I am interested in learning Asterisk and have DSL (1 static IP) and a single POTS line at home. I have an Ethernet LAN running behind a Linksys router using NAT. My question is only about the hardware needed at this point. The software configuration I will read about and learn. So what hardware do I need to do the following? 1) Route incoming calls from the existing POTS line to 8 regular phones. (Work no differently than without Asterisk) 2) Sign up with a VOIP provider, get a few numbers and route each VOIP number to a subset of above phones. (e.g., One VoIP number rings 2 or 3 of the 8 phones, first phone to pick up gets the call, or even better, all 2 or 3 phones can hear the call. Is this possible? How well do fax machines work over VoIP?) 3) Outgoing calls will use VoIP provider if available, POTS line if not. 4) 911 will always use POTS line. 5) I want to use regular phones, not IP or SIP phones.
I should ask first, is what I want to do possible? I've read the documents and manuals, but it is still all rather confusing. This is the hardware I think I would need in a Linux box running Asterisk, please correct if I am wrong: 1) One FXO module to connect Asterisk Linux box with POTS line 2) A FXS module for each regular phone in my house 3) Some module for connecting to the VOIP provider (Is this just the Ethernet NIC?) Can someone please provide me with the appropriate hardware product models for what I need? What is the lowest cost way to do this? If things cost too much, it may be too expensive a hobby to indulge in, at least until I win the lottery. =) And some general miscellaneous questions I have about telephony/Asterisk: 1) With the above setup, would I be able to just add SIP phones onto the Ethernet LAN in the future? 2) With just one POTS line, I wouldn't be able to have multiple POTS phone numbers, is that correct? 3) How do phone calls come over a T1 line? I thought T1 is for data. Are those strictly for VoIP calls? Is this where a TE410P is used? Thanks for your help. _______________________________________________ Asterisk-Users mailing list [email protected] http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
