What's a PBX? Do I need one?

Edwards Finance > Phones

Q. what's a PBX? Do I need one? PBX - some kind of exchange right? Let's you transfer calls? If so... then... it would be really good to have one. I would really need it for my business.

A. Strictly speaking a PBX was where the telephonist connected the call with a jack plug, and rang your telephone by cranking a magneto ;-) OK these days PBX and PABX mean much the same. You might think that a pabx for the home is overkill, Some of us posting here are using Asterisk (aka Trixbox) which is a fully fledged VOIP PABX that runs on almost any old PC. Technically, one that connects to the PSTN and where calls are dialled direct is a PABX (Private Automatic Branch Exchange) but as there are probably very few if any manual ones (PMBX's) around any more the term PBX has stuck. Actually that was a PMBX (Private Manual Branch Exchange). One where calls are dialled direct by extension users is a PABX (Private Automatic Branch Exchange). Both of these connect to the public (PSTN/POTS or whatever you want to call it) network. An internal automatic system which has no connection to the outside world is a PAX (Private Automatic Exchange). These were once very common, particularly in larger organisations, where you would have a PMBX to handle external calls via the company operator, but an automatic system for internal calls. You could always tell where one of these systems was in use as there were two phones on every desk, one on the PMBX (often with no dial) and one on the PAX. Asterisk is still the PBX software. Trixbox is the pre-packaged Linux distro with Asterisk and some other useful sofware pre-configured to make it easier to get a PBX up and running quickly. Trixbox used to be called Asterisk@Home but they felt the name was off-putting for small businesses (a natural enough place to use the product) so they changed it.

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