[Gllug] dual voip + landline phone for linux

[Ben Fitzgerald]

On Sun, Oct 23, 2005 at 12:42:25PM +0100, Martin N Stevens wrote:
> > I don't want to go beyond £100 (I'm from oop north!).
> >
> > Dual function (analog and VOIP) appeals as I have broadband through BT
> > and the fallback to analog appeals (my girlfriend will have my scalp if
> > the phone is unreliable!!!). My connection is 512down 256up. I'm
> > considering upgrading this as recently I've needed more bandwidth.
> >
> > Suggestions for cheap, non-lock in VOIP -> POTS providers would also be good.
> > Pay as you go preferred.
> 
> I would do this with something like asterisk at home, with a Grandstream
> VOIP phone, and a POTS card.

Okay, I've done some reading and priced this. I now see my £100 estimate
was, well, optimistic. I'm hoping some gllugers can bring the price down
with advice, but if not, well, I'll have to pay up! :-X

Here is what I'd like to use:

               adsl
                 |
           router/firewall
                 |
                 |
        /----------------\
       |                  |
     VOIP               POTS_____    PC
     phone              card      asterisk

For the VOIP phone the grandstream looks cheap + cheerful. Yes snom is
nice but overkill for home use. I can get a budgetone 102 for £50 on
ebay.

For the POTS card digium seems the linux default. I was thinging TDM01B
(1 FXO, 0 FXS) for £85.

The rest (except for my time spent learning asterisk + configuring my
firewall) is free.

PC is running debian, PIII 700MHz, BTW.

My understanding is:

I plug the VOIP phone into the LAN. I configure it to use asterisk
running on a PC on my LAN as it's pbx.

Outgoing: Asterisk routes the call as appropriate (voipfone/voipcheap/etc).
Incoming: Asterisk handles the call on FXO port, consults rules and routes
to VOIP phone if appropriate.

Questions I would like to check before I pay out:

* is the above setup technically correct? If I have anything wrong I'd
+really+ appreciate a heads-up.

* are there any rebadged digium cards out there of similar quality for less?

* Is this config the best to have (assuming I want my own pbx - yes,
overkill, but I want to learn this).

Thanks in advance,


Ben.

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