Over the weekend we installed our latest PBX product called 3CX ! 3CX is a ready made software bundle that's very easy to install service maintain and use . The software is low cost as well as the softphones are part of the package for no cost ! This product can be up and running in probably an hour as it is THAT simple and easy to set up ! Naturally the more phones and equipment you set up the longer it will take but it is really pretty simple ! Get your SIP user and pwd info and add your phones quickly and easily ! SIP trunks are a breeze or set up a known gateway or build your own !! Although like a good techie , We created our own issues , We still had no serious problems installing and running 3CX ! Our license keys had issues ( Our fault ) with our Fully Qualified Domain Name ( FQDN ) as they did not match correctly ! If your license and FQDN are not set up correctly , then the PBX database will not run and it will generate an unknown error !! You can load this on a Windows 10 Pro , recommended for small business but not for Medium or large - maybe Windows 2016 server or a Virtual Server . A full listing of technical specs is available if needed as we have them ready to send to you to make a technical build list of materials !! Next issue : Be careful on logging in as it is VERY unforgiving as to the 5 times you have to log in correctly ! It loves to blacklist ( kill your IP address ) from logging in and it will do so with ease on your client or on your Management Console as once it blacklists you the IP address is out for 24 hours on the Management Console and 5 minutes on your Telephone! 84,200 Seconds or so . This was more of a pain in the You know what versus something wrong ! Today I will find out the actual parameters to changes so this does not occur again ! Our Main pc for programing could not log in for 24 hours even though We changed a parameter to 90 seconds !! Ah the techie life !! 2 Softphones were installed as we ordered some hard phones but they have not yet arrived . Softphones were set up as a receptionist and a standard telephone . VMail , calls in out etc. Hunt groups and ring groups as well . We will be installing SIP trunks today ! Also as it is in production today , We will kick the tires a bit more and see whats in store for us but so far everything registered correctly , no errors in the logs and calls are being made and answered !! Windows 10 Pro Latest updates etc. Memory 12 Gig shared Intel I7 3770 3.40 GZh Plenty of storage in the Terabyte range Static IP address needed FQDN MUST be set up via 3CX Standard small business network right out of the box or customize like we did ! Loved the install as it was a breeze . The machine is a simple set up as only turn off Anti Virus on 2 folders and away you go ! A word of caution is to keep a careful eye on hackers as this is BIG TIME for the crooks to come out and find your system ! Today we will be spending some time on the 3CX website reviewing security recommendations and a SIP packet analysis of attempts and setting our security to match ! I;ll post some more information here later on ! So as time goes on and our system grows , we will be updating this document to let you know what we know , that this product is incredible , easy to use , great investment and cost effective for the SMB ( Small Medium Business ) group ! Thanks RPOCTelecom.com Rich O'Connor
