All in One Guide?

[adept]

I'm trying and learning how to set up a small call center (outbound) myself. I've been searching around but found nothing much out there. I understand the hardware part for the dialer, workstation for agent, and the soft/phone. But when it comes to networking and phone line, or voip requirement, I couldn't find anything. Is a T1 line good enough? How the dialer dials out?

Any help, support, and direction from you guys would be highly appreciated.

[mflorell]

What country are you in?

How many agents will you have?

What kind of hardware and agent phones/computers will you use?

[adept]

In the US. To start out with just a few (less than 10) agents. All PC hardware are Dell's. What kind of networking/connection does it need to have for the dialer to dial?

I forgot to add that we have a dynamic T1 line.

[mflorell]

I'm not familiar with the term "dynamic T1 line" that could mean all kinds of different things, do you have a cut sheet for this T1? What is it currently connected to?

[adept]

Dynamic T1 line is basically a data & voice line, and data & voice automatically utilize the line to the max capacity.

I managed to get asterisk & vicidialnow installed & configured. I can access it via the U R L. Now, how to get it connect to dial out?

[mflorell]

So you can pick up a phone though Asterisk and dial out over your T1 at this point?

If so, you just need to set the dialplan to dial 91NXXNXXXXXX which is the default for VICIDIAL to dial out int he USA and Canada.

[adept]

No, not yet.

What I meant was the dialer is up with asterisk & vicidialnow. I think I still have to configure the PRI somehow with the T1 router?

[mflorell]

Yes, you will need to configure yout T1 card, that's what zaptel.conf and zapata.conf is for. You should get a cut-sheet from your carrier that will tell you the settings that you should use for connecting your T1.

[adept]

What information do I need to get from my carrier?
I can't find zapata.conf anywhere, btw; zaptel.conf is under /etc/

[mflorell]

zapata.conf is in /etc/asterisk

you need to know the signalling, the line type and if it is PRI the switchtype.

[adept]

What if the dialer is behind a router/firewall? Any special port need to be open?

Thanks a lot for helping me out.

[mflorell]

No open ports needed for Zaptel, shouldn't have anything to do with internet.

[adept]

With that being said, the dialer is fine behind the router/firewall?