[Asterisk-Users] Newbie Questions

[Matt G]

Hi everyone,

I'm going to be helping to set * up for the company I work for, and in 
doing all my research about it, have found it to be a very viable 
solution for my SOHO side business at home. I do however have a few 
questions, forgive me if they're stupid but I'm new to all of this.

1. I want to be able to handle 3 analogue phone lines, with a regular 
bell telephone line coming into the house. So am I to assume that I want 
one PCI card for a P300mhz or above with three FXS ports and one FXO 
port? (the TDM31B). Am I correct in the card that I want?

2. Relating to my first question, say I instead get a card with only one 
FXS port and one FXO port, can I 'chain' my phones together from the one 
FXS port and still get the same functionality? (what i mean is one phone 
line coming out, with a splitter going to my three telephones)?

3. In the future I will be wanting to upgrade to VOIP capabilities for 
my SOHO Long Distance, is this as simple as getting another card with a 
T1 interface and an interface port for the phone, then plug it into my 
existing LAN to get internet connectivity, and still use the TDM31B for 
regular analogue conversations?

4. Does * support 'ring tone identification' ? Currently I have the 
outside line coming into the house, then it's split to go off to two 
phones, then from one of the phones the 'second extension jack' is going 
to my fax machine, which recognizes the distinctive ring the phone 
company gave me for the fax #. Will this still work with asterix, or 
would the fax machine have to be coming directly off the port on the PCI 
card?

5. Relating back to the splitting of the phone lines, if I have a card 
with two FXS jacks, and one FXO, and I only wanted two extensions on the 
line (upstairs, downstairs), could I chain the upstairs lines on one 
analogue line, and then if i transfer a caller to that extension it will 
ring on both phones upstairs?


Hopefully I'm clear on my questions,
Thanks a lot in advance.
Matt Gibson
Unix Administrator
Experthost / NJ Tech Solutions