On 11/21/05, Geoffrey S. Mendelson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Sun, Nov 20, 2005 at 11:31:51PM +0300, Maxim Vexler wrote: > > Hello, > > I wish to use asterisk in my home, the poor man's way. > > Can asterisk be used in a home environment with plain analog modem ?I wish > > use the modem to listen the line, basically simulating theregular phone > > device.In the old days you could receive caller id on the signal that > > wassent by bezeq on the first ring tone... can I do the same withasterisk? > > Plus I'm a bit confused with all this FXO / FXS telephone hardware andwould > > thank any one willing to clarify this for me in a line or 2. Whydo I even > > need this FXO / FXS telephone equipment if I can simply plugthe VoIP phone > > into the LAN socket and have it receive the voltagefrom the switch ? > > I did goolgled, and alos done my reading on voip-info.org, but > > stillcouldn't find a concise answer to my questions. > > Thank you for reading. > > There are basicly 4 ways that asterisk can talk to a telephone or telephone > line. > > 1. FXO (stands for foreign exchange OFFICE), this is a line from a > telephone switch (BEZEQ) to your computer. The best ones are > standard FXO line cards. > > An Intel "smartmodem" can be used as an FXO card. It's advantage > is it's cheap (under 100 NIS), it's disadvantage is that it > hits your ssystem with 8,000 interupts a second. Theoreticaly > you could put one in each of your PCI slots, in practice, no > system could handle that many. >
Now why would it want to do that? Can't I lower the cards polling interval using the kernel or some similar configuration? 8000/s just sounds way too much for an incoming call sense... (right?) Is digium X100P is a "soft-modem" ? What hardware would you recommend me to use, If i were to use the same machine for phone PBX and a (modest) workstation ? > 2. FXS (foreign exchange SUBSCRIBER), These cards go to analog > (aka POTS) phones. > > 3. Ethernet. This is for "smart" phones (phones with ethernet ports > that use a supported protocol, usually SIP) or a "soft" phone, > a program running on a computer. > > It can also connect to the internet for VoIP (voice over IP > services) for both incoming and outgoing calls. > Ethernet doesn't require a special hardware from the asterisk side, all I need to get me started is a VoIP / software phone, right ? Does any phone that is designed to work with Ethernet is a VoIP SIP phone ? Or are there different standers (RFC's ?) that I should be aware of ? (Like property vs. free implementation?) > 4. Hi speed serial ports. These can be slow such as ISDN (2 64kbps > channels and a 16kbps control channel) or fast such as a T1 voice > or ISDN PRI (known in Israel as a PRA). which combines many lines. > This surly requires special hardware. Not that I plan to purchase such, but out of interest - Where do I get it, and how much would such a thing cost ? > There are many pitfalls you should be aware of. Asterisk can be memory > and CPU expensive and need frequent reboots. For a single line using a > real FXO card, a single 4 extension FXS card for your old phones and > a smart/soft phone or two a relatively small system (1gHz CPU, 512m RAM, > 40 gig disk will do nicely and probably need to be rebooted once a week > or so. > reboots you say... Well at the end its nothing but a bug, should (and would) be fixed someday. <prophecy> Could it be something with your specific configuration that forces you to reboot? Such a harsh memory leakage is not something that I would believe to live for long in the stable releases. </prophecy> > A smaller system such as a 500mHz CPU, 256m RAM and 10 gig disk will do > ok, but it may need more frequent reboots. If you spend some time tailoring > your Linux system it runs on and recompile from source with the small > system option, a 300mHz cpu, 128m RAM and 6g HD will do. > > Using the Intel chipset smart modems adds a lot of overhead, so what you > save in not bying FXO/FXS cards can be eaten up quickly if you have to > buy a computer, even a used one. > > You need to be careful in buying your equipment, USB and Ethernet > devices sold for Skype do not have linux support and can't be used. > I purchased such a device from an Israeli manufacturer and found out later > that it was not made, designed or supported by them. > > They just imported it, put their name on the docs and drivers and filed > the paperwork to be allowed to import it. The same unit is sold by at > least 20 other vendors around the world as their own, with the same > drivers having their name on it. > I don't think revealing their name would qualify as staining their name. > There are are least two importers of FXO/FXS cards in Israel, look at the > archives of this list for their names. > I found one : http://article.gmane.org/gmane.linux.region.israel/20380 I assume there are more, could you please try to enumerate the ones you are familiar with, preferably from the center (rishon lezion) area. > As for the future of Asterisk, I make the following prediction: > > Asterisk will be the phone switch of choice for many of the small startups > that appear in the coming "high-tech" bubble. If you specialize in installing > and maintaing asterisk systems in the 5-10 user range, you will find an > "emerging" market and do well. > > Geoff. > Thank you Geoff for that help. > -- > Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel [EMAIL PROTECTED] N3OWJ/4X1GM > IL Voice: (07)-7424-1667 IL Fax: 972-2-648-1443 U.S. Voice: 1-215-821-1838 > You should have boycotted Google while you could, now Google supported > BPL is in action. Time is running out on worldwide radio communication. > I appreciate the answers. Thank you all for for replying. Good night. -- Cheers, Maxim Vexler (hq4ever). Do u GNU ?
