AsteriskNOW with Charter phone line

[scottay]

Good day all,

I am a small IT company that is looking to use AsteriskNOW to set up a very small (2-3 extension) PBX system for my office. I have a Charter phone line and am wondering what I need to do in order to tie that in with AsteriskNOW so I can do some basic answer/dial and forward tasks.

I have little to no experience with phone systems, but have ample networking experience.

Also, I'm hoping to use X-Lite softphone for testing purposes unless I need to buy an inexpensive IP phone. Let me know if X-Lite will do what I need until I'm ready to go live.

Thanks!
Scott

[scottay]

Any help on this issue?

Since I posted this I found the Linksys SPA-3102 Voice Gateway. http://www.amazon.com/Cisco-SPA3102-Voice-Gateway-Router/dp/B000FKP55U/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1340928878&sr=1-1&keywords=voice+gateway.
Will that do what I need for this project?

Also, I found instructions on how to set it up here: http://www.freepbx.org/support/documentation/howtos/howto-linksys-spa-3102-sipura-spa-3000-freepbx. If I follow that will it get me where I want to be?

What (other) hardware will I need to accomplish this basic project?

[leemason]

Personally I'd use a TDM card rather than an ATA to connect to an analogue telephone line. These are available from the likes of Digium (of course), Sangoma, and OpenVOX amongst others. You need a card with an FXO port as this is what connects to the phone line. You can use a PC softphone like the X-lite or possibly Zoiper to test the system but to make and receive business calls I'd go for a physical phone. They don't have to be expensive. Have a look at some of the cheaper Aastra or Yealink models.

[scottay]

Awesome, thanks for the reply. I'll look into a TDM card with an FXO port.

Does anyone have any recommendation for an inexpensive card? Anything near the $100 range? I only have one line, most I see is MAYBE 2 to add a fax.

Also, is there any other equipment I might need? I don't want to get the TMD card, then find out I need something else, then something else, etc.

Thanks!

Edit:
I'm looking at the Digium TDM11B - TDM400P. It has a FXS and FXO module. Do I need both FXS and FXO or just the FXO?

I'm going to using this in my small office. With that card will I be able to use 2-3 SIP phones on our existing LAN or do I need another piece of equipment?

[leemason]

Have a look at the OpenVOX A400. Pretty cheap for the 1xFXO version but can be upgraded to 4xFXO ports.

You can connect a second FAX line in as well but I would personally leave the fax separate. You can have three SIP phones off this and all sharing the same analogue line (obviously only one phone can be calling on the analogue line at once). You could look at using an external SIP service provider across a broadband line.

[scottay]

Thanks again, leemanson!

I think I need some clarification. I was hoping that I could add a card (like the OpenVOX A400) to a computer running AsteriskNOW. Once that's all set up, I'd have a couple IP phones connected to my network. AsteriskNOW would then address these IP phones as extensions, allowing me to forward calls to colleagues, voicemail, etc. Obviously I only have one phone line, so only one call at a time; this is plenty for my business at the moment.

So... Given that scenario above, would a single FXO port card do what I need? The part that confused me is the part about being able to connect 3 SIP phones to the card. It looks to me like the ports on the card are RJ11, but the IP phones are RJ45. Perhaps I chose the wrong terminology when I said SIP phone... Or maybe they are actually RJ45 ports, in which case how would my RJ11 phone line plug in?

I appreciate all your help, sorry if these questions sound redundant. I really am a telco noob... I just want to make sure I know what to expect before I have to sink hundreds of dollars into something I was expecting to be less than $150.

[leemason]

The phones are NOT connected directly to the A400. The phones will be connected to your network as will the AsteriskNow server. The phone "talk" IP to the server. This registers them as extensions. The server has the A400 board plugged into it. The A400 board plugs into the phone line using an RJ11 cable.

So you will need:

A server
1 x OpenVOX A400
1 x network switch (or if your network router as enough ethernet connections you can plug everything into that.
3 x IP phones

The phones will get IP addresses via DHCP normally and then they can be setup to register with the Asterisk server. What sort of phones do you have? You could also use a softphone on a PC or laptop (or even on a talbet or smart phone).

[scottay]

Awesome reply, thank you! That broke it down very nicely.

I don't have any phones yet, I'll just be using the X-Lite softphone to test things. Once I get a feel for how things work I'm planning on getting some simple IP phones. I'm thinking something like the Cisco SPA 303. Any other suggestions?

[leemason]

X-Lite is fine for testing and no problem for occasional use. Also have a look at the Zoiper soft phone.

Personally I'm not keen on the Cisco/Linksys phones. I would suggest having a look at Aastra or Snom. Both have a really goo range of excellent handsets.

[scottay]

Ok, I've gotten a TDM400P with 2 FXO and 2FXS. Everything is all installed, but I can't seem to get things working. I can make internal calls to extensions just fine, but incoming and outgoing phone numbers do not work.

I either get "This number can not be completed as dialed" or "All circuits are busy".

I've setup a DAHDi trunk, inbound and outbound rules. See my screenshots, I'm sure I'm missing something simple...

[scottay]

Just a quick update... I got it working.

It turns out that the coupler I was using to join the 2 phone cables was causing it. I had to go across a room to my workbench, but as soon as I moved it closer to the phone jack and used a single cable it started working.

Thanks for all the help!

[leemason]

Sorry for not responding sooner. Good work, well done. Hope everything continues to work well for you.