[Asterisk-Users] need some advice

[p80]

On Wednesday 24 November 2004 03:39 am, Ed Greenberg wrote:
> OK, here's my simple explanation...
>
> Incoming service, called FXO... that is, telephone offices (lines): These
> need to be terminated in your asterisk box. Digium sells a variety of
> hardware for the purpose. I use a TDM400 card which takes four little
> modules. I have two FXO modules for my two lines.
what exactly do you call modules? is it hardware or software? sorry for 
knowing so little :)


> Incoming service via VOIP. Many VOIP services can terminate directly in
> your asterisk box. Some require that you use THEIR hardware (like Vonage).
> If the latter kind, you will have to use another FXO module or change VOIP
> providers.
I can plug my VoIP directly into a regular phones right now so I guess it 
should be ok.

> Analog telephone sets are terminated in FXS ports. Again, Digium makes
> several options. I terminate two sets in my TDM400 card. One is a cordless
> phone. The other is a regular telephone.
>
> Digital (voip) phones need to be added to the network. Most of these are
> expensive, even on eBay, but heck, we are doing this for fun, not to same
> money, right? You can plug these phones into your hubs or plug them into
> wifi with an ethernet to wifi bridge. I haven't tried this, but I am going
> to work on it over Thanksgiving unless we go away. I'll certainly post my
> results.
>
> If you have a free PCI card in your Debian box, you could install a TDM400
> with one FXO and three FXS cards. You could wire your analog line and your
> analog phones to the back of the Debian box. You could also buy some IP
> phones.

I looked on http://www.digium.com/index.php?menu=wildcard_tdm400p2 but I 
didn't really get it. I have to buy a TDM400 PCI card and then I need add 
other FXO or FXS cards to this PCI cards?  so i need to buy several other 
cards for it (which wouldn't be a problem, I'm just a little confused)?

> Feel free to question on this.
another newbie question, if i want to use a regular cordless phone, can I plug 
it into my TDM400 digium card (in addition to my 2 phones lines)? I guess 
that's how it works right?  I think I'm gonna go this way cause wifi VoIP 
phone are a bit expensive right now although I might want to try them 
later :)

thanx for all your answers

Pat