[Sussex] Asterisk Hardware

[John Crowhurst]

On Fri, November 25, 2005 23:11, Adam J Purcell said:
> Hi all!
>
> I believe one or two of you have messed about with Asterisk?  I was
> wondering if anyone can recommend some relatively inexpensive hardware
> just to play about with?

The Digium X100P clone is just a connexant 56K modem card, it just has
capability for voice modem. Its an FXO (Foreign Exchange Office) card,
meaning it only works from a phone line. Its quality is poor, and in my
system it occasionally generates fatal errors which can only be cured by a
power cycle.

> The other option I was looking at was a much heftier outlay (probably
> about £160 with VAT and shipping) in the form of a Digium TDM400P
> (TDM11B).  I have little doubt this will work from what I hear but
> it's quite an outlay for a little project over Christmas!  I expect
> I'll keep Asterisk going 'in live' afterwards but it would be more
> comforting to know I can walk away from it without too large a dent in
> the wallet!

My phonecall has the TDM11B for £120+VAT:
http://www.myphonecall.co.uk/voip/telephonycards/digium/default.aspx

If you want caller id, you have to apply UK callerid patches to the
Asterisk PBX, as BT use a nonstandard delivery system.

> Are there any other options I've missed?  Other than going completely
> software, that is - which just doesn't seem the same!

An alternative would be using a FXS-FXO converter, and converting an FXS
port into an FXO port. If you had a dual port Sipura for instance, you
could convert one of the ports to an FXO and connect it to your phone
line.
http://www.voip-info.org/wiki-FXS-FXO+Converters

Oh and voip-info.org is a very useful source of VOIP advice too, covering
configuration of your Asterisk PBX to your hardware.

>
> Thanks,
> Adam

--
John