On 8/1/07, <b class="gmail_sendername">Linux Lover</b> <<a href="mailto:linuxlover992000@yahoo.com">linuxlover992000@yahoo.com</a>> wrote:<div><span class="gmail_quote"></span><div><br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
But one thing that I forgot to mention is that my<br>business is only in its beginning stage and I need to<br>be as thrifty as possible. While $216 is a reasonable<br>price, I was wondering whether my (currently very<br>modest) goal can be achieved by spending much less
<br>(under $100). For example, what if I buy one of those<br>el-cheapo PBX boxes and connect it to an Asterisk<br>server?<br><br><a href="http://www.soho-pbx.com/sp-104.htm">http://www.soho-pbx.com/sp-104.htm</a><br><br>Do you think this could work for me or did I expose a
<br>gross misconception on my part?</blockquote><div><br>This SOHO PBX box won't interop with Asterisk because it doesn't speak any of the protocols that Asterisk does. This box appears to be a solid-state (and I'd assume very feature restricted) alternative to Asterisk. That it happens to have both FXO (to the Telco) and FXS (to the analog phone) ports doesn't mean that it is usable as an analog interface for Asterisk.
<br></div><br></div>Your best bet is to find your closest Asterisk user's group and see when they're next doing a build seminar. Most user groups do these a few times a year and you might be able to find someone who will do one on demand. You bring some cheapo PC you might have lying around and buy a $20 FXO card and build a simple answering machine using Asterisk. From there, it's easy to extend so that when the user chooses a particular option in your IVR, the call is bridged to a phone in your office.
<br><br>The original single-FXO-port card from Digium was the X100P. These aren't sold anymore (the TDM400B modular card replaced it), but they can be found on eBay for $10-$30. If you can get your hands on one, you might consider going with a cheap SIP phone instead of a analog phone for your business. There isn't (as far as I know) a readily available cheap single-FXS-port card. If you go with an analog phone behind Asterisk, you'll need an FXS port. If you go with a SIP phone, you just need to have a network connection from the phone to the server, which might be cheaper. A quick search on eBay shows a few Grandstream Budgetone 101 phones (certainly not the best available, but they'll do the job) in the sub-$50 range.
<br clear="all"><br>-- <br>j.