VPN in a Flash

[maumar]

if pbxinaflash is installed on a compact flash, i could insert the cf in the front-panel without need of ssd inside, isn't it?
or am i lost in space at all?

 

[wardmundy]

CF doesn't have the necessary performance to run Linux plus Asterisk plus SendMail plus Apache plus MySQL...

 

[maumar]

CF doesn't have the necessary performance to run Linux plus Asterisk plus SendMail plus Apache plus MySQL...

u are right..but...
i am interested in a solution for small companies with 1 to 10 ip phone, 1 isdn pci and so not more then a bunch of calls at one time.

i would install a live version of pbxiaf on a cf, running it like a live cd and saving conf on the cf when it changes

the plus is that nothing is damaged in power supply failover, the minus is that u cannot do voice recording and many more features

your choiche is a standard installation of pbxiaf on a sdd disk, or something is mounted on tmpfs?

i think we will be very interested in your m300 box, when available, with a billion on the pci slot

 

[wardmundy]

CF works great as a destination for our ISO backup solution. Actually running Linux and all the other apps from a CF would not provide a satisfactory level of service. Believe me, we've tried it.

 

[jehowe]

Isn't CF still vulnerable to multiple write/erase cycles, which although measured in thousands, adds up fast when OS's use it to map virtual memory?

 

[maumar]

Isn't CF still vulnerable to multiple write/erase cycles, which although measured in thousands, adds up fast when OS's use it to map virtual memory?

yes it is, for this reason i would mount read-only / and on tmpfs /var/log
this way you do not waste resources.
But there is a thread here where someone is using CF by one year with logs on it and without any trouble, incredible but true

http://pbxinaflash.com/community/threads/compactflash-freepbx-asterisk.985/

this one, exactly

http://pbxinaflash.com/community/threads/compactflash-freepbx-asterisk.985/#post-5687

 

[maumar]

CF works great as a destination for our ISO backup solution. Actually running Linux and all the other apps from a CF would not provide a satisfactory level of service. Believe me, we've tried it.

i found a description of this interesting feature here:
http://nerdvittles.com/index.php?p=218

you say:

"In the /root folder of your new system, you'll find a PDF with complete documentation for the new Mondo Rescue backup system"

i am not able to find it neither i have

/etc/cron.weekly/disk-backup.cron

where can find them?

tia

 

[wardmundy]

Only the Orgasmatron build has the disk backup software preinstalled. You can download it from pbxinaflash.org.

 

[krzykat]

I followed these instructions to successfully install Mondo backup: http://pbxinaflash.org/piafscripts/Asterisk 1.4/Backups/Whole Disk Backups

 

[RonRussell]

Ward, What's the status on getting one of these VPN-in-a-flash boxes. I signed up for one early on and I have a client with a need that this might be the solution. My client has a condo in the Bahamas. The condo organization has wifi and my client has an asterisk server at his state side business.

 

[wardmundy]

Status Update

 

[wardmundy]

Cautionary Note

Just a word to the wise. Do NOT go out and buy one of these thinking you will do all of this yourself. Trust us! This is not a job for mere mortals. The BIOS in the Aspire One does not allow you to disable the network devices, and CentOS misreads the type of NIC and crashes abruptly when you attempt to load it from the standard PBX in a Flash images.

 

[g711]

For the true road warrior this is a good solution. From a commercal point of view I am hesitant on selling this to a small business as their main system, as it's a laptop and I have not had great success on a laptop always plugged in with the battery in the case etc. etc. For personal use, I love it and I can see it being a WOW factor for small business customers that are not up on VoIP.

 

[merlyn]

Ok here is a silly question .... I know it will work with a ethernet jack how about a wi-fi connection at some random hotel Since the laptops have it built in i just have to ask.

Assuming the wi-fi connections is pretty decent speed will this VPN back to my home orgasmatron2 over wi-fi only? or ethernet only?

merlyn

 

[wardmundy]

Tom reports that WiFi is working great.

 

[darmock]

For the true road warrior this is a good solution. From a commercal point of view I am hesitant on selling this to a small business as their main system, as it's a laptop and I have not had great success on a laptop always plugged in with the battery in the case etc. etc. For personal use, I love it and I can see it being a WOW factor for small business customers that are not up on VoIP.

This is not designed as a main system. This is for road warriors. For a small system you should be looking at our mini server when it comes out. While a little larger than a notebook it is designed to be tucked in a closet out of the way in a small office. It also has a single PCI slot which means no outboard zap stuff.

There is a distinct and separate need for both products we feel. The aspire based one fills the need for the travelling person and the mini server fills the needs for a small reasonably priced system that uses our standard version and does not leave out any features. Unfortunately most of the embedded PBX hardware on the market forces us to go to exotic versions of linux and due to memory/storage constraints would force us to limit or omit some features.

I have a lab littered with embedded systems but the only one actually holds promise is the AMD geode processor running on various motherboards. I do have one of the pico boards running with an openvox minipci card for fxo/fxs. We thought about releasing this but put it on the back burner when the Atom came along. For the geode processors I had to use a different OS to get it installed from CD. Once this was done it installs and works just great. I used the breadboard version of this as my office PBX for a couple of months without a hitch.

The aspire will use a different O/S than stock and will have a custom compiled kernel I am afraid.


Tom

 

[darmock]

Ok here is a silly question .... I know it will work with a ethernet jack how about a wi-fi connection at some random hotel Since the laptops have it built in i just have to ask.

Assuming the wi-fi connections is pretty decent speed will this VPN back to my home orgasmatron2 over wi-fi only? or ethernet only?

merlyn

The goal here was to make it work with either wired or wireless which for the moment it seems to do just fine. It uses an atheros chipset for the wifi which seems to be supported by the new ATH5K kernel module. Although it has to be tweaked a bit.

I have been carrying it around with me the last few days hooking up via hotspots back to my main pbx. Hamchi works great and an IAX link gets established between to two. I also have plugged a GXP2000 into the box via a small travel hub and had the aspire one connected via wireless and the phone worked just like at the office.... quite a bit of cool factor.

Also used a direct encrypted iax trunk between the aspire and my office pbx sans hamachi which also worked flawlessly. BUT VOIP over wifi is problematic at times and just not as good as wired YET<<>>

There are so many permutations with the hardware in this box that we are trying to find several ways for you to use it.

So far the only down side is you must run xwindows in order to get wireless connections EASILY. While you can run complex scripts and make the wifi work form the command line this is really only for mad scientists and people who like personal abuse. There is a difference in processor use when asterisk is running and xwindows is working but normal browsing using firefox and talking on the phone only ups the processor use by 25% still far from 100%

Hope this helps

Tom

 

[jehowe]

For a road warrior solution, couldn't this be replicated (in part at least) using Hamachi on any Mac/Windows notebook and using a softphone as a secure remote extension?

 

[merlyn]

Thanks Tom for giving us the details on the acer ... That answers all the questions i had.

merlyn

 

[wardmundy]

Yes, But...

For a road warrior solution, couldn't this be replicated (in part at least) using Hamachi on any Mac/Windows notebook and using a softphone as a secure remote extension?

"Road warrior" is perhaps a little too narrow a focus for this machine. The idea was to come up with a remote PBX solution not only for road warriors but also for satellite and branch offices, mobile offices, vacation and rental homes, and the like.

You certainly could use Hamachi on a standard notebook with a softphone if this were your only requirement. Or you could just use Skype.