ultimate server

technoboi

hello.
i have recently set up a windows server on a old computer and there are a few things i would like the server to do but i don't know how.

1.connect the server to the phone line and have all the calls routed through the server and then the caller can press 1 for office 1 and so on, or if the office is closed it will play a message. the same as what company use for support when you call them.

2.route all the internet through the server the same as they have in hotels where you have to pay for the internet or enter your room number and surname.

thanks very much.
technoboi

Fysh

For 1, you need some PBX (Private Branch Exchange) software that will emulate a phone switchboard. A quick google search led me here which claims to offer a "fully functional free Windows PBX" product in exchange for your information. I have no idea if it's any good or if the company will spam you into an early grave if you give them your real info, so buyer beware.

For 2, it's a bit more complicated. First, you'll need at least two network interface cards on the computer - one to connect to the private network you want to administer (the network to which your clients/guests connect), and the second one to connect to the outside world. You'll need to configure the DHCP Server role to allow visitors to connect to the network, and you'll need to configure Routing & Remote Access so that machines on the private network can route to the outside world. (There's some advice here for Windows Server 2000 - the specifics may change but the principles should be the same).

The payment-processing part is a different matter, and gets more complex to implement the easier you want it to be at point of use. For example, a simple solution to implement (but tedious to use) might be to use a RADIUS server to filter incoming wireless network registration requests and reject anyone who hasn't contacted the admin, registered their wireless MAC and paid for X hours of internet access. You configure the DHCP server to give an IP address to any machine that asks for one, and configure the RADIUS server to reject any requests not specified in its configuration.

If you want to offer something like what a modern hotel has, where you connect to an open wireless network and either log in with credentials or pay to obtain access directly using your credit card, you'll need to add authentication (so Active Directory) and probably setting up two networks with a DMZ - one network being open to all, the other being open only to paying & authenticated customers.

technoboi

thanks very much Fysh
just a quick question in reply.
for the PBX do i need any hardware other than a modem or two.
and for question 2. when you said the server is connected to the internal and external network do i need a router on the network or does the server act as a router.

technoboi

technoboi wrote: »

thanks very much Fysh
just a quick question in reply.
for the PBX do i need any hardware other than a modem or two.
and for question 2. when you said the server is connected to the internal and external network do i need a router on the network or does the server act as a router.

I'd assume you would need a some sort of modem to connect to the ISPs network (external network).

Fysh

technoboi wrote: »

thanks very much Fysh
just a quick question in reply.
for the PBX do i need any hardware other than a modem or two.

Unfortunately I don't know, so the answer will most likely be "It depends on the software you use". I would have thought you could at least get a basic PBX service running with just a modem for each line that you need to handle.

Another quick google led me here, where another allegedly-full-functioning PBX product is offered free of charge, and which claims to be able to use Voice Modems for connecting to PSTN lines as well as telephony boards, which would probably be of more interest if you were wanting a scalable solution.

technoboi wrote: »

and for question 2. when you said the server is connected to the internal and external network do i need a router on the network or does the server act as a router.

Most routers that we use for domestic networking handle a variety of tasks - the DHCP servicing (for handing out private IP addresses like 192.168.55.21), and the gateway provisioning (by acting as an interface between the single outbound connection provided by your ISP and however many terminals you have on your home network), along with possibly MAC filtering (analogous to RADIUS, in a sense), VPN tunneling or whatever else you've got it doing.

So what you'd do with the server is configure each service that you need manually and get it to take the place of the router. It's a bit more fiddly but gives you a lot more control.

technoboi

thanks Fysh and LaughingJoker91 ye were a great help, ill give that a shot and hope for the best the Axon software looks a bit better but ill give a deeper look at the specs.

technoboi

hey guys
i have the routing and remote access setup on the server and dhcp.
i have the second adapter pointing to the router ( this is just to check if it works) and i am given a ip. with this dhcp ip i only have limited access, meaning i can connect to server,router, computers and my isp but it stops there.( it might be the nap/ radius server).
my question is, my isp uses pppoe to give me a ip and so on. how do i use the pppoe connection on the server with the second adapter only.
and is it possible to have the server running 2 networks eg: the dhcp server gives out ip's 10.0.0.5 and router as 10.0.0.1. the we can use a static ip of 12.0.0.5 and router of 12.0.0.1 .

ps. the phone system will require me to buy a voip gateway ( very expensive )
regards
technoboi

technoboi

hey guys
I figured out how to set up the routing and remote access with a pppoe connection.
I uploaded a video to youtube helping people with the same problem i had to set up the RRAS server.
the video can be found at http://youtu.be/bF95gex_EfA
regards