[sllug-members]: Google Talk, VOIP, Asterisk = free phone?

[Knight Walker]

On Fri, 2006-08-04 at 03:04 -0600, Chad wrote:

[SNIP]

> Is there a free lunch?  Is it possible to get a free phone number that
> Dick Clark can call me at, and I won't have had to spend a dime to win
> my $10 million bucks?  And more importantly, can I use my 1983 AT&T $5
> telephone plugged into my wall to call into work sick?

I can't answer all of it, but I can answer some, since this is a topic
that has been interesting me lately.  I don't know about the free phone
number, but I do know you can setup Asterisk to do about anything you
want from a PBX, including call forwarding, multiple incoming lines
(Different numbers, including area codes), and setting up an "extension"
to your mom's house (or wherever) that doesn't even touch the POTS
system if she has an Asterisk or even a SIP phone (Free LD!).

Yes, you can use a regular POTS phone with Asterisk, but you need
something called an ATA (Analog Telephone Adapter), which basically is a
D/A SIP converter for a regular old telephone.

> I know we have some Asterisk gurus here, so I figured this might be a
> good place to discuss this.

I'm not a guru by any stretch, but I'm greatly interested in Asterisk
and talking about integrating it into my network and my phone system.

-KW