RE: Re: Asterisk line in/out cards

["Paul Gale" <groups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The IAXy's look interesting - The one thing I've been scratching my head
over on this thread so far is why you'd want to have a wired handset
like the SIP phones have? I've not used a wired handset for donkey's
years - certainly wouldn't want to go back now (DECT and wireless phones
are so much more versatile - especially when crawling around on all
fours behind a PC!!!).

Paul

-----Original Message-----
From: UKHA [mailto:ukha@xxxxxxx]
Sent: 24 May 2004 16:12
To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [ukha_d] Re: Asterisk line in/out cards


>If you want to get the best out of asterisk, go for SIP based phones
>instead of analogue extension cards. Then you won't need any FXS
>cards at all.

I have to disagree...

If you want the best out of asterisk (IMHO) get IAXy's - these are small
(blue!) boxes
which you plug a standard telephone into and then connect to the
network. These
devices 'speak' IAX2 to the asterisk pbx (IAX2 is used to to connect
multiple asterisk
boxes together.. we use it in a carrier environment)

IAXy's retail at about $75 (about 41.8852 GBP) - you wont get a sip
phone thats any good
for that price. They are available from Digium (you may need to speak to
sales - but if you have
an asterisk box and have set up an IAX tel account you can call for free
:D )  The support FSK
caller id and MWI - quick tip, Panasonic KXTCD range of dect phones
support both .. if you can
then get an SMS capable version, asterisk supports fixed line sms
messaging!

btw Ignore the "coming soon" note on their site.. they are
available...

I've been using one for about 4 months now (one of the limited developer
ones) and it hasn't skipped
a beat since it was plugged in.


>
>If you really need analogue extensions, Cisco do a SIP to POTs
>adapter (model number escapes me) at a reasonable price, or you can
>buy a developer kit bundle from digium which includes a 1 port FXO
>and 1 port FXS card at reasonable cost.
>
>Patrick
>

If you insist on SIP  then....

Cisco make ATA'186 - well they used to.. personally if you have to go
sip then go for
the SIPura - http://www.sipura.com 
(rumour has it the guy who made
these did the
original Cisco version but as part of the agreement was unable to sell
them for a period
of time - he's updated and improved on them my experience of these is
that they kick the
original one's ass)

For incoming calls, the 17 quid clone you found will work (they are
basically the same)
although if you mention to the asterisk community that you have a clone,
don;t expect
them to help you get going.

Personally I'd grab the developers kit:

The kit includes the following items:
One Wildcard TDM400P (TDM11B bundle)
PCI FXS Interface (FOR ONE TELEPHONE)
PCI FXO Interface (FOR ONE POTS LINE)

priced at $195.00 (approx 108.898 GBP)

If you want to get going with asterisk then you can take a look at my
guide:

http://www.automated.it/guidetoasterisk.htm

there are some other bits at http://asterisk.automated.it and
I'll be
adding more later....


HTH

Andy