[ale] [OT] Home PBX?

Scott Plante splante at insightsys.com
Mon Jul 30 15:19:01 EDT 2012


We've been using Asterisk since about 2001. It's the low-level call control part of the system. Some people also use Freeswitch which is kind of a branch off of Asterisk, or at least was started by a frequent Asterisk contributor (I'm not sure if there's any actual Asterisk code in Freeswitch, but it's very similar). 


For almost as long we've used FreePBX as a web UI (mostly PHP & MySQL) for using Asterisk as a PBX. We also use straight Asterisk for non-PBX telephony stuff but if you want a home PBX it's great. Until recently, it was strictly a software package that you load onto another Linux distribution. For the past couple of years or so they also have been supplying a ISO version that allows you to install Linux, Asterisk, FreePBX, and all the required packages in one simple install. This is probably a good place to start. 


Another well-liked distro that uses FreePBX as a web UI is PBX in a Flash and it's sister project IncrediblePBX. They add on a lot of fun capabilities to the base FreePBX software. Ward Mundy runs those projects and he was a long-time Atlanta Asterisk guy. We haven't used either in production but they look good. Ward is very serious about security and keeping everything updated and tight, which is good and very important if you're going to open SIP connections from the Internet. 


You can start out with a cheap VoIP account and softphones if you want to play with it before buying hardware for your POTS lines. We use Teliax sometimes and they're only $4.99/month for a phone number and you just pay-as-you-go 2-cents per minute. It's a cheap and easy way to get started. 


We use Digium cards for connecting to POTS lines and Polycom phones for internal lines. If you get beyond using a soft-phone, you probably want to connect to your existing phones. In that case, you can get a Digium card with one FXO port for connecting to your phone company line and one FXS port for connecting to your existing phones. They have different cards for PCI vs PCI Express and daughterboards for the ports, but a TDM411b would be one possibility. 


You could also use a separate device like a Linksys SPA3102 which has one FXS and one FXO port, and connects to Asterisk via SIP. We use them sometimes for connecting an inexpensive wireless phone to Asterisk without going to the expense of native SIP wi-fi or DECT phones. 


I use Jitsi (FOSS) as a softphone these days, although I used to use and like X-Lite, a free alternative to their commercial softphones. 


Scott 


P.S. There is an Atlanta Asterisk User Group too, with some nice folks. 


http://www.asterisk.org/ 
http://www.freeswitch.org/ 
http://www.freepbx.org/ 
http://pbxinaflash.net/ 
https://teliax.com/plans/4 
http://www.voipsupply.com/digium-tdm411b 
http://www.voipsupply.com/linksys-spa3102 
http://www.voipsupply.com/polycom-ip335 
http://www.voipsupply.com/polycom-ip550-poe (+adapter or POE) 
https://jitsi.org/ 
http://www.counterpath.net/x-lite.html 

http://www.meetup.com/atlaug/ 
----- Original Message -----

From: "Michael Campbell" <michael.campbell at gmail.com> 
To: "Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts" <ale at ale.org> 
Sent: Monday, July 30, 2012 12:48:21 PM 
Subject: [ale] [OT] Home PBX? 

So, we have an AT&T POTS line incoming, and I've been kicking the idea around of doing a home PBX type thing. 


I was wondering where to start; are there some well-known FOSS things out there that I could begin my research with? I'm assuming I'd need some sort of hardware (fax-modem?) to catch the incoming calls, then the software to "do interesting $#@! with it". I just don't know what my possibilities are or what the capabilities (and price) of such things would be. 


Pointers welcome. 
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