[Serusers] fee-for-service SER server - clarified - sr-users

29 Oct 2005

Greger,

Thanks so much for your reply to my question,
and thanks also to Olivier, Bravo, Iqbal, and Phil,
who each sent me some great SER server recommendations
or requested clarification to my confusing question.

You are right that I did not provide enough info
in my question.  I do not need any of the example
services that you mentioned in a, b, c, d.
I don't want to control or customize any SER server,
I only want to be a normal customer of an existing SER server.
I do not need any access to regular telephones.

What I want to do is have a call center with 10 tutors,
with each tutor connected to a different remote student,
The 10 teachers and 10 students would each be using
the Windows (SIP) Messenger softphone
and would find and call each other using the SER server.  
The SER server would need to allow media-proxy service
so that we can traverse NATs and firewalls.

I have selected Windows (SIP) Messenger as my softphone because
it is cost-free (quite important if I have 300 students)
and because it has a whiteboard (required for the tutoring).
If someone can suggest a better softphone which has a whiteboard
I would be very happy, especially if the softphone supports STUN.

If the suggested softphone is free, that would be perfect.  
I can't really afford to use a softphone
which charges me a fee for each named user,
but if I need to pay a reasonanable price
for each SIMULTANEOUS user, that would be ok.

Most of the SER server websites that I have visited
seem to recommend the Xten softphone, but since it has no
whiteboard, I cannot use it.  

Windows (SIP) Messenger does not appear to support STUN,
so media-proxy is the only way I know to traverse NATs.
(Please correct me if I am wrong
about Messenger not supporting STUN.)

I know that the newest versions of Windows (SIP) Messenger
do not allow connecting to 3rd party servers,
so I plan to use the older versions that do allow it.

Some of the SER server websites ( like fonosip ) claim
(after a search) that they support Windows (SIP) Messenger,
but they do not offer any configuration instructions.
The fonosip site also does not say whether they will offer
media-proxy services, which I need for NAT traversal.   
It is strange that these SER service provider websites
provide very little info about whether they
support media-proxy or how to configure a softphone for STUN.

I know that media-proxy places a heavy load on the
SER server, and that some SER servers are therefore
reluctant to consume their expensive bandwidth
by offering media-proxy services.  
But since there must be many other customers
who are willing to pay for media-proxy service,
there should be a group of SER servers who are offering
this service for a fee.  I just need to find one.

Can someone please suggest a SER server which
might satisfy the Messenger and media-proxy requirements?

And can someone recommend a better softphone with whiteboard?

thanks,

Michael

Greger wrote:

Dear Michael,
I know that many on this list operate own services they sell in the market.
Others sell software packages and services,
both to corporations (ex. Asterisk + ser in a combo setup)
and to service providers (some sort of white-label service).  
There are also hosted services for enterprises that are not based on SER.

I would suspect that lack of answer may have something to do with lack 
of information.
You are not saying what you need. Here are some examples:
  a. A hosted SER server where you can log in and do changes to ser.cfg 
(for fun or commercial)
  b. A hosted corporate PBX-type solution
  c. A hosted SIP service ? la university setups with ENUM lookup and 
authentication against your own user database
  d. A white-label service that you will brand as your own and resell in 
a given market

And BTW, you are not saying anything about your requirements
(just a vanilla SER server?!)
nor the size of the subscriber base you want to support etc etc.

If you are looking for b, you are probably better off
looking in your local market for a telephony provider who can give you 
IP access.
g-)