[clue-tech] Asterisk

[Mike Staver]

Ok, I think I'm understanding a bit more - basically, if I wanted to go 
the easy route, I could install Asterisk on a standard PC or server here 
in the office.  The Asterisk server then simply plugs into my existing 
LAN.  I create a "trunk" that communicates over the network connection 
to a provider.  The provider would allow me to have as many numbers I 
need, which I then forward via Asterisk to the appropriate handsets, 
which also plug into my network.  I can then utilize my existing T1 for 
all of this.  My only concern because prioritizing voice packets over 
anything else. Chris, thanks for the AAH link, I'm reading about it now. 
  It looks easy to set up - my only concern would be if it can handle up 
to 20 employees at a company vs just being a home solution.  I'm 
assuming the channel card is for connecting directly to a T1, which I 
won't be doing at this point.  I will be using existing fax machines 
though - how can you accomplish this, with a different type of channel card?

Chris Hirsch wrote:
> Mike Staver wrote:
>> I apologize if this has been asked before, but I'm researching VoIP
>> for my office in Denver and I have many, many questions.  I'm
>> considering setting up an Asterisk PBX Server, but before I even begin
>> doing that, I need some questions answered from a very newbie
>> perspective.  We have an existing traditional phone system which we
>> rent from the landlords of the building.  I know they have an old PBX
>> running it.  We will have an entirely new system which I hope to
>> piggy-back off our existing T1 line.  So, my largest question is, how
>> does this work?  Meaning, I assume I'll need a provider of some kind
>> of route phone calls to specific numbers to my PBX server running off
>> my T1.  I'm curious as to what my options are and how this works. I
>> would just like a general explanation of how the calls get routed to
>> the PBX running on my network, etc.  Once I get that figured out, I'll
>> start playing with Asterisk and possibly attempting to set it up here.
> For starters I'd suggest taking a look at AAH (Asterisk @ Home
> http://asteriskathome.sourceforge.net/ ). This is probably the easiest
> way to get started with Asterisk and VoIP. As long as you have a old
> computer (PII or so with maybe 128M) you're good to go. AAH give you the
> ease of menu driven setup and  has some of the more popular GUI apps for
> Asterisk already installed. This includes the excellent Sugar CRM,
> Asterisk Management Portal (AMP) and others.
> 
> Nerd Vittles just released today a step by howto on getting AAH setup.
> http://mundy.org/blog/index.php?p=112.
> 
> I've setup several people with AAH and they love it. The trick is of
> course that they are either purely VoIP or POTS and VoIP so I can't help
> you too much with your T1 except to say that you need to one of the
> channel bank cards from Digium
> http://www.digium.com/index.php?menu=product_category&category=hardware
> or another asterisk compatible card.
> 
> The great thing about Asterisk is that it's more of a gateway than just
> a PBX and can convert between POTS/VoIP/T1/younameit so you can mix and
> match.
> 
> Good luck!
> Chris
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