VoIP software

[Kenneth E. Lussier]

On Wed, 2004-11-17 at 11:35 -0500, Cole Tuininga wrote:

> I've been looking more and more at asterisk.  Not having *any*
> experience with phone related stuff, it's a little intimidating but it
> seems like there's a lot of documentation out there.  One question I'd
> have for you, Ed, is what kind of financial investment did you have to
> put into hardware for this (if you don't mind my asking)?

Financial investment to build an asterisk box for home is very low. You
need a PC running Linux, so that can cost anywhere from $0 (any old PC
laying around) to > $500 (if you really want to go all out!!). You need
an FXO card of some sort to plug your phone line into. You can buy a
single port FXO card from  Digium  (Wildcard X100P) for $100. You don't
have to spend the $100 for the Digium card, though. You can get a modem
using a particular chipset that is compatible with the zaptel drivers
that Asterisk uses for about $10
(http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?
description=25-180-004&DEPA=0) That takes care of the server itself.
Then, you need IP phones. You can get Grandstream Budgetones for about
$65, or you can spend $600 on a Cisco :-)

So, the cost can break out like this (assuming 3 phones):

Part		Low End			HighEnd 
====		=======			=======
PC		$0			$500
FXO Card	$10			$100
Phone		$65			$600
Phone		$65			$600
Phone		$65			$600
		=======			=======
Total		$205			$2400

So, it can cost about anywhere from $205 - $2400. Of course, there are
many different ways that your end goal can be achieved, so the pricing
may vary. You can also do without IP phones and use analog phones with
either IP IADs or FXS ports in the asterisk box. 

HTH,
Kenny
 
-- 
Kenneth E. Lussier 
Sr. Systems Administrator
Sentito Networks


-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: This is a digitally signed message part
Url : http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/private/gnhlug-discuss/attachments/20041117/891cb70a/attachment.bin