[Asterisk-Users] Vonage, PSTN, 911, and hardware question

[Greg Hill]

On Sat, 9 Oct 2004, Rajeev Sharma wrote:

> Thanks for the reply. Well, unfortunately, 911 and power outage service
> is a problem for me.  However, ignoring that, there are still three main
> questions that I definitely need answered:
>
> 1. Calls in through PSTN line and out through VOIP (Vonage) line- will this work?

You can configure * to route your calls any way you like. So yes, you can
write an extensions.conf which will receive calls via PSTN and send them
out via VOIP. In fact, you could send local calls back out via PSTN and
only long-distance via VOIP (but you probably want to keep outbound calls
off the PSTN so that it's available for inbound, right?).

> 2. Would I still have to use the Vonage ATA and plug the phone-line out
> into my * box, or do I just plug an ethernet cable straight into the *
> box?

The only known (that I know of :) way to connect * directly to vonage is
to sign up for their service with an ATA and then add to your account a
softphone account. They'll give you the SIP credentials for the softphone
account, and this is what you feed to *. I guess the ATA just sits there,
or you get an x100p card, sipura 3000, grandstream, etc to connect the
ATA-provided POTS into *. Or just deal with connecting the ATA through an
adapter and forget the softphone thing.

You probably mentioned this before.. but why Vonage? Since you're using
the PSTN for receiving calls and VOIP for placing calls, why not go with
another, more enlightened, vendor? Everybody offers US domestic long
distance cheap as dirt, and most other vendors' plans are less expensive
than Vonage's anyway. The main advantage here is that you get to work with
a vendor who will provide you with SIP (or IAX, or something else)
credentials to make your * box talk directly to them.

> 3. I'm not going to use a VOIP-only phone, so I would like to use the
> phone jacks in my house. I was going to plug in a phone line out of the
> * box and plug it into one plug, so the phones would work in parallel
> (that's what everybody does I think). Does this mean I would need three
> X100P cards? (I would buy something like the Wildcard TE410P, but $1495
> is a little steep if you ask me. ;))

First we better make clear what the x100p card does: you use it to
terminate a line which has battery power provided by the other end. You'd
connect it to a regular landline, or to the output of an ATA, etc. You
would not use it to provide battery power to a phone. You need an ATA-type
device for this. Your options are an internal PCI card or an ATA (cisco,
sipura, grandstream, or other).

Once you've got the right device, you should be able to wire your phones
to it. Depends on the phones, though: if they're the type with a real
ringer in them, then you won't be able to connect many because these
actually place an electrical load on the line. But the electronic types,
especially cordless phones, place very little load on the line and a
single device could support more of these than the "real ringer" types.

Greg


>
> dean collins wrote:
> > Rajeev,
> > 1. I have a packet 8 service connected to my X100P card, works fine.
> > 2. as for power outages, buy a ups or lets face it that's what mobiles
> > are for. As for 911 I think this is just crap, when was the last time
> > you called 911?
> > 3. Yes your hardware is sufficient
> >
> > Best way to get started is to use one of the how to guides and grow from
> > there.
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Dean
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com
> > [mailto:asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Rajeev
> > Sharma
> > Sent: Saturday, October 09, 2004 10:20 AM
> > To: asterisk-users at lists.digium.com
> > Subject: [Asterisk-Users] Vonage, PSTN, 911, and hardware question
> >
> > Hi. I've never deployed a Asterisk system before, so go easy on me. :)
> > I'd really appreciate if you
> > answered these questions:
> >
> > 1. Is it possible to use Asterisk with Vonage VOIP service? (I'm talking
> > about the "Premium
> > Unlimited" plan.) I think I've seen something about plugging the phone
> > line from the ATA into a
> > Digium card, but I'm guessing it would be a lot easier to just bypass
> > the ATA.
> >
> > 2. Phone availibility during a power outage is a big concern. I'm
> > planning on keeping my regular
> > PSTN line around for emergencies and 911 dialing (so that 911 calls
> > actually go to the 911 center,
> > along with my address). Is there an easy way for all the phone jacks in
> > my house to automatically be
> > switched to the PSTN line if my broadband goes out? I'm also planning on
> > hacking together a powered
> > switch so that when the computer's power supply goes down, the line gets
> > switched fully to the PSTN
> > line, but I'm hoping somebody can give me a better solution.
> >
> > 3. I'm assuming it would be (relatively) easy to configure Asterisk to
> > dial out through VOIP and
> > answer through PSTN. Is this correct?
> >
> > 4. Hardware. I'm planning on using a Pentium III 500Mhz computer,
> > running Debian Linux (probably
> > Woody, maybe Sarge if it's stable by the time I build this system).
> > Assuming I have 1 PSTN line and
> > up to 3 VOIP lines, would this be enough? Also, which phone card would
> > you recomend? I'm kind of
> > confused about which card to buy (I've only looked at the Digium site as
> > of now), and they all seem
> > extremely expensive. (I was expecting to spend ~$50, but oh well.)
> >
> > Anyway, that's all I can think of now. I'm sure I'll think of more
> > questions later. Thanks in advance!
> >
> > -Rajeev