[asterisk-users] Really Silly Question From Total Newbie

[UIT DEVELOPMENT]

James,

Thank you for the reply.  I do not have phone service in my home.
I've been 100% cell since 2003.  I do have an old analog phone - big
heavy thing...  If I connect it to the wall outlet there is nothing.
I've tried every outlet in the house.  I didnt expect to find a tone
as we've never connected phone service here.

My assumption, however stupid it might be, is that I could set this up
to make calls but as I began to read more and more I started reading
about gateways and other costly services that I was hoping to avoid --
for now at least.  This all began when my wife went food shopping
around the holiddays and wanted to know if we had something or not
already, and I wasnt home to confirm or not.   So I got to thinking,
if she could call the VoIP box and get one of those "press 1 for
spices... press 2 for dry foods, press 3 for canned goods, press 4 for
snacks, press 5 for drinks............." and it would access a
database that I already have set up with our groceries already in
there.   Yea - geeky, I know.  :-)

So that was the plan but first I needed to be able to get this thing
set up.  I THINK you're saying I need to purchase another service to
get myself to make calls.   I dont know anyone with a SIP server..
I'd rather keep it all inside our home if possible.  I've got a lot of
old hardware laying around and I do have MODEMs - internal and
external 56k types.   Thanks for the hints.  I'll check into Magic
Jack type stuff and see how it can help.

-M


On Tue, Jan 5, 2010 at 3:19 PM, James A. Shigley <jas at answeringserv.com> wrote:
> I can't help you two much with configuration of linux, but as to the call question. You will need some route for the server to be capable of sending/receiving calls. There is a couple of ways to do this cheaply.
>
> Buy a standard telephone modem (usb, pci, or serial). And plug into wall a jack. This will only allow you one call at a time. But if this is just a proof of concept that sounds like it will be plenty. Your number would be whatever the phone jack corresponds to.
>
> Integrate it with something like skype.
>
> Buy one of the products similar to a magic jack which will work with linux.
>
> Or if you know someone who has a sip server already running. And is amiable to letting you piggy back off of it. Your  phone number would point to that person's Server (be it one of the friends that the person is lending you, or a number that you have forwarded/ported at/to them) with it set to forward to your asterisk server. from there you could use your dialplan to do whatever you wanted it to. And for outbound you would send the calls out thru the friends server via sip or iax.
>
> James Shigley
> Monroe Telephone Answering Service
> 409-981-9213
> Infinity 5.51,UC 4.02.3803, Blink 3.0.104
> Ecreator:2.21, eResponse 1.1.7
> Webportal,WebApps,
>
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com [mailto:asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of UIT DEVELOPMENT
> Sent: Tuesday, January 05, 2010 1:54 PM
> To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion
> Subject: [asterisk-users] Really Silly Question From Total Newbie
>
> .........................
>
> My main question is: CAN I make call from that box to my cell phone
> using a soft-phone?   If so, how can I do that?   Also, can I use my
> cell phone to call into that box?   I dont know if I have to get a
> phone number, or do I NEED a phone number?   At the moment, I do not
> have any dollars to throw at this project.   Its purely for learning,
> proof of concept sort of thing for myself on my spare time in the
> evenings.  I would simply like to be able to call out and be able to
> call into that box.  Later on down the road maybe I will get into
> setting up an IVR using a database so I can call into that system from
> wherever and get information read back to me.  But, first things
> first....  I'd like to know if I am heading down the wrong path here.
> ...........................
>
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