[asterisk-users] Newbie h/w Q, and confirming basic concepts

[Mike Morris]

I'm preparing for my first asterisk install, and would like to ask a
hardware question & confirm my understanding of some basics:

   - The Q: I'm looking for 2 FXO ports to have asterisk answer 2
   incoming lines. There are single FXO port cards for about $30...  but dual
   cards, or the Digium "400" cards, are all several hundred dollars. Why is
   this? Are the chipsets so different, or am I missing something?

And here's my plan to teach myself using increasing complexity:

   - Starting point is standard PC, standard phone line
   - do trixbox install on PC & connect to LAN (no special hardware yet)
   - then I should be able to setup IVR and voice mail boxes, and access
   them using a "soft phone" from any PC on the network, but only"locally",
   using extension numbers, right?
   - I could also plug IP phones directly into the network and access the
   asterisk box "locally", using extension numbers, right?
   - add FXO card(s), and connect incoming lines. Now I can also:
      - dialup the voice mailboxes from any standard phone worldwide
      - Use any of the IP and/or softphones to send and receive calls
      via PSTN, right?
   - add FXS card(s) and I can plug standard phones into the asterisk box
   and I can use them as extensions, to either access voicemail locally, or
   send/receive calls via PSTN ... right ???
   - Now for VoIP I just have to order the service from a vendor like
   vonage, and I can use any of the soft phones, IP phones or standard handsets
   for VoIP... right ??

Do I have any major misconceptions about the above?

Thanks a lot for your patience !!!
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