A PBX is a Private Branch Exchange. Did you ever dial 9 on your business phone to get an outside line? That's a PBX. It's a piece of hardware that hooks up to both phone lines from the phone company and the phone lines inside your office. But with modern phone equipment dialing 9 is largely done away with -- the phone can be programmed better than that.

A Penguin PBX configured box is a fully programmable PBX. Traditional PBX systems are not very configurable because the code is not open. If you buy a PBX from vendor A that doesn't have all the features of vendor B, then chances are you'll never get those features. With Penguin PBX, you can program your phone system to add those features, because it's built on top of open source GNU/Linux and Asterisk technology.

Pre-configured or customized solutions that work with a flick of the switch can be provided. However, onsite installations and setups in the Denver/Front Range and Rochester/Upstate areas are prefered because it is easier to ensure that you get the most out of your money. But remote login, configuration, and support are always an option.

As many as your business needs. Typical small offices probably don't have a T1 (24 lines) and that's fine. The system can be configured to use just a few regular telephone company lines, through a channel bank or similar adapter hardware. As your company grows, your hardware can grow with you because the system is expandable. One fully-loaded Penguin PBX box system can handle 4 T1s. Bigger than that ? Make it two systems. Or switch from traditional Telco lines to a new (and our preferred) VoIP solution, such as SIP trunking.

There's a great variety of phones on the marketplace. With a Penguin PBX configured box, you can use cheap phones from the local five and dime. Or, you can use new IP phones that let you send your calls over your low-latency data network. Some clients prefer soft phones that run right on your PC using a microphone and speakers, although it's not much of a traditional phone at that point! Migrating in steps and keeping as much of your existing telephone hardware infrastructure as possible is preferred.

Yes, you can, using Voice over Internet Protocols (VoIP). Whether you want to save on long distance charges to your customers, or link geographically distant office phone networks together, a Penguin PBX configured box lets you take advantage of the situation. You can seamlessly integrate your phone network and data network to provide Least Cost Routing of calls. If a call can be made cheaper and still maintain quality over the Internet, then the box can automatically transport your call over that route instead of using the expensive phone company.

A Penguin PBX configured box system can be setup to allow multiple password-protected conferences with multiple participants. Persons can be provided administrator or general user access, allowing them to either speak without interruption or degenerate into cacophony. Per-user conferences are also available.

If by integration you mean having the system email your voicemail messages as an attachment, then yes it does. UM-Exchange, ODBC-PostgreSQL, or NFS integration are also available.

Your system can be configured to record all calls made on your company's telephones and copy the entire conversations to a CD/DVD/USB thumb drive, or just archive them on an internal hard drive, with optional password-protected encryption of the raw audio files. You can also choose to only record certain phone lines or just specific calls. Selected calls can then easily be emailed to call participants to help remember what exactly was discussed.

With a Penguin PBX configured box, you can choose what MP3 files you want to use for hold music. You can also record information about your company thru your telephone and use that as the hold music. Classical music is installed by default. Limited mixing of music with voice over is available.

Sometimes, it seems a like a black hole, but what you are really in is called an Interactive Voice Response system. Think press 1 for sales, 2 for support and you've got the right idea. Penguin PBX configured boxes can come set with whatever menu structure you want to help your employees and customers easily get the information they need. Hand-drawn call flow charts are some of the best ways to get started with your ideas -- will work with napkins!

Many definitions exist, but what the Penguin PBX configured box offers (with some custom scripting) is the ability to pre-record messages that can then be played back to large batches of telephone numbers. This could come in useful to notify children of school closures due to snow days and such, to alert your regular customers about an upcoming sale, or for politicians looking for a cost-effective method of "getting out the vote."