[Asterisk-Users] New to *

[Greg Hill]

On Fri, 3 Sep 2004, Bill Andersen wrote:

> I just ran across the * site.  Looks great.  I do not need a PBX at this
> time, but DO need to replace an old voice mail system.  I'll do my
> homework and figure out the specifics, but before I dive into it all and
> spend a bunch of time only to find out "I didn't understand", is it
> reasonable to think I could configure * to simply act as a voicemail
> system off an existing PBX?  It looks possible to me.
>
> Who knows, I might learn enough about how it all works to actually end
> up replacing my PBX.  But for now, with proper configuration, could it
> "act" as a voice mail system?

yes, that's entirely reasonable. Probably the trickiest bit will be the
actual connection between your PBX and your Asterisk box. This connection
could be made via an x100p card connected to an analog station port on
your PBX (or multiple connections of the same style). From there you'd
have to work out how to transfer a call in the PBX out to Asterisk via the
analog port extension, and how to signal to Asterisk what mailbox is
wanted (or simply make the transfer and use an IVR in Asterisk so that the
caller can choose a mailbox him/herself).

In any case, it's a relatively inexpensive experiment.

Greg