[Asterisk-Users] Newbie questions from South Africa: Initial setup

[Richard Howes]

Hi All,

I have been researching Asterisk for a few days now and have read
hundreds of web pages and other documents. While some things are getting
clearer, others are not.

I have managed to install Asterisk 1.0.1 on Debian testing (simple as
'apt-get install asterisk'). I understand FXS/FXO, codecs available,
feature and functionality available etc. I have found several "Getting
Started" docs. None have proved good enough to get a system working (or
to understand how).

So my questions:

1. Is there anynone on this list from South Africa using Asterisk?
2. How can I setup a minimal system for testing.

Question 2 can be as simple as two SIP phones on my LAN. Preferrable
would be to setup my ISDN 2a lines but I cannot figure out how to
connect and setup ISDN on Asterisk. I have four MSN numbers on my ISDN
2a line.

I think its possible to set this up with an internal ISDN card and soft
phones but I am unsure if this is possible (and if so I definitely don't
know where to start). Better would be being able to set this up with an
external 3COM ISDN "modem" since I aready have one but I suspect this is
not possible.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I feel like I have all the info
scattered through my brain and research docs, but distilling it into a
plan of action to get a working system is proving very difficult.

Thank in advance all.

Richard Howes
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ResRequest
www.resrequest.com