[Asterisk-Users] newbie problem

[Gary G. Hendershot]

Two items to consider ....

1) make sure you have the connections right ... Your FXO port on the card
(the one you will signal using FXS) is connected to the incoming phone line
...   Your FXS port on the card (the one you will signal using FXO) is
connected to the analog telephone you want to use ...  If you have the card
installed properly and the telephone handset connected to the correct port,
you should get dial tone as soon as you pick up the hook ... 

2) the "sample" dial plan that comes with Asterisk should not be expected to
run as supplied ...  It is just an example of what is possible ... If it
actually works as provided, you got lucky ... You will need to configure a
dial plan that is appropriate for your planned use ...  


Dial 9, is really optional ... You can just as easily define a dial 8 system
if you want to do so ... I use dial 9 for PSTN, dial 8 for SIP VoIP provider
and dial 7 for IAX provider ... A simpler system with only PSTN access might
not use any dial prefix ... Or if you have designed a least cost routing
table that looks at the number dialed and automatically decides what service
to use, you would not use any dial prefix ... Unless you want to give the
caller the option of choosing an outbound path ... There are many options to
consider ...

Best thing to do as you start out is get something simple working ... Get it
to dial out, ring on inbound and accept voicemail ... Once you have it doing
the basics, you will have learned enough getting that far along that some of
the more advanced features will not be so intimidating to tackle ... 

There are many examples of dial plans avaialble for review on the wiki at
www.voip-info.org ... This is an excellent place to get some ideas on how to
setup a dial plan that will do what you want to do ...

Regards

G.Hendershot