[Asterisk-Users] POTS interfacing recommendation

[Steven Critchfield]

On Sun, 2004-01-04 at 08:39, Matthew Bloch wrote:
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> On Sunday 04 January 2004 12:46, rnc Info Lists wrote:
> > Check http://www.telappliant.com  for their VoIP Starter kits or Telephony
> > Cards sections.
> 
> Thanks for the pointer Robert (and from Olle too).  The X100P sounds like a 
> good deal for £60 and should let us get started with Asterisk right away.  
> One further question: can these cards distinguish (and communicate to 
> Asterisk) the difference between the two rings we receive on our one phone 
> line through BT's Callsign service?  I assume not but it would be very useful 
> if so.

The two separate rings sounds like you are asking for what we call
distinctive ring. Multiple phone numbers attached to a single line and
that line will signal the difference via a different ring cadence. This
is supposed to work, but I haven't tried it.

Something to think about on all system deployments is what are the
chances for expansion. Some hardware limits your expansion without
scraping some of your hardware investment. For instance if you go the
X100P route, and you later need 4 physical lines you may not be able to
get this working with X100P cards. But if you go with a T/E100P and a
nice channel bank then you should be able to build up to 24 channels in
a nice mix of in and out lines. Granted it is more investment up front,
but you don't scrap it later when you grow.

I don't know if there is a VoIP provider in your area, but you may wish
to think about the costs of a VoIP provider. You mention that your calls
come in and get forwarded out. In this case a VoIP provider that allows
you to have more than 1 line active or more than one account means you
just do the forward at your office and then the VoIP provider does all
the phone hookups. This also means you won't need to worry about the
ring problem since the dialed number will be transmitted in the VoIP
protocol. Also if your calls are mostly forwarded off, this is a easy
way to later grow to more lines without having any hardware at all to
upgrade.
-- 
Steven Critchfield <critch at basesys.com>