Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Slightly OT: Prep for VCF East 2026 was: VCF East 2026 mark your calendars!
On 5/17/25 10:58, N. Albert via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
I have a CMG card myself but haven't done anything much with it, and using TDM is really the proper way to set up a channel bank
That's the way we do it at LSSM for our internal dial-in pool and BBSes. TDM is so much simpler and free of hassle compared to SIP. -Dave -- Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA
On 5/17/2025 11:01 AM, Dave McGuire via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
On 5/17/25 10:58, N. Albert via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
I have a CMG card myself but haven't done anything much with it, and using TDM is really the proper way to set up a channel bank
That's the way we do it at LSSM for our internal dial-in pool and BBSes. TDM is so much simpler and free of hassle compared to SIP.
That, and it's significantly more feature rich, when dealing with analog phones. There's a lot of cool stuff you can do with TDM that you just can't do with SIP. From what I understand, VCF Midwest also uses real TDM at their conference and not SIP. (I'm also a bit biased, I'm the primarily developer of TDM related stuff in Asterisk nowadays.)
On 5/17/25 11:04, N. Albert wrote:
I have a CMG card myself but haven't done anything much with it, and using TDM is really the proper way to set up a channel bank
That's the way we do it at LSSM for our internal dial-in pool and BBSes. TDM is so much simpler and free of hassle compared to SIP.
That, and it's significantly more feature rich, when dealing with analog phones. There's a lot of cool stuff you can do with TDM that you just can't do with SIP. From what I understand, VCF Midwest also uses real TDM at their conference and not SIP.
Yep. I was going to stop short of saying "SIP is a steaming pile", but I'll go ahead and say it: "SIP is a steaming pile".
(I'm also a bit biased, I'm the primarily developer of TDM related stuff in Asterisk nowadays.)
Oh, very cool. I did some work for Digium (Solaris drivers for some PCI cards) about twenty years ago. -Dave -- Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA
On 5/17/2025 11:11 AM, Dave McGuire via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
On 5/17/25 11:04, N. Albert wrote:
I have a CMG card myself but haven't done anything much with it, and using TDM is really the proper way to set up a channel bank
That's the way we do it at LSSM for our internal dial-in pool and BBSes. TDM is so much simpler and free of hassle compared to SIP.
That, and it's significantly more feature rich, when dealing with analog phones. There's a lot of cool stuff you can do with TDM that you just can't do with SIP. From what I understand, VCF Midwest also uses real TDM at their conference and not SIP.
Yep. I was going to stop short of saying "SIP is a steaming pile", but I'll go ahead and say it: "SIP is a steaming pile".
+1
(I'm also a bit biased, I'm the primarily developer of TDM related stuff in Asterisk nowadays.)
Oh, very cool. I did some work for Digium (Solaris drivers for some PCI cards) about twenty years ago.
Neat! Unfortunately, I'd be surprised if DAHDI ran on anything besides Linux nowadays. DAHDI BSD hasn't been maintained in forever. Even on Linux, maintenance from the company has been basically nonexistent, I am doing basically all of it (and I don't work for Digium/Sangoma). The company has really gone downhill since Mark Spencer left to fly airplanes and they sold to Sangoma, they no longer have anyone on payroll that really understands the TDM stuff at all.
Pardon me for asking, but I'm not aware of some of your acronyms. What is TDM, SIP, and CMG with respect to this discussion. You've gotten my curiosity up, since I just heard that a local company here in the Dayton area has a pallet of Askersik phones that they are about to get rid of. Some are in original boxes that were never used. I was thinking we should get 4 or 6 to keep for our local computer museum project. Interesting discussion even though I have no experience in phone equipment. Michael Stock, Vice-President, Dayton Microcomputer Association (DMA) mzstock@earthlink.net Trustee, Dayton Microcomputer Association, Inc. an 501(c)3 non-profit www.dma1.org -----Original Message----- From: vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic-bounces@lists.vcfed.org> On Behalf Of Dave McGuire via vcf-midatlantic Sent: Saturday, May 17, 2025 11:11 AM To: vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> Cc: Dave McGuire <mcguire@neurotica.com> Subject: Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Slightly OT: Prep for VCF East 2026 was: VCF East 2026 mark your calendars! On 5/17/25 11:04, N. Albert wrote:
I have a CMG card myself but haven't done anything much with it, and using TDM is really the proper way to set up a channel bank
That's the way we do it at LSSM for our internal dial-in pool and BBSes. TDM is so much simpler and free of hassle compared to SIP.
That, and it's significantly more feature rich, when dealing with analog phones. There's a lot of cool stuff you can do with TDM that you just can't do with SIP. From what I understand, VCF Midwest also uses real TDM at their conference and not SIP.
Yep. I was going to stop short of saying "SIP is a steaming pile", but I'll go ahead and say it: "SIP is a steaming pile".
(I'm also a bit biased, I'm the primarily developer of TDM related stuff in Asterisk nowadays.)
Oh, very cool. I did some work for Digium (Solaris drivers for some PCI cards) about twenty years ago. -Dave -- Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA
On 5/17/2025 1:34 PM, Michael Stock via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
Pardon me for asking, but I'm not aware of some of your acronyms. What is TDM, SIP, and CMG with respect to this discussion.
You've gotten my curiosity up, since I just heard that a local company here in the Dayton area has a pallet of Askersik phones that they are about to get rid of. Some are in original boxes that were never used.
I was thinking we should get 4 or 6 to keep for our local computer museum project.
Interesting discussion even though I have no experience in phone equipment.
Michael Stock, Vice-President, Dayton Microcomputer Association (DMA) mzstock@earthlink.net Trustee, Dayton Microcomputer Association, Inc. an 501(c)3 non-profit www.dma1.org
Michael, TDM (Time Division Multiplexing) Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) is a legacy method of transmitting multiple signals over a single communication channel by dividing the channel into distinct time slots, making best use of the empty spaces between other signals. In this case, a method to squeeze 23/24 calls onto two pairs of wire (T1) CMG (Customer Media Gateway) service card provides IP services like TDM-to-IP voice conversion and routing n the ADIT600 series equipment SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) is a specific protocol used to manage the establishment, maintenance, and termination of VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) telephone calls. Re the IP phones: Be aware that some are locked to a specific carrier, or cannot be used for SIP/VoIP without new firmware (looking at you Cisco!) Cheers, Martin
On 5/17/2025 11:01 AM, Dave McGuire via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
That's the way we do it at LSSM for our internal dial-in pool and BBSes. TDM is so much simpler and free of hassle compared to SIP.
Dave, If I can ask, what Linux are you running, what Asterisk release, and what channel bank? Since CDL / VCF is starting from scratch, it may be useful to go with a combination known to work. Cheers! Martin
On 5/17/25 14:50, Martin A. Flynn via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
That's the way we do it at LSSM for our internal dial-in pool and BBSes. TDM is so much simpler and free of hassle compared to SIP.
Dave,
If I can ask, what Linux are you running, what Asterisk release, and what channel bank?
Since CDL / VCF is starting from scratch, it may be useful to go with a combination known to work.
The server is running Ubuntu 22.04LTS, running Asterisk 18.10.0. -Dave -- Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA
On 5/18/2025 1:02 AM, Dave McGuire via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
On 5/17/25 14:50, Martin A. Flynn via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
That's the way we do it at LSSM for our internal dial-in pool and BBSes. TDM is so much simpler and free of hassle compared to SIP.
Dave,
If I can ask, what Linux are you running, what Asterisk release, and what channel bank?
Since CDL / VCF is starting from scratch, it may be useful to go with a combination known to work.
The server is running Ubuntu 22.04LTS, running Asterisk 18.10.0.
Anything recent is pretty much a combination known to work. Asterisk 18 is already security fix only and very shortly end of life[1]. It should be avoided in new installs. I would recommend just using Asterisk 22. There aren't really any reasons to be concerned about newer versions of Asterisk anymore these days, and there are new features and bug fixes in the more recent versions. I say this as a developer aware of pretty much every Asterisk change in recent years. Regressions happen time to time, but they are just as likely to affect some arbitrary old version as a current version, and if the former, they won't be fixed. You may also be interested in a tool I maintain[2] which automates the installation of DAHDI/Asterisk (eliminating the excuse of not upgrading), and also adds a bunch of additional features. [1] https://docs.asterisk.org/About-the-Project/Asterisk-Versions/ [2] https://github.com/InterLinked1/phreakscript
On 5/18/25 08:23, N. Albert wrote:
Dave,
If I can ask, what Linux are you running, what Asterisk release, and what channel bank?
Since CDL / VCF is starting from scratch, it may be useful to go with a combination known to work.
The server is running Ubuntu 22.04LTS, running Asterisk 18.10.0.
Anything recent is pretty much a combination known to work. Asterisk 18 is already security fix only and very shortly end of life[1]. It should be avoided in new installs.
I second this recommendation. (we did our installation a few years ago and haven't seen a need to upgrade)
You may also be interested in a tool I maintain[2] which automates the > installation of DAHDI/Asterisk (eliminating the excuse of not upgrading), and also adds a bunch of additional features.
[1] https://docs.asterisk.org/About-the-Project/Asterisk-Versions/ [2] https://github.com/InterLinked1/phreakscript
Oh that looks very nice indeed, we will check that out over here too! -Dave -- Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA
participants (4)
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Dave McGuire -
Martin A. Flynn -
mzstock＠earthlink.net -
N. Albert