[Sussex] Asterisk Hardware

[Adam J Purcell]

On 11/26/05, John Crowhurst <fyremoon at fyremoon.net> wrote:
> 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.

Hmm, perhaps I will avoid the X100P then.  Cheap but doesn't sound
fantastic.  Given I'll probably use my normal server for this I'd
rather not have to reboot for anything other than a kernel update. 
That and if I can't easily connect my normal phones to it, then it's
onto the next option, I think.

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

Yep, this looks like the same card I was looking at.  Sounds like that
is the one to go for after all... That's still looking about £160 with
postage and VAT.  Pity my bank balance!

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

Hmm, interesting.  Just like BT to use a non-standard system!  I
assume Telewest must use the same system or caller display phones
wouldn't work.  I'll take a look into that.  That would probably have
stumped me!  Thanks for the heads up.

> 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

Hmm, doesn't look like that would be any cheaper, so it's probably the
TDM11B for me.

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

Excellent, thanks.  Asterisk looks like one flexible system!  I think
I'm going to have a lot of fun messing with this!

> --
> John

Thanks for your help!
Adam