[ale] OT Asterisk user contacts

[Alex Carver]

On 2018-11-15 13:47, Joey Kelly via Ale wrote:
> On Wednesday, November 14, 2018 10:53:58 PM EST Alex Carver via Ale wrote:
>> On 2018-11-14 18:13, Edward O. Holcroft wrote:
>>> Why not just ask your question here? Or is that not permitted?
>>>
>>> Asterisk is hardly that a long stretch OT for a LUG. I'd bet most of the
>>> ex-AAUG folks are on this list.
>>
>> I think it's just a bit overly Asterisk specific and likely to drag on a
>> bit so it would overextend the welcome of an OT thread
> 
> You mean like this one? ;-)
> 
> Seriously, start a thread and ask your questions, maybe I/we can help you out.
> 

Hah, this one hasn't gone on too long with all sorts of sordid, detailed
information :)

I've gotten some feedback from Scott and Derek but I'd be happy to send
along what I wrote to them.  You can skip way down to the
TL;DR section if you like as well.

I've been playing around with Asterisk at home as a hobby for a little
while.  Not too long ago my father-in-law had a small pile of SPA942's
laying around and gave them to me which prompted me to try and install a
nice VoIP system at home and it went "downhill" from there.  It's been a
lot of fun tinkering with Asterisk (no GUI, just CLI with raw Asterisk)
and doing all sorts of weird things (my laundry machines send text
messages to the 942's when the washer or dryer is done with a load :) ).

Up until this point, though, the system can't dial out anywhere but I'm
not ready to pony up for paid SIP trunking with a SIP provider yet.  So
I figured I would try to use my PTSN lines that I already pay for as
part of my ISP bundle as the trunk.  I started looking at network
attached gateway devices (I run Asterisk in a VM currently and will
eventually put it on a SBC like a Raspberry Pi).  The one I kept running
across a lot was the Linksys SPA3102 which had two FXO and two FXS
ports.  I didn't realize how old that device was and that it really was
no longer supported or even really sold except as old "new stock" or
used.  The main thing was trying to avoid breaking the bank since this
is a hobby and for personal use but if it's unavoidable then I'd just
have to save pennies.

I wasn't really sure if support was really required but I figured better
to be safe with somewhat newer hardware that still gets manufacturer
support but I don't know what to look for or what currently is suitable
both as a manufacturer (I know I hear a lot about Cisco devices giving
Asterisk people headaches) and as a piece of hardware.

The basic things I'm looking for that I really want to be supported in a
gateway device would be:

* Supporting the FXO as a SIP trunk (this seems to be a given)

* Passing PTSN caller ID data into the Asterisk system so I can send
that along to all phones

* Indication of line busy status (for BLF purposes)

* Ensuring I/Asterisk know which phone line is calling inbound for
routing purposes (this is because in the future I may end up with a
second PTSN line and would need to route calls to the correct station)

* At least one FXS port so I can keep my cordless phone going (though if
really needed I'd consider an independent FXS adapter if there wasn't a
built-in FXS port).

* Here's the fun one: support hook-flash so I can handle call waiting on
inbound calls from the SIP phones (somehow convincing Asterisk to send
the flash message to the gateway and have the gateway do it).  This
seems hard to do just from Google searches and may have to end up on a
nice to have list with possible workarounds.


Nice to haves were:

* FXO to FXS fail-over for emergencies though I do plan to have at least
one hard phone tied into the PTSN line anyway, it'll just be out of the
way as the cordless and desk SIP phones would be the primary units.

* Supporting two FXOs on a single device (I could deal with two
independent devices but it would be nice not to eat too much shelf space)

* Support for handling a fax modem (my current ISP device handles faxes
ok, I think it does pass through though it claims it also handles T.38).
 For this I already have a standard (old) Supra fax modem hanging off
another Raspberry Pi running hylafax.  I would consider using IAXmodem
with hylafax to stream the data into Asterisk and then pass through the
gateway but initially the fax modem is going to be hanging out on an FXS
port along with my analog phones.

* Support for sending Caller ID data out the FXS port so the cordless
phones still receive CID info.

I was viewing some reviews on YouTube for other things and ran across a
Sangoma Vega gateway (four FXS, four FXO) that seemed to be an option
but rather expensive at around $300 or so and probably does everything
(haven't found a manual yet).  I also heard about some stuff from
Grandstream but then some of the reviewers have made complaints about
Grandstream before so it's unclear if that's a good option.

The TL;DR:
I want to be able to make outgoing calls from my VoIP system and use the
PTSN as my primary trunk so I need an affordable gateway device that can
at least handle Caller ID data to feed into the Asterisk system and also
run my analog lines as SIP devices (with CID as well) and can hopefully
support Call Waiting with a hook-flash message from Asterisk.  I spotted
a Sangoma Vega that might work but is expensive (~$300) and was told
that Grandstream has some devices as well but am unsure whether
Grandstream is a good brand given some reviewer comments.