (address, nearest tube/train stops, membership information pointing to the website)
• Semi-secret comedy extensions (we're getting there...)
• Easy networking to other Hackspaces and other projects (who entered the door last? Do we want a fortified intercom doorbell?)
• Dialing of Emergency 999 / 112 functionality Decided to not be a liability with this (for now) *** (outgoing call can be recorded and email alert sent to trustees and/or mailing list for safety)

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Current extensions/ locations (specific locations to be appropriately and tastefully determined:

• Ground floor extension 6601 - using Linksys SPA-941 (Now with working power adapter!)
• Basement extension 6602 - using white analogue phone at the end of the basement.
• Radio Shack extension 6603 - using Polycom conference unit or a Cisco 7940 phone
• Outside gate extension 6690 - using Paul2's vandal-proof railroad handset feeding into the Cisco SPA122
• Incoming Landline Phone - kraptv has donated a Cisco SPA3102 FXS/FXO to the space.
• Virtual extensions for wifi sip clients are OK, but we'll need to manually add them. Want to play with it? Contact kraptv

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PABX System details:

• HW: Hosted on Lamarr
• OS: Linux with tftpd service enabled for phones that need to boot and load config files over tftp, LHS logo screen graphics, etc.
• PHONE SW: Asterisk (Using the standard OS-supplied Asterisk for portability and maintainability sake)
• EXTERNAL VOICE GENERATION: Voice prompt aiff/ulaw files generated from bash script on an OS X 10.9+ Mac using the UK English "Kate" voice. Current phrase-file shell script copied with voice prompts every time it is updated!
• CONFIG NOTE: Custom configs/scripts shall be shared via github or posted on the wiki.

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Infrastructure needs/Future uses:

  * Virtual extensions/voicemail-to-email automation for members - this is a manual process for now. 
  * Setup outside gate phone for auto-dial dialplan and figure out best way to manage mounting/wiring

Kraptv comments about some possible concerns about disturbing the peace:

If people are annoyed at the phones nearby - they can press the "Do Not Disturb" button and it won't ring. In this design - I am mindful to keep a productive peace - I helped implement the phone system at a large cartoon company and was mindful to the variety of edge cases and balancing of sensitive users vs. collaborative users.

If it is completely crap and everyone hates it, we can scrap it easily and say 'man, corded phones are so 90's! Good riddance!' - but there are still many valid uses and an example of fun infrastructure enhancement. Noone is obligated to answer the phone. Noone has to touch it. It's a co-operative, not some sort of business that has a telephone response service level agreement. ;-)

Dial 020 7033 9080 to test the LHS incoming phone line, please send feedback directly via email to Kraptv or leave a voicemail to extension 6601!

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References:

• http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/voice_ip_comm/csbpipp/ip_phones/administration/guide/spa_wip_admin.pdf
• http://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/csbpipp/ip_phones/user/guide/spa9XX_user_web.pdf
• http://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/csbpvga/spa3102/quick_start/guide/spa3102_quick.pdf