just a little information

[Need]

Hi everyone,
I would just like to say what a great board this is and all helping eachother!

I was hoping you educated vicidial guru's might be able to help me on my way to running my own vicidial based dialer.
What I intend to do is practice install on a old box I have laying about first just to get my head around vicidial installation setup use etc...

I have a old P4 here ready now I qould like to ask you guys a few questions just to see where I go if thats ok ?

Vicibox or GoAutoDial ? I know they are both vicidial but what are the pros n cons between the 2 ?

64 bit or 32 bit ? What would you recommend and why ?

Preloaded or standard ? Which would be best ?

Like I mentioned I have a old P4 250gb hd with about 3gb of ram

Just wanted something to test on about 8 agents

What config/ setup would you recommend for my testing purposes

And 1 other thing, I have read alot here at the boards and some manualls tutorials around.

Ive got my head around installing but the carrier setup im having a little trouble understanding,
I was looking at voipcheap(dot)co(dot)uk as my carrier would it be possible if someone has experience with this provider and dialing within the UK could give me some carrier setup tips.

Thanks in advance
Mark

[williamconley]

32 vs 64: doesn't matter, use whichever your processor will support.

use standard if you have no fear of geeking and a basic understanding of networking.

consider using a virtual machine for your first several practice installs if you have one available to you.

i cannot guarantee a P4 will hold more than 5 agents (if that) since P4 is merely the brand of the processor. It does not indicate speed Nor have you mentioned the front side bus speed, HD speed, amount and speed of memory ... but since it is what you have, you can certainly try a few agents and keep adding to them until you bottom out. I would advise a nice Core2Duo or Core2Quad, though.

And be sure you have enough bandwidth for 100k per phone call (it's not a real number, but if you are a normal user, it's a SAFE number). That means: 8 agents, 2.5:1 ratio dialing = 20 outbound channels max = 2Meg up and down bandwidth (do not think for one moment that having 20M down will somehow make up for only having 1M up .. it needs to be 2M x 2M minimum or your 100k per call barrier will cause horrible sound and worse as you approach the "out of bandwidth" barrier). And keep the agents OFF the net. No Twitter, no Facebook, certainly no Youtube or Netflix. Most call centers completely outlaw internet usage completely unless they have a special net connection for "surfers" outside the realm of the sip connection to the carrier.

If you can get the carrier to provide you with "sample" extensions.conf and sip.conf configurations, we can help you convert them for Vicidial. Most importantly:

in Account Entry: context=trunkinbound (for all entries, the contex= is only used for inbound so there is no reason for it to ever be anything else).
in Extensions.conf: the three lines in the examples are ALL required. You can muddle with the "dial" line a bit, but the agi line and the hangup line must be verbatim.

Get out the Vicidial Manager's Manual. Start at page one. Skip NOTHING. Seriously. It will allow you to keep your hair.

And Vicibox.com's .iso always has the latest installation, latest drivers, and is fully supported by the Vicidial community. Goautodial is very useful IF you must have CentOS. Very stable, but not up to date (niche market).

And here are the newbie suggestions which help Many New Users:

when you post, please post your entire configuration including (but not limited to) your installation method and vicidial version with build.

this IS a requirement for posting along with reading the stickies (at the top of each forum) and the manager's manual (available on EFLO.net, both free and paid versions)

You should also post: Asterisk version, telephony hardware (model number is helpful here), cluster information if you have one, and whether any other software is installed in the box. If your installation method is "from scratch" you must post your operating system and should also post the .iso version from which you installed your original operating system. If your installation is "Hosted" list the site name of the host.

If this is a "Cloud" or "Virtual" server, please note the technology involved along with the version of that techology (ie: VMware Server Version 2.0.2). If it is not, merely stating the Motherboard model # and CPU would be helpful.

Similar to This:

Vicibox X.X from .iso | Vicidial X.X.X-XXX Build XXXXXX-XXXX | Asterisk X.X.X | Single Server | No Digium/Sangoma Hardware | No Extra Software After Installation | Intel DG35EC | Core2Quad Q6600

[Need]

Thanks for your reply William, your input is appreciated mate,
So at the momment ive learnt that with the bandwidth and the old box I have here ill only be able to test successfully with 4 agents,

By the advice you have given I will try the standard 32bit vicibox iso for this setup.
Next time I will post full specification once its uo and running. Ive used the manager/admin side of vicidial in various call centres so I know how to setup campaign, load leads add users phones etc.
I think its time to learn how to make a full biild from scratch.

Anyway thank you very much your post has helped me in a big way to determine where I go from here.
Thanks alot

As for the dialplan I might be back for some help there as I remember I struggled a little last time.

Cheers

[williamconley]

Sounds good. Happy Hunting. And remember to download and follow the Vicidial Manager's Manual from beginning to end. Seriously helps you keep your hair even if it is boring. Beats paying $125,000 for an Avaya or Dialogic based system with a pretty user manual and step by step tutorials ... but then again, if you follow the Vicidial manual it'll end up working better than those systems anyway. LOL