I think ssh will give you trouble; I wouldn't try tunneling that way. Other people can answer better when it comes to securing your calls.
Some stuff I _can_ respond to:
2 - Server.
My asterisk box sports an AMD k6 300 and 384MB of RAM. It's just me, mind you, but it works wonderfully.
3 - Client-side. What's the best PC-based client-side software to use to interface with the IP side of Asterisk? Must work in Windows and be VERY easy to configure.
Try Gizmo (SIP client)
4 - Bandwidth.
Is there a router involved on the employee end that handles QoS properly (eg. a WRT54G)? If so, don't worry about what the user is doing too much. If not, ask others how you might implement it. At the 'rents we have a WRT54GL, and I've had multiple bittorrents going while on a call. HTH, CMP -- Cristobal M. Palmer UNC-CH SILS Student TriLUG Vice Chair [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] ils.unc.edu/~cmpalmer "Television-free since 2003" < crimsun> the running joke among the Ubuntu archive staff is that we should name the hosts after Aztec deities for great can't-remember-how-to-spell-or-pronounce justice < crimsun> ssh xuihtecuhtli -- TriLUG mailing list : http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/trilug TriLUG Organizational FAQ : http://trilug.org/faq/ TriLUG Member Services FAQ : http://members.trilug.org/services_faq/
