Tech Data Pros » IP PBX

3CX v8 is Looking Good

admin — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:33:51 +0000

The recent release of 3CX v8 has been out for a couple of weeks now and is looking to be very solid. We have been running it in the lab and on our own production server with great results. 3CX Version 8 has a slew of new features and bug fixes over Version 7. So if you have Upgrade Insurance with Tech Data Pros, your systems will be upgraded over the next two weeks.

Some of the large changes are:

Now scales to 512 sim calls and 2000+ extensions
Integrated text chat
Improved MyPhone Portal & 3CX Assistant
Improved IP Phone Management & provisioning
New Call Center features
New phones and gateways supported

Nick Galea, CEO of 3CX has also released a Video with release notes:

3CX Releases v8 RC3 of their Windows-Based IP PBX

admin — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 02:55:30 +0000

3CX has pushed out the third, and possibly final release candidate of their Windows-based IP PBX platform. Since this major new release is almost ready for final release there are only a few changes from the previous RC2 version.

FAX SERVER FIX for crash on numerous incoming faxes
Restore procedure for prompts
Fax configuration of files form the edit templates – fax over poroviders with Nat support
Myphone bug in forwarding rules not showing.
Improved call assistant Speed, performance, freezing issues fixed
Fixed Install bug in Voip phone dll
Italian prompt sets NEW
Added VAD server components to the build
Fix in call reporter and sql queries
Voip providers added – G711 IE and voip voice IT

You can download RC3 here: http://www.3cx.com/downloads/3CXPhoneSystem8.exe

You can download the latest 3CX Assistant (with optionally integrated CRM and 3CXPHone) here: http://www.3cx.com/downloads/3CXAssistantSetup_80.exe

Automatically backing up your 3CX system

admin — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 04:03:47 +0000

One thing you need to think of with running a 3CX system is making sure you have a current backup of your system. The phone system for a business is usually the single most critical system and without a current backup, you could find yourself in a real world of hurt if you have a client’s system go down and you need to get it back up and running quickly. What most people don’t know is just how easy it is to do automated backups of a 3CX system. In this article, I will show you exactly how to set up a very simple, and yet complete backup of a 3CX IP PBX system.

Getting Setup

Surprisingly enough, everything you need to do an automated backup of your 3CX system is included with the basic 3CX installation. What you may not know is that the 3CX Backup and Restore tool can be called with command line parameters so you that you can easily do a backup from a very simple batch file.

3CXBackup.exe

You can actually customize your backup to suite your needs. For example, you may only need to backup the configuration once a week or even once a month, but you may want CDR data and voicemails to be backed up every night. The different options available at:

/callrecordings

Backs up call recordings for extensions

/voicemails

Backs up stored voicemails

/voiceprompts

Backs up voice prompts and music on hold files

/callhist

Backs up call history tables from the 3CX database

/exit

Exit the 3CXBackup.exe program when finished

Using these parameters we can create a simple backup script and even have the backup file stored on a network share.

@echo off
echo Launching 3CX backup system…
"C:\Program Files\3CX PhoneSystem\Bin\3cxbackup" backup \\fileserver\backups\3CXBackup.zip /callrecordings /voicemails /voiceprompts /callhist /exit

Once you have this backup script you can then schedule the task using Windows’ Scheduled Tasks manager.

Configuring your firewall for 3CX

admin — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 02:58:08 +0000

Are you considering trying out 3CX, the software IP PBX platform for Windows, and need to know what ports you may need to open/forward in your firewall? This article will give you all the information you need to get 3CX running behind your firewall. If you are not going to have any external connections such as remote phones or SIP trunks, then you can ignore all of this since there will be no need to open your firewall if you don’t need outside connections. However, if you are going to use SIP trunks or have remote phones, then you will need to know which ports to forward to your PBX system.

Remote Phones and SIP Trunks

Remote phones and SIP trunks use two sets of ports. The first port is used by the SIP protocol to establish the phone call and set up the communication. The SIP communication uses UDP 5060.

Once the SIP protocol has established the call, the audio portion of the call can begin. The audio portion of the call uses RTP to send the voice packets back and forth. Each call will require two ports to be available. Usually its recommended to forward UDP ports 9000-9049 to the PBX.

3CX Tunneling

3CX has a tunneling protocol built-in for use with the 3CX Softphone or for bridging machines together. This tunnel requires that a single port be forwarded. You will need to forward port 5090 with both UDP and TCP to your PBX server in order for the tunnel services to work properly.

Testing your setup

If you would like 3CX to test your firewall configuration, go to the 3CX Services and stop the 3CX Phone System Service and the 3CX Tunnel Service.Next, go to Settings, and Firewall Checker and let the tests run. If everything goes right, you should get a page of messages telling you if things are working properly or not. When finished, start the services back up again.