[gentoo-user] telephony

[gentoo-user] telephony

[Simon]

hi there,
  i'm looking for suggestions and guidance.  I have a vps host with
gentoo on it, i dont think the vps is stable enough to ensure a good
quality of service, but it could just need an upgrade, no big deal.  I
need a phone and the way i decided to go was to get a connection to
the internet and use voip or similar services.

  I've looked into several ideas, but the last one that remains a good
'deal' is to set it all up myself, for free (but lots of work)!

I'm thinking on setting up asterisk, but having read about it in the
past, i know as soon as i set it up it will take more of my time than
my girlfriend ever dreamed of!  It seems extremely difficult to setup,
specially for a newbie, I'm wondering if you guys know of a few good
guides (that you have experience with, i can google too) for this and
if you had any suggestion, pointers, starters mostly...

I've read those, but I'm sure there are a lot of surprises not covered
by these...
http://www.voip-info.org/wiki-Asterisk+Linux+Gentoo
http://www.gentoo-wiki.info/Asterisk

Thanks for any help!

-- 
When Earth was the only inhabited planet in the Galaxy, it was a
primitive place, militarily speaking.  The only weapon they had ever
invented worth mentioning was a crude and inefficient nuclear-reaction
bomb for which they had not even developed the logical defense. -
Asimov

[gentoo-user] telephony

[John covici]

Take a look at a book called "The Future of Telephony" -- its free,
but I am not sure where to get it.

on Wednesday 04/22/2009 Simon(turner25@gmail.com) wrote
 > hi there,
 >   i'm looking for suggestions and guidance.  I have a vps host with
 > gentoo on it, i dont think the vps is stable enough to ensure a good
 > quality of service, but it could just need an upgrade, no big deal.  I
 > need a phone and the way i decided to go was to get a connection to
 > the internet and use voip or similar services.
 > 
 >   I've looked into several ideas, but the last one that remains a good
 > 'deal' is to set it all up myself, for free (but lots of work)!
 > 
 > I'm thinking on setting up asterisk, but having read about it in the
 > past, i know as soon as i set it up it will take more of my time than
 > my girlfriend ever dreamed of!  It seems extremely difficult to setup,
 > specially for a newbie, I'm wondering if you guys know of a few good
 > guides (that you have experience with, i can google too) for this and
 > if you had any suggestion, pointers, starters mostly...
 > 
 > I've read those, but I'm sure there are a lot of surprises not covered
 > by these...
 > http://www.voip-info.org/wiki-Asterisk+Linux+Gentoo
 > http://www.gentoo-wiki.info/Asterisk
 > 
 > Thanks for any help!
 > 
 > -- 
 > When Earth was the only inhabited planet in the Galaxy, it was a
 > primitive place, militarily speaking.  The only weapon they had ever
 > invented worth mentioning was a crude and inefficient nuclear-reaction
 > bomb for which they had not even developed the logical defense. -
 > Asimov

-- 
Your life is like a penny.  You're going to lose it.  The question is:
How do
you spend it?

         John Covici
         covici@ccs.covici.com

Re: [gentoo-user] telephony

[Simon]

Hey thanks John,
  I found some pages of it online (specially the TOC) and it does seem
like a very thorough answer to clear the fog in my situation!  I'll
try to find a place to read the whole content, or a book like this i
might actually buy it.

Thanks!

On Wed, Apr 22, 2009 at 4:11 PM, John covici <covici@ccs.covici.com> wrote:
> Take a look at a book called "The Future of Telephony" -- its free,
> but I am not sure where to get it.
>
> on Wednesday 04/22/2009 Simon(turner25@gmail.com) wrote
>  > hi there,
>  >   i'm looking for suggestions and guidance.  I have a vps host with
>  > gentoo on it, i dont think the vps is stable enough to ensure a good
>  > quality of service, but it could just need an upgrade, no big deal.  I
>  > need a phone and the way i decided to go was to get a connection to
>  > the internet and use voip or similar services.
>  >
>  >   I've looked into several ideas, but the last one that remains a good
>  > 'deal' is to set it all up myself, for free (but lots of work)!
>  >
>  > I'm thinking on setting up asterisk, but having read about it in the
>  > past, i know as soon as i set it up it will take more of my time than
>  > my girlfriend ever dreamed of!  It seems extremely difficult to setup,
>  > specially for a newbie, I'm wondering if you guys know of a few good
>  > guides (that you have experience with, i can google too) for this and
>  > if you had any suggestion, pointers, starters mostly...
>  >
>  > I've read those, but I'm sure there are a lot of surprises not covered
>  > by these...
>  > http://www.voip-info.org/wiki-Asterisk+Linux+Gentoo
>  > http://www.gentoo-wiki.info/Asterisk
>  >
>  > Thanks for any help!
>  >
>  > --
>  > When Earth was the only inhabited planet in the Galaxy, it was a
>  > primitive place, militarily speaking.  The only weapon they had ever
>  > invented worth mentioning was a crude and inefficient nuclear-reaction
>  > bomb for which they had not even developed the logical defense. -
>  > Asimov
>
> --
> Your life is like a penny.  You're going to lose it.  The question is:
> How do
> you spend it?
>
>         John Covici
>         covici@ccs.covici.com
>
>



-- 
When Earth was the only inhabited planet in the Galaxy, it was a
primitive place, militarily speaking.  The only weapon they had ever
invented worth mentioning was a crude and inefficient nuclear-reaction
bomb for which they had not even developed the logical defense. -
Asimov

Re: [gentoo-user] telephony

[kyle.bader]

It is a great book, I used it to help me setup my first voip box.  Here's that link:
http://www.asteriskdocs.org/
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

-----Original Message-----
From: John covici <covici@ccs.covici.com>

Date: Wed, 22 Apr 2009 16:11:18 
To: <gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org>
Subject: [gentoo-user] telephony


Take a look at a book called "The Future of Telephony" -- its free,
but I am not sure where to get it.

on Wednesday 04/22/2009 Simon(turner25@gmail.com) wrote
 > hi there,
 >   i'm looking for suggestions and guidance.  I have a vps host with
 > gentoo on it, i dont think the vps is stable enough to ensure a good
 > quality of service, but it could just need an upgrade, no big deal.  I
 > need a phone and the way i decided to go was to get a connection to
 > the internet and use voip or similar services.
 > 
 >   I've looked into several ideas, but the last one that remains a good
 > 'deal' is to set it all up myself, for free (but lots of work)!
 > 
 > I'm thinking on setting up asterisk, but having read about it in the
 > past, i know as soon as i set it up it will take more of my time than
 > my girlfriend ever dreamed of!  It seems extremely difficult to setup,
 > specially for a newbie, I'm wondering if you guys know of a few good
 > guides (that you have experience with, i can google too) for this and
 > if you had any suggestion, pointers, starters mostly...
 > 
 > I've read those, but I'm sure there are a lot of surprises not covered
 > by these...
 > http://www.voip-info.org/wiki-Asterisk+Linux+Gentoo
 > http://www.gentoo-wiki.info/Asterisk
 > 
 > Thanks for any help!
 > 
 > -- 
 > When Earth was the only inhabited planet in the Galaxy, it was a
 > primitive place, militarily speaking.  The only weapon they had ever
 > invented worth mentioning was a crude and inefficient nuclear-reaction
 > bomb for which they had not even developed the logical defense. -
 > Asimov

-- 
Your life is like a penny.  You're going to lose it.  The question is:
How do
you spend it?

         John Covici
         covici@ccs.covici.com

Re: [gentoo-user] telephony

[Simon]

oh! wow, i was on that page, but i followed some of the links and got
to a place where you had to register to view the whole content on the
website... didnt know it was avail for download!!  thanks!

On Thu, Apr 23, 2009 at 12:04 PM,  <kyle.bader@gmail.com> wrote:
> It is a great book, I used it to help me setup my first voip box.  Here's that link:
> http://www.asteriskdocs.org/
> Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: John covici <covici@ccs.covici.com>
>
> Date: Wed, 22 Apr 2009 16:11:18
> To: <gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org>
> Subject: [gentoo-user] telephony
>
>
> Take a look at a book called "The Future of Telephony" -- its free,
> but I am not sure where to get it.
>
> on Wednesday 04/22/2009 Simon(turner25@gmail.com) wrote
>  > hi there,
>  >   i'm looking for suggestions and guidance.  I have a vps host with
>  > gentoo on it, i dont think the vps is stable enough to ensure a good
>  > quality of service, but it could just need an upgrade, no big deal.  I
>  > need a phone and the way i decided to go was to get a connection to
>  > the internet and use voip or similar services.
>  >
>  >   I've looked into several ideas, but the last one that remains a good
>  > 'deal' is to set it all up myself, for free (but lots of work)!
>  >
>  > I'm thinking on setting up asterisk, but having read about it in the
>  > past, i know as soon as i set it up it will take more of my time than
>  > my girlfriend ever dreamed of!  It seems extremely difficult to setup,
>  > specially for a newbie, I'm wondering if you guys know of a few good
>  > guides (that you have experience with, i can google too) for this and
>  > if you had any suggestion, pointers, starters mostly...
>  >
>  > I've read those, but I'm sure there are a lot of surprises not covered
>  > by these...
>  > http://www.voip-info.org/wiki-Asterisk+Linux+Gentoo
>  > http://www.gentoo-wiki.info/Asterisk
>  >
>  > Thanks for any help!
>  >
>  > --
>  > When Earth was the only inhabited planet in the Galaxy, it was a
>  > primitive place, militarily speaking.  The only weapon they had ever
>  > invented worth mentioning was a crude and inefficient nuclear-reaction
>  > bomb for which they had not even developed the logical defense. -
>  > Asimov
>
> --
> Your life is like a penny.  You're going to lose it.  The question is:
> How do
> you spend it?
>
>         John Covici
>         covici@ccs.covici.com
>
>



-- 
When Earth was the only inhabited planet in the Galaxy, it was a
primitive place, militarily speaking.  The only weapon they had ever
invented worth mentioning was a crude and inefficient nuclear-reaction
bomb for which they had not even developed the logical defense. -
Asimov

Re: [gentoo-user] telephony

[kyle.bader]

Your welcome, also I seem to remember there being a caveat to running asterisk in a vserver (if your host uses that technology)  but its not coming to mind.  Maybe when I'm home infront of a real computer I can find it.  Also I really liked the voiper soft phone, its not in the tree but might be woth a look.
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

-----Original Message-----
From: Simon <turner25@gmail.com>

Date: Thu, 23 Apr 2009 12:05:02 
To: <gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org>
Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] telephony


oh! wow, i was on that page, but i followed some of the links and got
to a place where you had to register to view the whole content on the
website... didnt know it was avail for download!!  thanks!

On Thu, Apr 23, 2009 at 12:04 PM,  <kyle.bader@gmail.com> wrote:
> It is a great book, I used it to help me setup my first voip box.  Here's that link:
> http://www.asteriskdocs.org/
> Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: John covici <covici@ccs.covici.com>
>
> Date: Wed, 22 Apr 2009 16:11:18
> To: <gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org>
> Subject: [gentoo-user] telephony
>
>
> Take a look at a book called "The Future of Telephony" -- its free,
> but I am not sure where to get it.
>
> on Wednesday 04/22/2009 Simon(turner25@gmail.com) wrote
>  > hi there,
>  >   i'm looking for suggestions and guidance.  I have a vps host with
>  > gentoo on it, i dont think the vps is stable enough to ensure a good
>  > quality of service, but it could just need an upgrade, no big deal.  I
>  > need a phone and the way i decided to go was to get a connection to
>  > the internet and use voip or similar services.
>  >
>  >   I've looked into several ideas, but the last one that remains a good
>  > 'deal' is to set it all up myself, for free (but lots of work)!
>  >
>  > I'm thinking on setting up asterisk, but having read about it in the
>  > past, i know as soon as i set it up it will take more of my time than
>  > my girlfriend ever dreamed of!  It seems extremely difficult to setup,
>  > specially for a newbie, I'm wondering if you guys know of a few good
>  > guides (that you have experience with, i can google too) for this and
>  > if you had any suggestion, pointers, starters mostly...
>  >
>  > I've read those, but I'm sure there are a lot of surprises not covered
>  > by these...
>  > http://www.voip-info.org/wiki-Asterisk+Linux+Gentoo
>  > http://www.gentoo-wiki.info/Asterisk
>  >
>  > Thanks for any help!
>  >
>  > --
>  > When Earth was the only inhabited planet in the Galaxy, it was a
>  > primitive place, militarily speaking.  The only weapon they had ever
>  > invented worth mentioning was a crude and inefficient nuclear-reaction
>  > bomb for which they had not even developed the logical defense. -
>  > Asimov
>
> --
> Your life is like a penny.  You're going to lose it.  The question is:
> How do
> you spend it?
>
>         John Covici
>         covici@ccs.covici.com
>
>



-- 
When Earth was the only inhabited planet in the Galaxy, it was a
primitive place, militarily speaking.  The only weapon they had ever
invented worth mentioning was a crude and inefficient nuclear-reaction
bomb for which they had not even developed the logical defense. -
Asimov

Re: [gentoo-user] telephony

[Michael Higgins]

On Wed, 22 Apr 2009 12:30:52 -0400
Simon <turner25@gmail.com> wrote:

> hi there,
>   i'm looking for suggestions and guidance. 

[]

I tend to tell folks up front to never listen to me or believe anything I say, so here's my... $.02.

>   I've looked into several ideas, but the last one that remains a good
> 'deal' is to set it all up myself, for free (but lots of work)!
> 
> I'm thinking on setting up asterisk, 

[]

Don't. Your GF will hate you for wasting your time.

> I've read those, but I'm sure there are a lot of surprises not covered
> by these...
> http://www.voip-info.org/wiki-Asterisk+Linux+Gentoo
> http://www.gentoo-wiki.info/Asterisk
> 
> Thanks for any help!
> 

Asterisk is unlike most other open source projects I've seen. Free help doesn't exist, really -- there's just too much money to be made replacing proprietary telco hardware for folks to enjoy educing that aha! moment.

All would tell you, at your hourly rate, choosing to roll your own asterisk install on Gentoo is probably the most expensive option available to you. 

Anyway, it can be done. #gentoo-voip are helpful folks, but unless you have a real reason to know asterisk, really, don't bother... it's huge PITA for just getting a phone.

Even if you do decide to kill that gnat with a sledgehammer, you're better off with Trixbox, astlinux or something you can pretty much expect some help with. (So I hear.)

If all you want is to use a SIP trunk, my local telco monopoly, for example, will rent me a box to plug a phone into for a fixed monthly fee and unlimited calling. Or, you can probably get any Dahdi compat fxs card and plug a phone into your gentoo box. Or just get a SIP phone... plug into your router.

Basically, there are so many options, it's bewildering. From my (limited) experience with it, I'd say that Asterisk is really more of a place to create telco appliances from computers, not an application you run with other things as an afterthought, just because you can.

But, then again, you already run Gentoo, so you are familiar with needless self-inflicted pain as a pastime. Asterisk may be just for you, too! ;-)

Cheers,

-- 
 |\  /|        |   |          ~ ~  
 | \/ |        |---|          `|` ?
 |    |ichael  |   |iggins    \^ /
 michael.higgins[at]evolone[dot]org

Re: [gentoo-user] telephony

[Simon]

Well i've had several projects ideas in the past that would have used
asterisk in different ways.  So, the reason to get it installed for my
personal 1-line use is really a first step in understanding asterisk's
basics and since I will probably work and tweak it every day for a
certain period of time, this would be an awesome learning experience.

I dont have a GF, yet, and the lady that might fill the position
(soon?) wont have a word to say about that.  haha

But i clearly hear what you mean about the waste, I'm with you on
this, but i also see it as an investment!

Thanks a lot though, you brought some important points to consider!

On Wed, Apr 22, 2009 at 4:57 PM, Michael Higgins <linux@evolone.org> wrote:
> On Wed, 22 Apr 2009 12:30:52 -0400
> Simon <turner25@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> hi there,
>>   i'm looking for suggestions and guidance.
>
> []
>
> I tend to tell folks up front to never listen to me or believe anything I say, so here's my... $.02.
>
>>   I've looked into several ideas, but the last one that remains a good
>> 'deal' is to set it all up myself, for free (but lots of work)!
>>
>> I'm thinking on setting up asterisk,
>
> []
>
> Don't. Your GF will hate you for wasting your time.
>
>> I've read those, but I'm sure there are a lot of surprises not covered
>> by these...
>> http://www.voip-info.org/wiki-Asterisk+Linux+Gentoo
>> http://www.gentoo-wiki.info/Asterisk
>>
>> Thanks for any help!
>>
>
> Asterisk is unlike most other open source projects I've seen. Free help doesn't exist, really -- there's just too much money to be made replacing proprietary telco hardware for folks to enjoy educing that aha! moment.
>
> All would tell you, at your hourly rate, choosing to roll your own asterisk install on Gentoo is probably the most expensive option available to you.
>
> Anyway, it can be done. #gentoo-voip are helpful folks, but unless you have a real reason to know asterisk, really, don't bother... it's huge PITA for just getting a phone.
>
> Even if you do decide to kill that gnat with a sledgehammer, you're better off with Trixbox, astlinux or something you can pretty much expect some help with. (So I hear.)
>
> If all you want is to use a SIP trunk, my local telco monopoly, for example, will rent me a box to plug a phone into for a fixed monthly fee and unlimited calling. Or, you can probably get any Dahdi compat fxs card and plug a phone into your gentoo box. Or just get a SIP phone... plug into your router.
>
> Basically, there are so many options, it's bewildering. From my (limited) experience with it, I'd say that Asterisk is really more of a place to create telco appliances from computers, not an application you run with other things as an afterthought, just because you can.
>
> But, then again, you already run Gentoo, so you are familiar with needless self-inflicted pain as a pastime. Asterisk may be just for you, too! ;-)
>
> Cheers,
>
> --
>  |\  /|        |   |          ~ ~
>  | \/ |        |---|          `|` ?
>  |    |ichael  |   |iggins    \^ /
>  michael.higgins[at]evolone[dot]org
>
>



-- 
When Earth was the only inhabited planet in the Galaxy, it was a
primitive place, militarily speaking.  The only weapon they had ever
invented worth mentioning was a crude and inefficient nuclear-reaction
bomb for which they had not even developed the logical defense. -
Asimov

Re: [gentoo-user] telephony

[Stroller]

On 22 Apr 2009, at 17:30, Simon wrote:
> ...
> I'm thinking on setting up asterisk, but having read about it in the
> past, i know as soon as i set it up it will take more of my time than
> my girlfriend ever dreamed of!  It seems extremely difficult to setup,
> specially for a newbie.

In addition to Simon's questions, can I ask if anyone has used  
Freeswitch?
http://www.freeswitch.org/

I read about it a while ago, and found this article, which I think was  
on the site's main page at the time:
http://www.freeswitch.org/node/117
 From that, you might interpret that the lead developer either really  
knows his stuff and is really innovative, or you might wonder if he  
fell out with the Asterisk devs because he didn't get his own way. ;)

I've actually got a really expensive (or it was when I bought it!)  
Cisco phone and an X100 POTS card sitting here, as I've been meaning  
to get round to implementing Asterisk for about 4 years now! Perhaps  
this thread will give me a little bit of a kick up the arse.

At least it's given me enough motivation to do some homework - the  
cheap X100 card (to take calls from a regular phoneline & feed them  
into the PBX) does indeed seem to be supported by Freeswitch :)

Stroller.

Re: [gentoo-user] telephony

[Simon]

Hey Stroller,
  nice to see a friend in a similar situation as mine!  I'm sure that
having the hardware already, you probably made a lot of tests in the
past...  can you share some of your experience?  and also, i wonder,
why did you let the project down? was it because of lack of motivation
(ie other priorities) or because the difficulties you found?

Thanks!

On Thu, Apr 23, 2009 at 2:22 AM, Stroller
<stroller@stellar.eclipse.co.uk> wrote:
>
> On 22 Apr 2009, at 17:30, Simon wrote:
>>
>> ...
>> I'm thinking on setting up asterisk, but having read about it in the
>> past, i know as soon as i set it up it will take more of my time than
>> my girlfriend ever dreamed of!  It seems extremely difficult to setup,
>> specially for a newbie.
>
> In addition to Simon's questions, can I ask if anyone has used Freeswitch?
> http://www.freeswitch.org/
>
> I read about it a while ago, and found this article, which I think was on
> the site's main page at the time:
> http://www.freeswitch.org/node/117
> From that, you might interpret that the lead developer either really knows
> his stuff and is really innovative, or you might wonder if he fell out with
> the Asterisk devs because he didn't get his own way. ;)
>
> I've actually got a really expensive (or it was when I bought it!) Cisco
> phone and an X100 POTS card sitting here, as I've been meaning to get round
> to implementing Asterisk for about 4 years now! Perhaps this thread will
> give me a little bit of a kick up the arse.
>
> At least it's given me enough motivation to do some homework - the cheap
> X100 card (to take calls from a regular phoneline & feed them into the PBX)
> does indeed seem to be supported by Freeswitch :)
>
> Stroller.
>
>
>



-- 
When Earth was the only inhabited planet in the Galaxy, it was a
primitive place, militarily speaking.  The only weapon they had ever
invented worth mentioning was a crude and inefficient nuclear-reaction
bomb for which they had not even developed the logical defense. -
Asimov

Re: [gentoo-user] telephony

[Stroller]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 6139 bytes --]


On 23 Apr 2009, at 16:57, Simon wrote:
> On Thu, Apr 23, 2009 at 2:22 AM, Stroller
>> ...
>> I've actually got a really expensive (or it was when I bought it!)  
>> Cisco
>> phone and an X100 POTS card sitting here, as I've been meaning to  
>> get round
>> to implementing Asterisk for about 4 years now! Perhaps this thread  
>> will
>> give me a little bit of a kick up the arse.
>

>  nice to see a friend in a similar situation as mine!  I'm sure that
> having the hardware already, you probably made a lot of tests in the
> past...  can you share some of your experience?  and also, i wonder,
> why did you let the project down? was it because of lack of motivation
> (ie other priorities) or because the difficulties you found

I've fixed your quoting. If someone replies at the bottom of your  
post, please do not then reply at the top.

No, I'm afraid I never made any tests or anything like that. I use  
vgetty here at present, and have been for 5 years - that is just a  
service that uses a conventional old voicemodem as an answerphone. It  
saves the recordings as wav-like files and can then (optionally) calls  
another program with /the/path/to/the/recording as a parameter, so I  
use a Bash script to convert the wav to an MP3 and email it to myself.

I have found an emailing-answerphone very useful, but at some point  
since I read about Asterisk and thought that a whole & complete VoIP  
"solution" was just much "cooler" and elegant & stuff. I think of  
redirecting callers to different answerphone messages based on CLID  
for instance ("I don't want your shitty double-glazing") or telling  
the phone not to ring before 9am if it's a business call. To be  
realistic, these aren't very good arguments - vgetty might be able to  
perform the first task I gave as an example (I don't know), and the  
latter case wouldn't really suit my lifestyle (sometimes I'm up at  
8:30 and want to answer the call; the list of exclusions for important  
customers would be complicated to manage; I'm better off rolling over  
in bed & ignoring unwanted calls as I do now ;). So we get back to the  
"cool" factor ("I can make free VoIP calls to the USA" even though I  
know no-one in the USA) and that at least Asterisk could look up phone  
numbers in an LDAP directory so I can ignore customers who call when  
their work is overdue. :P

So anyway, a while back, in a fit of enthusiasm when I had plenty of  
cash slushing about I grabbed the hardware from online vendors, but it  
has sat here idle ever since. :(
I've been meaning  for sometime to rebuild my server so that I'd have  
a system to run Asterisk on, but just lots of other stuff has gotten  
in the way. It would be a long & boring story to explain all the  
circumstances that have coincided against me, but suffice to say I'm  
not the best-organised person at the best of times.

If you want Asterisk to answer your conventional POTS phone line then  
you can use an X100P card which you can buy for c £17. AIUI this is  
basically a modem based on a certain chipset that Digium have written  
drivers for. At one time Digium sold this hardware at quite a premium,  
but people realised that other models would work just as well, and  
Asterisk (who are sponsored by / part of Digium) has been very fair  
about supporting these "clones" in the codebase. They're obviously not  
supported if you buy an official support package, and IIRC I have seen  
posters on the Asterisk mailing list being snobby and refusing to help  
posters using the clones because it's "not supporting the developers".  
I don't know how well the X100P works, or if there are any "gotyas" to  
look out for, but I'm pretty sure plenty of people are using them. A  
couple of friends of mine (who I considered going into IT consulting  
with) implemented Asterisk after I mentioned it to them and I'm sure  
they've used the X100P; I think those lads have deployed Asterisk for  
customers since.

As far as phones are concerned, the Cisco 7960G was the phone to have  
when I bought mine. I think the 7961 had just been released, or  
something, and the 7960 was old stock. I paid £200 for mine, but now I  
see you can pick up decent-looking ones on eBay for £40 or £50. :o  
This phone has handsfree and a big screen on which you can display  
several lines of information (caller ID, "line 2 on hold", phonebook  
listings) and buttons to the side of the screen so that you can put  
someone on hold & pick up another line and do all that sort of stuff.  
Although the 7960 is no longer a current model it seems to be  
supported with fairly recent firmware, and later phones in Cisco's  
79xx series seem very similar without appearing to add much (256  
shades of greyscale instead of plain B&W text, or colour / touch  
screens in the executive models).

If you use the X100P to answer your current landline then you're not  
limited to that. A PBX is intended for business use, and a business  
might want to have 8 or 30 lines coming in via ISDN but also some VoIP  
capacity to their other building down the street or over the internet.  
So within Asterisk (or, I imagine, Freeswitch) you can define the  
X100P as one line and subscribe to commercial VoIP services who can  
terminate additional calls for you (using a different number) or allow  
you to make outgoing calls; you might use that if their charges are  
cheaper than your landline telco, or if someone calls in on your  
landline you can conference-call someone else over VoIP. I believe  
that some enthusiasts who get free local calls allow you to connect to  
their VoIP server to utilise that; you would just add the appropriate  
lines to Asterisk's config file and it would work out from the area  
code that the server was suitable and route over the internet to it  
automagically.

I suspect, after spending so long writing this, that it doesn't tell  
you much you don't know already, but hopefully there is some little  
gem to be gleaned from my sparse knowledge.

Stroller.


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Re: [gentoo-user] telephony

[Michael Higgins]

On Thu, 23 Apr 2009 19:08:48 +0100
Stroller <stroller@stellar.eclipse.co.uk> wrote:

[...]
> If you want Asterisk to answer your conventional POTS phone line
> then you can use an X100P card which you can buy for c £17. AIUI this
> is basically a modem based on a certain chipset that Digium have
> written drivers for.

They have unequivocally dropped support for these cheap cards. They suck anyway, but this isn't to say you can't play with one.... I still do, after all.

> At one time Digium sold this hardware at quite a
> premium, but people realised that other models would work just as
> well, and Asterisk (who are sponsored by / part of Digium) has been
> very fair about supporting these "clones" in the codebase.

Indeed, mine is a clone, and they are equally unconcerned about my problems with it. '-)

> They're
> obviously not supported if you buy an official support package, and
> IIRC I have seen posters on the Asterisk mailing list being snobby
> and refusing to help posters using the clones because it's "not
> supporting the developers".

This may be true, but I believe it's more because the cards, as every one will tell you straight up (unless they are selling you the card, of course) are of poor quality and design. 

> I don't know how well the X100P works, or
> if there are any "gotyas" to look out for, but I'm pretty sure plenty
> of people are using them. 

Yep. There are driver issues, voltage/signalling problems... and in the end, even if working, they won't sound good. There's a reason they are, like, $10 on Ebay.

Basically, they are decent winmodems (if such a thing is possible)... that they can be used for telephony is a fluke.

> A couple of friends of mine (who I
> considered going into IT consulting with) implemented Asterisk after
> I mentioned it to them and I'm sure they've used the X100P; I think
> those lads have deployed Asterisk for customers since.

Yep. Definitely a way to get your hands dirty. 

By the time you figure out what you need to know to get a decent answering machine with your new toy, you can go buy real hardware and make telephony appliances. 

Meanwhile, anyone likely to be of any real help while you experiment, is doing just that, and has no interest in watching/helping you suffer, from what I've gathered.

My time figuring out the first glitch between my card and the (sort of) supporting driver would have been saved/paid for by buying a real FXO/FXS card initially. I didn't do that, but you, or the OP, still can. And, finally, if I want to ever *use* this experiment in the real world, I'll have to replace the X100p with a decent sounding device anyway.

Cheers,

-- 
 |\  /|        |   |          ~ ~  
 | \/ |        |---|          `|` ?
 |    |ichael  |   |iggins    \^ /
 michael.higgins[at]evolone[dot]org

Re: [gentoo-user] telephony

[Stroller]

On 24 Apr 2009, at 19:38, Michael Higgins wrote:

> On Thu, 23 Apr 2009 19:08:48 +0100
> Stroller <stroller@stellar.eclipse.co.uk> wrote:
>
> [...]
>> If you want Asterisk to answer your conventional POTS phone line
>> then you can use an X100P card which you can buy for c £17. AIUI this
>> is basically a modem based on a certain chipset that Digium have
>> written drivers for.
>
> They have unequivocally dropped support for these cheap cards. They  
> suck anyway, but this isn't to say you can't play with one.... I  
> still do, after all.
> ...
> This may be true, but I believe it's more because the cards, as  
> every one will tell you straight up (unless they are selling you the  
> card, of course) are of poor quality and design.
> Yep. There are driver issues, voltage/signalling problems... and in  
> the end, even if working, they won't sound good. There's a reason  
> they are, like, $10 on Ebay.
>
> Basically, they are decent winmodems (if such a thing is  
> possible)... that they can be used for telephony is a fluke.
> ...
> My time figuring out the first glitch between my card and the (sort  
> of) supporting driver would have been saved/paid for by buying a  
> real FXO/FXS card initially.

Hi Michael,

Many thanks for your comments. How much is one looking at for a "real"  
FXO/FXS card?

I'm not sure the difference between FXO & FXS - just want something to  
"convert" my home phone line for use with Asterisk or similar. Don't  
bother giving me model numbers or anything like that - I can do my own  
research & I'm sure the situation will have changed by the time I get  
around to deploying. Just interested in a labb-park figure, as the  
little Irish girl said.

Stroller.

Re: [gentoo-user] telephony

[Chuck Robey]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Stroller wrote:
> 
> On 24 Apr 2009, at 19:38, Michael Higgins wrote:
> 
>> On Thu, 23 Apr 2009 19:08:48 +0100
>> Stroller <stroller@stellar.eclipse.co.uk> wrote:
>>
>> [...]
>>> If you want Asterisk to answer your conventional POTS phone line
>>> then you can use an X100P card which you can buy for c £17. AIUI this
>>> is basically a modem based on a certain chipset that Digium have
>>> written drivers for.
>>
>> They have unequivocally dropped support for these cheap cards. They
>> suck anyway, but this isn't to say you can't play with one.... I still
>> do, after all.
>> ...
>> This may be true, but I believe it's more because the cards, as every
>> one will tell you straight up (unless they are selling you the card,
>> of course) are of poor quality and design.
>> Yep. There are driver issues, voltage/signalling problems... and in
>> the end, even if working, they won't sound good. There's a reason they
>> are, like, $10 on Ebay.
>>
>> Basically, they are decent winmodems (if such a thing is possible)...
>> that they can be used for telephony is a fluke.
>> ...
>> My time figuring out the first glitch between my card and the (sort
>> of) supporting driver would have been saved/paid for by buying a real
>> FXO/FXS card initially.
> 
> Hi Michael,
> 
> Many thanks for your comments. How much is one looking at for a "real"
> FXO/FXS card?
> 
> I'm not sure the difference between FXO & FXS - just want something to
> "convert" my home phone line for use with Asterisk or similar. Don't
> bother giving me model numbers or anything like that - I can do my own
> research & I'm sure the situation will have changed by the time I get
> around to deploying. Just interested in a labb-park figure, as the
> little Irish girl said.

You seem to want to know the difference, FXO vs FXS.  If I got this wrong, just
delete it.  FXS is meant to interface to a telephone set, so it gives talk
battery and (as needed) ringing current.  FXO is meant to interface to a line
from a telco switch, so it accepts battery (if the circuit it's hooked up to
doesn't give talk battery, you have no circuit) and expects to be rung into, so
it detects ringing battery.  Most of the time, both FXO's and FXS's offer
options to operate in loop start (regular POTS) or ground start mode.  Write me
if you need more on that last.  Options like reverse battery aren't usually
offered in FXO/FXS cards.  You usually have to give a FXS card your own source
of ringing battery, not FXO, because an FXO is expecting to have ringing battery
sent to it (from the telco switch it's connected to) to begin with.


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Re: [gentoo-user] telephony

[Simon]

> You seem to want to know the difference, FXO vs FXS.  If I got this wrong, just
> delete it.  FXS is meant to interface to a telephone set, so it gives talk
> battery and (as needed) ringing current.  FXO is meant to interface to a line
> from a telco switch, so it accepts battery (if the circuit it's hooked up to
> doesn't give talk battery, you have no circuit) and expects to be rung into, so
> it detects ringing battery.  Most of the time, both FXO's and FXS's offer
> options to operate in loop start (regular POTS) or ground start mode.  Write me
> if you need more on that last.  Options like reverse battery aren't usually
> offered in FXO/FXS cards.  You usually have to give a FXS card your own source
> of ringing battery, not FXO, because an FXO is expecting to have ringing battery
> sent to it (from the telco switch it's connected to) to begin with.

This brought an idea in my mind...  the phone lines in our houses here
in Quebec,Canada are set so the line comes into the house at one point
(called dmark i think) then it is spread around.  if there is no
service, then there is no dialtone, if one phone is used, then all
phones can hear the conversation if picked up.  normal stuff.
but what if i were to setup a pc to work with asterisk and somehow
plugged a FXS (i guess?) card to any phone jack in the house.  then
any normal phone would be networked to that FXS card and anything done
on them will go through the PC (the pc will actually take care of
sending a dialtone, etc...)  am i correct, is this possible (to use
the existing POTS infrastructure)?

Thanks

Re: [gentoo-user] telephony

[Chuck Robey]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Simon wrote:
>> You seem to want to know the difference, FXO vs FXS.  If I got this wrong, just
>> delete it.  FXS is meant to interface to a telephone set, so it gives talk
>> battery and (as needed) ringing current.  FXO is meant to interface to a line
>> from a telco switch, so it accepts battery (if the circuit it's hooked up to
>> doesn't give talk battery, you have no circuit) and expects to be rung into, so
>> it detects ringing battery.  Most of the time, both FXO's and FXS's offer
>> options to operate in loop start (regular POTS) or ground start mode.  Write me
>> if you need more on that last.  Options like reverse battery aren't usually
>> offered in FXO/FXS cards.  You usually have to give a FXS card your own source
>> of ringing battery, not FXO, because an FXO is expecting to have ringing battery
>> sent to it (from the telco switch it's connected to) to begin with.
> 
> This brought an idea in my mind...  the phone lines in our houses here
> in Quebec,Canada are set so the line comes into the house at one point
> (called dmark i think) then it is spread around.  if there is no
> service, then there is no dialtone, if one phone is used, then all
> phones can hear the conversation if picked up.  normal stuff.
> but what if i were to setup a pc to work with asterisk and somehow
> plugged a FXS (i guess?) card to any phone jack in the house.  then
> any normal phone would be networked to that FXS card and anything done
> on them will go through the PC (the pc will actually take care of
> sending a dialtone, etc...)  am i correct, is this possible (to use
> the existing POTS infrastructure)?

I'm afraid I don't completely understand how you'd do that.  An FXS card is used
when you want to interface between on kind of communications and another.
Usually you have, at one end, a regular 2 wire line, a "POTS" line, but you'd
only need this FXS card if the other size of the circuit differs: maybe it's a 4
wire circuit, maybe it's a DS0 channel of a T1, I don't know if folks are still
using SF-based circuitry anymore (the ability  to fake out the signalling is
very well publicized nowadays).  You comment about putting an FXS card on your
house wiring isn't clear to me, but the electrical and communications effect
would be similar to attaching an extra telephone set to your house wiring, I
think.  I could make more sense if YOU could make more sense, and tell me why
you'd be using that FXS card (what sort of signalling conversion are you effecting?)

One example might be to take your two wire house POTS line and remote it to a
different state, like originating in Michigan, and adding a remote to New
Mexico.  You can't move a 2 wire line anywhere near that far, so you'd need to
convert the signal to some format more well adapted to long distance travel.
Again, it would be exactly as if you had added a new phone set to your house
wiring.  You'd hear if someone were listening this way, it wouldn't be silent.
Creating a good tap of a 2 wire line would be possible, but not that easily, and
it would have to be listening only, no ability to break into the conversation.

> 
> Thanks
> 

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Re: [gentoo-user] telephony

[kyle.bader]

Sorry for top posting my bb is dumb about that.  The answer to your question is yes, you can uses your current pots lines.  You want your outside line to be fxo and lines connecting to your standard phones to be fxs.  The digium wildcard supports 4 pots and you can buy them with a different mix of fxo/fxs, they are simple removable modules.  Don't waste your time with a x100p card, they suck and will be more of a waste of time then they are worth.
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

-----Original Message-----
From: Simon <turner25@gmail.com>

Date: Sat, 25 Apr 2009 14:14:56 
To: <gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org>
Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] telephony


> You seem to want to know the difference, FXO vs FXS.  If I got this wrong, just
> delete it.  FXS is meant to interface to a telephone set, so it gives talk
> battery and (as needed) ringing current.  FXO is meant to interface to a line
> from a telco switch, so it accepts battery (if the circuit it's hooked up to
> doesn't give talk battery, you have no circuit) and expects to be rung into, so
> it detects ringing battery.  Most of the time, both FXO's and FXS's offer
> options to operate in loop start (regular POTS) or ground start mode.  Write me
> if you need more on that last.  Options like reverse battery aren't usually
> offered in FXO/FXS cards.  You usually have to give a FXS card your own source
> of ringing battery, not FXO, because an FXO is expecting to have ringing battery
> sent to it (from the telco switch it's connected to) to begin with.

This brought an idea in my mind...  the phone lines in our houses here
in Quebec,Canada are set so the line comes into the house at one point
(called dmark i think) then it is spread around.  if there is no
service, then there is no dialtone, if one phone is used, then all
phones can hear the conversation if picked up.  normal stuff.
but what if i were to setup a pc to work with asterisk and somehow
plugged a FXS (i guess?) card to any phone jack in the house.  then
any normal phone would be networked to that FXS card and anything done
on them will go through the PC (the pc will actually take care of
sending a dialtone, etc...)  am i correct, is this possible (to use
the existing POTS infrastructure)?

Thanks

[gentoo-user] Re: telephony

[James]

Simon <turner25 <at> gmail.com> writes:


>   i'm looking for suggestions and guidance. 


Hardware farts like myself, like to cheat. Sure 
you can do it all in software, if you have the time.


Here's a very easy way to cheat, but, you'll need to
use a (soldering) iron.....

http://www.tjnet.com/


Go on, expand your horizons and make a web page
on how you did it with (hardware plus) gentoo
so the rest of us lazy bums can be cool,
just like you....


hth,
James

Re: [gentoo-user] telephony

[Yahya Mohammad]

On Wed, Apr 22, 2009 at 12:30:52PM -0400, Simon wrote:
> hi there,
>   i'm looking for suggestions and guidance.  I have a vps host with
> gentoo on it, i dont think the vps is stable enough to ensure a good
> quality of service, but it could just need an upgrade, no big deal.  I
> need a phone and the way i decided to go was to get a connection to
> the internet and use voip or similar services.
> 

I've set up Asterisk on Gentoo on both Xen and OpenVZ based VPS and it
works great. I use it with the speex codec and voice quality is really
good. It was even usable when those middle east cables were cut some
time ago, and latency was over 1 second for me.

Asterisk in portage hasn't been updated in ages. It's still at version
1.2, while 1.4 and 1.6 have been available since dec 2006 and jan 2008
respectively. There is a VoIP overlay where you can get newer ebuilds.
Actually now that I think about it, it might be better to use an older
version as most documentation online refers to the older ones.

One interesting feature of v1.6 (if your asterisk box is not in a remote
location) is chan_mobile.  It can hook up asterisk via bluetooth to a
cell phone using the handsfree profile, and then use the phone as a PSTN
trunk. It works with my phone, but I don't think anyone uses this in a 
production environment.

I would recommend reading chapters 4,5,6 of "The Future of Telephony"
book [1] at least three times before starting. The new edition of the
book refers to Asterisk ver1.4.

It's not that hard especially if your goal is to learn. Otherwise just
buy an appliance like [2] for a couple of hundred bucks, click around in
its GUI config and be done with it.

[1] http://astbook.asteriskdocs.org/en/2nd_Edition/asterisk-book-html-chunk/index.html
[2] http://atcom.cn/En_products_IP01.htm