[Asterisk-Users] Looking for recommendations for home office setups

[James Harrell]

Thanks Steve,

>First, thanks for the very nicely prepared (and well thought-out) message.
>...

I've tried to do my initial research, but with the list archive as big
as this one is... I'm certain I've missed many pertinent posts. Sorry
if this has been rehashed many times in the past. Going out on a limb
below and asking more questions that will likely indicate a bit of
ignorance on the topic. :)


>If your solution ends up being an asterisk box at each location, you can do
>this with 1 X100P and a 2-port TDM400P.

I am hoping to avoid multiple asterisk servers simply from a management
perspective. My ideal scenario would include one asterisk box at a central
location managing several CPE type devices that have the FXO & FXS embedded.
Preferably these CPE devices could be managed by the asterisk to be used
for the call routing scenario previously described. Would that require the
CPE to support IAX or would SIP be sufficient? I think the answer to the
question is the device would need to support IAX- hence the consideration
for multiple asterisk boxes. Any embedded-type CPE devices around that
natively support IAX, have at least one FXS and one FXO?

Something along the lines of the LinkSys BEFN2PS4:
http://www.linksys.com/products/product.asp?grid=34&scid=29&prid=163
 - though I understand this product is tied to Net2Phone. No chance
   of getting it to work on an Asterisk network, right?

Or maybe the ZipCom VOIP TA
http://www.zipcom.com.tw/zipcom/products/bata.htm
 - which looks a lot like the device I'm looking for, but probably not
   exactly, and maybe not managable through asterisk. The limited literature
   provided on this box indicates it switches an incoming PSTN call directly
   to the attached analog phone rather than routing it through to asterisk.
   Appears to only support SIP & H323, can't find a retial source anyway. ;)

If all else fails, I'm not *completely* averse to multiple asterisk boxes-
just trying to avoid it.

Regards,
James