[Asterisk-Users] newbie questions

[Steven Critchfield]

First tip, use a descriptive subject line.

On Wed, 2005-03-02 at 15:14 -0500, Jean-Francois Theroux wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> 	At the office we have a Lucent PBX, which has 3 lines coming from the 
> CO. 2 are used for phones, 1 for fax. In the office, we have 16 phones. 
> All those are connected in the PBX. We do not have an automated system 
> nor voicemail system for now. But this is something we would like to 
> have now. Since we do a lot of work with Linux, I was asked to look into 
> asterisk to deplace our PBX. Software-wise, I don't have any problems 
> yet, doesn't look too bad hard to configure.
> 
> 	Now, I know I would need a quad-port FXO card for our lines coming in 
> from the CO in that PC. What would be the best way to connect all those 
> 16 digital phones to the Asterisk box? I could always buy quad-ports FXS 
> cards for now, as we don't use the 16 phones, but I don't think that's 
> going to work well in the future when the company grows and we require 
> more phones.

Unless the phones are IP phones, you won't be able to use them directly.
You may wish to look at what is possible with your current PBX to put
asterisk to the side of it to handle your IVR and/or your voicemail. You
could even use it as a VoIP gateway. It all depends on what features
your current PBX will allow you to implement. 

If you would rather replace your PBX completely with asterisk, you
really need to look at a T1 and a channel bank. Adtran and CAC Adit 600
units are modular. The Adit units use 8 port cards to get service. So
you could have an 8 port FXO card and 2 8 port FXS port cards. This
would let you hook up 8 incoming lines and 16 extensions. Of course
since all the channels are programmable, you get a third FXS port and
you can mix and match ports 1-8 FXO and 16-24 FXS ports as long as you
don't exceed 24 ports.


-- 
Steven Critchfield <critch at basesys.com>