rixride

Excellent Question Jim,
The Asterisk or Trixbox can connect to phone lines in a few ways.
1. with a Analog Trunk Adapter FXO Card (Looks like a pci modem card)

2. with a Sip trunking provider (Similar to using Vonage)

Analog Trunk Adapter (FXO Card) will allow you to have physical analog lines and plug them into the different ports to create trunks. Your Asterix installation will use those lines as trunks to make outgoing and receive incoming calls. Pro's is that you can use a home phone line or you can order professional business analog lines allowing your calls to be higher quality. Con's is that you have to have access to the local machine to run the wires.

SIP TRUNK Providers will allow you to make and receive calls with virtual phone lines, like using Vonage, you don't actually have to have any hardware for the trunks, you just tell Trixbox which provider to use and what kind of line they gave you and all your calls will route through that provider over VoIP. You need good bandwidth for your Asterisk installation in order for this to work right. This is good if you don't have access to your box or you don't actually want to run wires...the down side is that this is all VoIP and quality may be an issue at times depending on your internet connection to your asterisk machine.

Does that help?

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jzawacki

You don't even need a full computer. If you want to play with it, you can download a VMware image of Trixbox and give it a test drive. VMWare player is free so it won't cost you any money to test it out. Of course, you will only be able to play with VoIP methods, but you can install free Softphones and play around with it. If you think it will do what you want, then take the next step and decide if you want to go with PSTN lines over VoIP lines. Personally, I would suggest going to at least one or two PSTN lines, but again, that depends on what you plan on using it for (I'm assuming business). That way, you have your dedicated high quality connections, and if needed you can add additional VoIP lines to higher call volumes a very little monthly fees.

rixride is right about VoIP trunks. You have to be careful with them in a production environment. Customers aren't happy when they can't hear you, or you can't here them. And without a router that can do traffic shaping, you might find that downloading a file while talking on the phone could cause problems. But, you have to compare costs. You might find that getting an additional internet connection just for VoIP is more cost effective than purchasing 4 PSTN lines from your local provider. example for my area:

4 PSTN lines = $25/mo + $15 each additional = $70/mo
1.5Mb DSL = $20/mo, 4 line VoIP = $11/mo for a total of $33

Not to mention, you don't have to buy a $200-300 FXO card.

gonesouth

Thanks for the answers. Both were crystal clear. My apologies for being slow to come back and read them. Spent some time in hospital, and while fine now, I'm still digging out from under the pile of work which accumulated.

One advantage of the forced mechanical downtime is that I had time to think about what I want to do. I am now thinking of using an Asteryx (well, probably tribox) box as a second PBX to extend my existing Nortel 824KSU at minimum cost. My current plan is to set up one of my Nortel extensions (digital) to be an incoming trunk for asteryx. (It is possible that I can use a trunk which would be analog, but I haven't spent enough time on the manuals to be sure yet.) Then set up a wifi phone to allow me to walk around with the wifi phone and still be connected. All incoming calls would be forwarded to the wifi phone, or just calls to my extension. Future extensions of the service would happen by IP phones.

Would it be possible to use a modem as the connection card for the Nortel line, or do i need to go to the FXO card?

Are there brands of FXO cards that you would recommend for this that are both reliable and low cost?

Is there another way to set this up that makes more sense?

Thanks for your help.

Jim

You said 4 voip lines for $11. Those are local lines with no long distance included? It's not offered here, but it would be nice. The low cost one here is Vonage at about $30/month, but with free LD in north America and low cost rates worldwide. In my case, my telco lines are free, but local calls are metered.......

jzawacki

If you want professional quality integration, you will need an FXO card/gateway. I personally have only used Digium hardware in a production environment, but I also have an 8 port FXO gateway from Grandstream waiting to be fully tested.. But, I have integrated an Asterisk PBX (Trixbox) with a Nortel MICS system using a dual T1 card and it works perfectly. But, that card cost around $1,000 so it really depends on your budget. If you go with an FXO style system, you will only be able to handle as many calls as you have FXO ports.

tacfit

@jzawacki
Thanks, you just answered a simple question I've been looking for the answer to. The fact that you can only have as many calls going as you have FXO ports.

So how about T1? How about PRI? Do these allow you more simultaneous calls?

(I'm a systems admin who's getting into Asterisk, so the telephony side of things is a little new to me.)

jzawacki

Well, "PRI or Primary Rate Interface is a switched service delivered OVER a T1 connection" (borrowed from some site). A T1 can be used for a lot of things and you "cut" them up however you like. Part of it for data, part of it for voice, etc.

With that said, a full T1 PRI has 24 channels (like having 24 FXO ports) but, one of those channels is used for signaling, so you can only use 23 channels for communication. So you can have up to 23 inbound/outbound calls simultaneously.

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Now, I re-read this topic and I'm not really sure what you are hoping to do. I know you mentioned you currently have a Nortel system. How is it currently connected. Are you looking to replace it, or integrate it as I mentioned? How many users do you currently have, and are you expecting expansion.

Or, are you looking to make the Asterisk system your "personal" telephone system? Meaning, it will only handle calls for your extension off of the Nortel and not anyone elses?

DxDePauw

Have you thought about what brand of IP phone to use? Not all brands/models play nice with Asterisk. THere is a product out there that will allow you to use your current Norstar/Meridian keysets on an IP systen.

I'm also confused about what it is your're trying to accomplish. I'm not saying that it's impossible, but you may run into seemlessly "integrating" an Asterisk system with a traditional Nortel system...especially when it comes to voicemail and a unified dialplan.