[Asterisk-biz] Installation for a small office, looking for advice

[Brian Mathis]

I have been doing some research on Asterisk and I'm excited about what I 
see, and would love to use it.  However, I'm a Linux guy of 10 years and 
not a phone guy.  I've been trying to wade through all the phone lingo 
and acronyms, but frankly they make my head spin :).  Hopefully someone 
here can give me some direction in what I'd like to accomplish.

We'd like to go with a business class VOIP provider that can provide us 
with at least 2 phone numbers, 1 for a main line and the other for a 
fax.  Any recommendations on companies that work well with Asterisk?

Where I'm really stuck is what I need to connect the office phones to 
the system.  We will have regular phone lines, as well as ethernet in 
each office.  I will need to use at least 1 regular phone line for the 
fax machine.  What hardware do you recommend for this?  We are open to 
buying new phones if need be.

Is anyone else using this type of setup?  I want to make sure that we 
can also do things like call on hold, call transfer, conference, etc...

Thanks for any direction you can give me.