[Gllug] Asterisk

[John Winters]

On Tue, 2006-04-04 at 13:39 +0000, SteveC wrote:
[snip]
> o...k
> 
> I would like my computer to be a voice answering machine.
> 
> > Assuming it's a fax modem, I'd just use Hylafax to drive it and
> > configure that to e-mail me each fax as it comes in.  Then however I
> > wonder where Asterisk comes in to your question?
> 
> Because I understand asterisk does a superset of what I want, and might
> be relevant...?

I don't think Asterisk is the tool you want.  If all you want to do is
have your voice/fax modem function as an answering machine + fax machine
then something like vgetty + Hylafax should do what you want.

AFAIK, Asterisk doesn't have much truck with modems.  It can *emulate* a
modem (see IAXmodem) but it's function is a telephone exchange (loosely
speaking) so it doesn't actually expect to drive modems (except
connected as client devices - i.e. plugged in like a telephone).

If you want to interface Asterisk to a POTS telephone line then you need
an interface card like a TDM400P, which lets you physically connect the
line (indeed, up to 4 lines) to your computer.  There are also some
single line cards apparently, but I don't have any experience of them.

Given Asterisk and a TDM400P you can indeed have a fax + answering
service and a whole heap more, but I don't think your old modem fits
into this configuration at all.  Unfortunately TDM400Ps are much more
expensive.

HTH
John

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