Best Linux Workstation w/ Softphone setup?

[dfwonsite]

I'm looking at doing a 10 Seat call center, and wondering what type of low cost, but powerful enough to do the job workstations other vicidial users suggest... i want the following type of setup -

Each workstation -

Computer - OS = Linux (Ubuntu perhaps?)

Phone - Softphone on each linux workstation w/ headset via the soundcard*


Also - the * = how many of you have used softphones w/ headsets plugged into the computer and how was the sound quality/reliability?

-Andy

[Polis_ttt]

ubuntu is a nice os, simple, useful, got all your agents need installed by default. Softphone i prefer xlite, who also got support for linux. Maby not the most stable versions of xlite i tryed, but better than most of the others. I have only tested this components, maby someone ells use the for professional. All our agents uses windows and xlite/eyebeam, and it works very nice.

We mostly use headset, connected to computers sonedcard, with softphone, works pretty good. Soundquality is okey, and you can trust it almost as much as you trust microsoft

[devafree]

slackware 11 with x-lite . ALSA + headsets into the soundcard, works pretty well.



regards

devafree

[Op3r]

really depends on what hardware are you using.

[tbenson]

Dell Optiplex 320N Series systems. No OS installed even though they cost the same, but non transferable is non transferable. Xlite verison of xtensoftphone for linux.

We dont use the soundcard headsets because for $35 you can get the Plantronics DSP400 which is binaural DSP (Digital Signal Processing) for background noise reduction and the like. Mainly because it was about the same cost for a decent soudcard one and the failure rate of soundcard was about that of the plantronics. All in all you get a better call quality from the DSP-400 so we swapped.

Again you WILL have ocasional issues with xlite registering and whatnot. Thats why only 6 seats to 10 at MAX do we do a softphone. We have had a few issues with the /dev/dsp disapearing, but in many cases people thought they might have jerked the usb plug hard and somehow disconnected the usb signal. Unplug and replug 99% of the time resolves with the ocasional close and open of xten.

All in all I would go with a cheaper system if possible, and then spend the money on a Polycom 320 ($95) and use a cordless phone headset.

We actually started doing diskless clients so we didnt have to worry about individual systems, and the price was enough lower then the dell to offset the cost of the phone and a very inexpensive headset. Going this route I would suggest getting a nicer headset though if you trying to keep costs low. Much more productivity then with softphones, and less issues.

The few extra dollars will make your deployment WELL worth it, especially at 10 seats or higher. 11 is actually our cutoff that we wont even do softphones unless they sign off on complete management of the issues with the softphones or go onto monthly management contract.

[gardo]

I totally agree with Tbenson. Go diskless and the savings you get you can allot for better hardware for the voip phones and headsets. Saves you a lot of headaches. Check http://www.ltsp.org or http://www.k12ltsp.org for more information on diskless workstations for linux.

[ramindia]

Hi Gardo

is the setup working with LTSP along with Vicidial ?
any practical issues you come across

so Linux Server with LTSP , and Diskless nodes
IPphone with headset will solve most of the problems
i belive.


even i found there are lot of issues with Xten or any othersoftphone
at client side, voice quality goes down. when i comprare with Voice devices like ipphone or voip adapter.

ram.

[gardo]

To be honest, I haven't implemented the diskless setup yet on my clients. I'm recommending this since I've worked w/ diskless stations before using k12ltsp. It's much easier to do system administration tasks since you only need to configure 1 server for up to 50 workstions or more depending on the hardware. This setup will also eliminate softphones in favor of hardphones (ATAs, channel banks and others).

[tbenson]

The worry with LTSP is the load of firefox on the server (with multiple ajax clients running via LTSP). You can easily offset that portion by doing local firefox execution.

We are actually doing CentOS diskless clients (non LTSP diskless) using PXE. Lower numbers a bit on the client side mostly due to NFS, which can be tweaked to have more available connections. But otherwise you get local execution of a single shared environment. Requiring less power on the server providing the environment.

In any case choosing a client environment that lowers your cost (like linux and diskless) and allows you to upgrade out of a softphone into a hardphone should be well worth the extra effort. The Polycom IP 320 is an amazing phone, doesnt have the dedicated RJ/headset port. But does have the 2.5 or 3.5mm (cant remember what cordless is considered) port. Also Plantronics AMPs work inline with the handset. So options for headsets are many, and the quality and reliability of the hardware will be well worth it.

As a side note if we COULD get softphones to be stable and USB headsets or Soundcard headsets to be extremely stable in large environments, we would use it. Unfortunately the amount of issues when you get more and more softphones grows. It seems to cause exponential issues almost, but maybe thats just me and others have 20-50 Agent centers on softphones, just have not heard of any that say it works well. My guess is if there are ones that big they have trained the agents well on resolving issues.