[Asterisk-Users] voicemail/privacy system

[Roy Kidder]

Hello all.

I'm relatively new to Asterisk, and before I get too involved in it, I
want to find out if it will do what I'd like it to do (I'm relatively sure
it can).

In short, my goal is to set up a voicemail system and privacy manager for
my home. For my proof of concept, I have a single port FXO card attached
to a single POTS line. Currently, the FXO card sits "in parallel" to my
phone. If I can get the answering/routing working the way I want, I'd
upgrade that to a TDM11B and put my phone on the FXS side, completely
"hidden" from the telco network.

The privacy manager part is similar to the residental product many telcos
are offering these days: when a call comes in with no caller-id, play a
message stating that such calls aren't accepted and hang up.

The voicemail part is also similar to what telcos are offering. When an
incoming call (with caller-id, of course) comes in and isn't answered,
it's routed to an attendant that allows the caller to press "1" to leave a
message for "Joe" or "2" to leave a message for "Jane", etc.

So basically, the end product would be a single incoming line with a
single physical extension and multiple "virtual" extensions (the voicemail
boxes).

Another feature I'd be interested in is being able to gathering up those
voicemail messages, converting them to MP3 (if not already converted), and
emailing them to the recipient (instead of leaving them in the voicemail
system). I'm probably write that in perl with a mysql backend if there
isn't already a tool out there for that.

I currently have the kernel modules "zaptel" and "wcfxo" working and
recognizing my card, as well as asterisk answering incoming calls and
playing the demo, but I have no idea where to go from there. Any help
would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Roy