[Asterisk-Users] looking for newbie resources

[Steven M. Sawczyn]

Hi,  I am very interested in VOIP and telephony in general, although
admittedly, I don't know much about the theories and protocols behind it.
Having also an interest in Linux, I was really excited to come upon
Asterisk.  I would really like to learn more about Asterisk and VOIP in
general and am wondering if anyone could suggest some beginner resources?
Of course I've found that the best way to learn something is to just dive in
and try it, but I don't think I'm ready to tackle installing Asterisk yet.

I'm running Slackware Linux on a machine which at the moment, is just
hosting mail.  In addition, I have accounts with both Vonage and Broadvoice.
My idea is to set up a mini PBX here at home using both VOIP providers as my
main lines and using my LAN to connect a few extensions.  Might this be a
good way to start learning, or am I way off track?

Again, I am very new to this, so any info/resources/suggestions greatly
appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Steve