Supported
Supported
Supported
IP Phones
SIP Trunks
Other
Extension management
Trunk Management
System Management
PBX Services
USER MANUAL
Events / Webinars
WEBINAR
Installation V15
WEBINAR
LATEST POSTS
Jul.
13
How to Use Your Own SSL & FQDN Certificate with V15
Jul.
12
Understanding v15 Evaluating or Upgrading
Jun.
8
More Support for Legacy Phones
Jun.
1
Export your Extensions from Asterisk (FreePBX) to 3CX
Apr.
5
Managing Call Pickup Permissions
What is 3CX?
3CX is a software based PBX that works with SIP standard based IP Phones, SIP Trunks and VoIP
Gateways to provide a complete PBX solution without the inflated cost and management
headaches of an old style PBX. The IP PBX supports all traditional PBX features but also includes
many new mobility and productivity features. An IP PBX is also referred to as a VoIP Phone System
or SIP Server.
Calls are sent as data packets over the computer data network instead of the traditional phone
network. Phones share the network with computers so no separate phone wiring is required. With
the use of a VoIP/PSTN gateway, you can connect existing phone lines to the IP PBX to make and
receive phone calls via a regular PSTN line. You can also use a SIP trunk or VoIP provider, which
removes the requirement for a gateway.
SIP Phones
A VoIP phone system requires the use of SIP Phones. These phones are based on the Session
Initiation Protocol (SIP), an industry standard to which all modern IP PBX systems adhere to. The
SIP protocol defines how calls should be established and is specified in RFC 3261. SIP allows the
possibility to mix and match IP PBX software, phones and gateways. This protects your investment
in phone hardware. 3CX supports popular IP Phones out of the box. SIP phones are available in
several versions/types:
3CX Client for Windows (left), 3CX Client for Mac (right)
A software based SIP phone is a program which makes use of your computer's microphone and
speakers, or an attached headset to allow you to make or receive calls. 3CX includes a softphone
for Windows and Mac.
Hardware based SIP phones look and behave like normal phones. They are actually mini computers
that connect directly to the computer network. They have an integrated mini hub, allowing them to
share a network connection point with a computer, eliminating the need for an additional network
point for the phone.
Find out more about the differences between versions from our Features Comparison Page.
Support
3CX Technical Support is available via our Support Portal. Access is free for 3CX Partners. For end
users, 3CX Support packages are available. Review our Support Procedures and Pricing. We also
have Community Forums from where you can obtain user to user support for our products.
3CX maintains a knowledge base / help page. Be sure to use SUPPORTED hardware and SIP
trunks: follow the configuration guides for the make and model of your IP Phones, VoIP gateways,
SIP trunks or Firewall. The configuration guides can be found in the main Support Page.
Installing 3CX
On this topic
Installing 3CX
System Requirements
Supported Operating Systems
Supported VM Platforms
Hardware requirements
Firewall Requirements
Other requirements
Step 1: Preparing Your Host Machine for Installation
Step 2: Install 3CX
Step 3: Run The 3CX Configuration Tool
Upgrading From a Previous Version of 3CX
Step 1: Backup your configuration & Uninstall the old version
Step 2: Install 3CX Phone System v15
See Also
System Requirements
Supported Operating Systems
3CX v15 is supported on the following operating systems: http://www.3cx.com/docs/supportedoperating-systems/.
Supported VM Platforms
3CX Phone System is extensively tested to be run as a VM which eliminates the cost of separate
hardware and adds high availability solutions based on the hypervisor infrastructure. Supported
hypervisor platforms are:
2008
R2
and
above.
See our Hyper-V Page for the specific settings for running 3CX.
Avoid using 3CX Phone System on converted VMs (P2V) because a converted virtual machine
might have timing issues, which causes the guest operating system not to sync with the timer of the
hypervisor.
Hardware requirements
System performance depends on five key factors:
How many simultaneous calls will the system handle.
How many people will simultaneously connect to the presence server.
Based on these factors the hardware can vary from Intel i3 CPUs with 4Gb of RAM up to a multi
socket/core system. General guidelines can be found online in these articles:
Recommended Hardware Specifications for 3CX Phone System
Firewall Requirements
If 3CX is installed behind a NAT device, ports need to be forwarded. See the following guides
detailing the requirements:
The Firewall & Router Configuration Guide provides details on which ports to open.
See also Ports Used by 3CX Phone System for the list of required ports that need to
always be available (not used by any other service).
Other requirements
Just
ONE
default
gateway!
and
File
Additionally:
Do not install VPN software on your 3CX Server.
Ensure that all power saving options for your System and Network adapters are disabled
3CX Phone System must not be installed on a host which is a DNS or DHCP server, has
MS SharePoint or Exchange services installed.
dynamic IP. A dynamic IP will change at certain intervals. Although 3CX will detect the IP
change and update the FQDN accordingly, until it does so your calls will not route.
6. Select the network interface which is connected to the internet / public IP you specified. If
you have multiple interfaces ensure this interface is the only default route!
7. The PBX configuration tool will now detect whether you are using NAT or not based on
your IP. If its Local IP, and thus you are behind a NAT, you will have to configure your
firewall / router accordingly. More informationhere.
8. 3CX requires a fully resolvable FQDN and a matching SSL certificate for security. This
allows 3CX to work seamlessly in and out of the office. To ease setup, you can choose a
3CX supplied FQDN and Lets encrypt certificate. This is provided FREE of charge in the
first year and requires only valid maintenance in subsequent years. If you wish, you can
configure your own FQDN and upload your own SSL certificate.
3CX provided FQDN and trusted SSL certificate - You will be prompted for your preferred
domain suffix. The configuration tool will then setup your FQDN on the 3CX DNS servers
and proceed to generate a trusted SSL certificate via the Lets Encrypt service. 3CX
provides this service free of charge in the first year and as part of the maintenance
package for subsequent years!
Your own FQDN and SSL certificate - You will have to create an FQDN and configure your
DNS accordingly, as well as upload a trusted SSL certificate. You can use the Lets
Encrypt if you wish. You will be asked for a pfx, cer or crt file and optional passwords. Note
we no longer support self signed certificates.
9. Specify whether you have a DNS server which you can manage (for example Microsoft
DNS):
I manage my DNS, use single FQDN - In this case we recommend using a single
FQDN, for example:mycompany.3cx.us. The FQDN must resolve on your LAN to the
machine on which 3CX Phone System is installed, and from the internet it must resolve to
your Public IP. You will need to use Split DNS on your router/DNS Server. More
10. Select which web ports you wish to use for the management console. Use alternative
ports only if 80 or 443 are already in use.
11. The configuration tool will now configure 3CX according to your preferences and start up
the services. This configuration may take some time. Afterwards you can login to the
management console to continue setup.
If you are running an old version of 3CX (9, 10) you must upgrade to v11 SP 4a, and then to v12 SP
6.1 before following this upgrade procedure. If you are using 3CX v12 SP 6.1 you must go to v12.5
first. From v12.5, to retain call logs, you must go to v14 first. On v14 you can go to v15 directly.
SUPPORTED
IP Phones
SIP Trunks
Other
Trunk Management
System Management
PBX Services
USER MANUAL
Installing & Configuring 3CX
Events / Webinars
WEBINAR
7/18/2016, 12:00:00 PM
WEBINAR
Installation V15
7/19/2016, 12:00:00 PM
WEBINAR
LATEST POSTS
Jul.
13
How to Use Your Own SSL & FQDN Certificate with V15
Jul.
12
Understanding v15 Evaluating or Upgrading
Jun.
8
More Support for Legacy Phones
Jun.
1
Export your Extensions from Asterisk (FreePBX) to 3CX
Apr.
5
Managing Call Pickup Permissions
Introduction
Once you have installed 3CX, or else obtained a hosted instance of 3CX, you will need to go through
a number of steps to prepare 3CX for your company:
1. Run the 3CX Setup Wizard
2. Create Extensions
3. Configure a SIP Trunk or VoIP Gateway
4. Deploy IP Phones
1. Extension Length - Choose the number of digits that extension numbers should have.
This cannot be altered later. Click Next.
2. Administrator Email - Enter the Administrator Email Address that will receive notifications.
Click Next.
3. Mail server - Fill in the details of the SMTP server that will be used to send out email
notifications. If you dont have a mail server available, you can use a regular Gmail
account! See this Gmail as Mail Server guide for more information. Click Next.
4. Region and Time Zone - Select your country and time zone and click Next.
5. Operator & Voice Mail Extensions - Create an Operator Extension (Enter name and email
address). This will be the default destination for inbound calls. Now select a VoiceMail
Extension number - users will retrieve their voicemail on this number. Click Next.
6. Allowed Countries - Specify the countries or regions to which you want to allow calls to.
Calls to countries which are not selected will be blocked. This feature reduces the risk of
VoIP toll fraud. Click Next.
7. System prompts Language - 3CX Phone System ships with a US English prompt set by
default. Prompts are recorded voice files that are played by the system to callers and
users of the system. For example, when a user picks up their voice mail, the system
prompts will instruct the user what buttons to press in order to hear or delete voice
messages. You can select a different prompt set from the drop down.
8. Registration - During initial setup, you entered the license that you either purchased or
obtained when downloading 3CX. With proper registration details you will get one year
free maintenance as well as access to the end user portal. Check that your Company,
Contact Name, E-mail, Telephone, Country and optional Reseller Name are correct. These
details are reviewed by 3CX prior to activating your free maintenance. If you need to
correct the details, enter them and click Update. Note: If you run DPI (Deep Packet
Inspection), license key activations will be rejected for security purposes.
9. Click Finish. 3CX is now configured and you can start to create extensions.
Import the users from a .csv file including parameters such as DID.
Import the users from another phone system such as Asterisk and create the extensions.
Introduction
If you plan to use remote extensions or a VoIP Provider, you will have to make changes to your
firewall configuration, in order for 3CX Phone System to communicate successfully with your SIP
trunks and remote IP Phones. This chapter gives you a generic overview of the ports that need to be
opened/statically forwarded on your firewall. We also have detailed guides for popular firewalls that
take you step by step to the correct configuration of your firewall.You can learn more about Routers,
NAT, VoIP and Firewalls in this article.
Step 1: Configure the ports for your SIP Trunk / VoIP Provider
Open the following ports to allow 3CX Phone System to communicate with the VoIP Provider/SIP
Trunk & WebRTC:
Port 5060 (inbound, UDP) for SIP communications
Port 9000-9500 (inbound, UDP) for RTP (Audio) communications, which contain the actual
call. Each call requires 2 RTP ports, one to control the call and one for the call data.
Therefore, you must open twice as many ports if you wish to support simultaneous calls.
Note that the above port ranges are the default ports in 3CX Phone System. You can adjust these
ports from the 3CX Management Console, in the Settings > Network node.
Provisioning
PUSH messages are sent by 3CX Phone System to Extensions using smartphones in order to wake
up the devices to take calls. This greatly enhances the usability of the smartphone clients.
recommended to allow traffic to the fqdn rather then to the ip address when possible)
Port 443 (inbound, TCP unless you have chosen custom ports) to notify users of incoming
web meetings