[Asterisk-Users] Interfacing with an existing phone system

[Anon]

On Thursday 22 April 2004 07:05 pm, Joel Duffield wrote:
> We want to use asterisk to extend our current phone system. It is a
> regular plain old system. Has anyone done this before?
Absolutely - in a lot of different ways.

> We would be 
> adding about 4 SIP (probably Cisco) phones to use with asterisk. What
> kind of card will I need to use for this, FXS or FXO.
Neither of those types of cards.  You will need an ethernet card/connection to 
use a SIP phone.  Also, before you pay all that money for new phones, you 
could test/learn using asterisk with free softphones.

> Also does anyone have any ideas what the best way to go about this is,
> should I just forward existing lines to specific phones (just to save on
> running new telephone cabling)
Many of the SIP phone have a built-in ethernet switch.  Plug the phone's 
ethernet port into your network, then plug the computer at that station into 
the phone's ethernet port.  You would not need any new/more cabling.

> or would there be any simple ways to make 
> a small menu and just put one more layer before they get through?
Asterisk is very flexible.  Chances are you can do whatever you need - with 
some learning.  ;)

Anon