I setup Trixbox on an Dell Precision 360. I ported my old POTS line over to a pay-as-you-go through Teliax because we weren't using more than 500 minutes a month on the home line.
When a caller rings in, I screen the call with time-of-day routing. In general, if the call comes before 7:30 AM or after 10:30 PM, it isn't going to ring through (we had 'problems' with my father-in-law calling us at 7:00 on Saturday to see what we were doing). Instead, they get a voice menu with me politely telling the caller we're not accepting calls at that time. But, I added a code of '111' to that menu and gave it to the family. If they are calling with an emergency, they enter that code and it rings all the extensions in the house plus both of our cell phones. The first one to pickup grabs the call. If calls aren't restricted by TOD, they have to get past privacy manager and blacklist before they will ring some of the extensions (did this with a ring group). If nobody picks up, they are dropped into a voice menu that allows them to leave either of us messages or transfer to our cell phones. This way we can just give everyone a single number and not worry about letting out our cell phone numbers. Of course, calls to the cell phones are confirmed so when one comes in, we have to hit 1 on the cell if we want to accept the call... otherwise its back into VM for the caller. Of course, voicemails are sent via e-mail to my wife and I and I also setup an Aastra 57i on my desk at work that connects to the company server on line 1 and to the home box on line 2. I even got a second line from Teliax in August and set it up to only ring the phone at work. I used this line while I was setting up the wife's surprise 30th birthday party. It was brilliant because guests could call me and there was no trace of the call on my cell phone where she might see it and it didn't ring the home phones. I'm not doing anything really cool like pausing the TV but the setup has worked very well and has given us control over the phone. Instead of us being slaves to when people call, they get through at our pleasure now. It has been a big improvement. (plus it has impressed some of my friends!) Jason -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of D4rk F1ber Sent: Monday, October 08, 2007 6:54 PM To: asterisk-users@lists.digium.com Subject: [asterisk-users] How are you using Asterisk at Home ? I am very new to Asterisk, it was a weekend project of mine that I jumped into this weekend. I have it up and working on a box at home, and I am nearly half way through the book I purchased friday "Asterisk: The Future of Telephony 2nd Edition". Anyway, I started this out so I could help a friend who wanted a VoIP PBX solution for his small business. I have been working with Cisco Callmanager for about 6 years now, and prior to that did help manage other PBXs as well as work on various Motorola VoFR projects as well. My friend came to me and well everything I deal with is really for larger businesses, and since I had heard about Asterisk in the past I thought it would be a good reason to finally jump into it. And what a jump it has been. Only scratching the surface with this thing and well I am very impressed with what I have seen so far. The main point for me writting others is to find out how others are using Asterisk for the home? Bit of over kill for most I am sure, and to be honest we (Wife, kid and I) don't even have a home phone anymore. After playing with this though, shesh I could have fun with it at home. :-) Thinking about getting a SIP line or trunk or something to tie into this for home usage. One of the next projects for me personally is to get a SIP client for my Cingular/AT&T 8525, it has wifi and hsdpa running Windows Mobile 6 and I am certain I have run across SIP clients before for these things. Be fun to play with and get working. So yes I am asking because I am unimaginative and need ideas on selling this to the wife. :-) That and I am just curious about what others feel are useful uses for it within the home, and what others get excited about regarding it all. _______________________________________________ --Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com-- asterisk-users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users _______________________________________________ --Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com-- asterisk-users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users