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

[Knight Walker]

On Mon, 2006-08-07 at 02:16 -0600, Chad wrote:
> What's an LD?  This is great news, I've been over at www.voip-info.org
> this weekend and seem to be getting the 'jist' of what I'll need.

LD = Long Distance.  If your family, or whoever has a SIP ATA or SIP
phone, they can attach directly to your Asterisk server, so the call
never touches the POTS and the only charges involved are for the
Internet connection.

> Definitely, actually I'm looking at the Digium TDM400P with and FXS or
> 2 attached.  Although it seems maybe an ATA might be cheaper in the
> short run, the Digium hardware has great reviews.

That's great as long as your server has a phone cord (Or two) running to
it. :) An ATA should allow you to place one at the spot where the phone
line comes into your house, and then have everything else running over
Ethernet.  For most people, that's really the same thing, since they
only have one line to begin with and their house has phone wire crawling
through it already.

> Thanks for the reply!  If I take the step and begin integrating all
> this and playing, I'll see if I can write up a how-to or something on
> any successes I have.  A free phone would be cool, if nothing else, at
> least rigging something up to work with Gizmo and my old school phones
> would be a great start.

There's a lot of information out there on Asterisk.  I remember a recent
episode of Systm was all about Asterisk, though in less than an hour,
about all you can do is an introduction and a few quick HOWTOs.

-KW