Connecting a physical phone to my asterisk server

hey guys

I want to connect my existing phone to my asterisk server. im looking to build a very minimal server and I am limited in ports on my mobo. My little understanding leads me to believe that I need a fxs card to connect to my server. First question is if my previous statement is correct. If so, other than PCI, does anyone know if a low cost option I could use to connect to my server; for example, are there small form factor usb options or maybe motherboard with this port built in.

Any help on this topic is much appreciated.
thanks

[quote=“periferral305”]hey guys

I want to connect my existing phone to my asterisk server. im looking to build a very minimal server and I am limited in ports on my mobo. My little understanding leads me to believe that I need a fxs card to connect to my server. First question is if my previous statement is correct. If so, other than PCI, does anyone know if a low cost option I could use to connect to my server; for example, are there small form factor usb options or maybe motherboard with this port built in.

Any help on this topic is much appreciated.
thanks[/quote]

voip-info.org/wiki/index.php … ome+analog

or GSM Gateway made of an old AT mobile phone + Celliax audio channel or mobile audio channel.

Note that the Sipura products mentioned (ethernet to fxo/fxs) are now owned by Cisco/Linksys. I have a Linksys SPA3102 on my home setup. It works for the most part, but has had problems with punctuation characters in the incoming call display name which makes Asterisk hiccup. My solution to the problem will be to have the carrier remove the service, as now I can use Asterisk to look up the names of the callers who are important to me.

I’ve read good things about equivalent Grandstream products, but haven’t tried them myself.

With a basic SIP phone being around USD 50 or GBP 37, I suspect the cheapest option for home use is to buy a SIP phone, rather than to interface the existing phone.

I agree, unless you need to also connect to the PSTN or have several extensions in your house that you want to connect (on a single port).

You can replace basic SIP phone by SIP softphone app like X-Lite.

You can, but I assumed he wanted the look and feel of a real phone.

Note that X-Lite is nobbled, and doesn’t like re-invites.

[quote=“david55”]You can, but I assumed he wanted the look and feel of a real phone.

Note that X-Lite is nobbled, and doesn’t like re-invites.[/quote]

Ok.
Does it mean X-Lite crashes on re-invites or cannot handle re-invites properly ?
Tell me what re-invite events can be handled properly by other SIP softphones like Kapanga, Softphone -
I mean no-video -> video, audio codecs change, MOH to live audio streaming
and what is chance to have softphone to support re-invites on itself, in peer2peer session, no Asterisk server involved.

If you try to re-invite the media stream out of Asterisk, when using X-Lite, X-Lite totally ignores the re-invite. That is a protocol violation; it should either explicitly reject it or honour it. Asterisk drops the call when it has re-transmitted the re-invite too many times.

Re-inviting the media stream out of Asterisk is desirable, in many cases, as it improves performance and fault tolerance.

I haven’t rechecked this on the very latest version.

I have no experience of other soft phones and all the dedicated SIP phones and PABXes I’ve used do honour re-invites.

thanks for all the replies. couple of quick clarifications on my original question

  1. I do want a physical phone rather than xlite/softphones.
  2. I do want to connect an existing phone rather than a SIP phone. The reason for this is I have a phone system with a base station and 3 handsets for different rooms in my home and dont want to replace it with 3 different SIP phones.

Seems like from the discussion, my only option is PCI. I’ve search the web and came up with some usb with 2 fxs ports but was at $130. looks like im out of options when it comes to low cost options.

thanks

Ethernet is viable option I think. Even if you don’t have a network to connect to you could use a crossover cable.

It looks like re-invite is supported by X-Lite to some extend

sipindex.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=14930
"
Hello!

I’ve encountered a strange problem while using X-Lite. I’m calling to B2BUA-application which first connects to media server and plays announcement, then connects to another user. Thus, X-Lite sends an INVITE, receives 200 OK with SDP of media server, then, after announcement is finished, X-Lite receives re-INVITE with SDP of another user (also X-Lite).
"

how do i use ethernet to connect a physical phone? is this really an option?

how do i use ethernet to connect a physical phone? is this really an option?[/quote]

voiplink.com/ProductDetails. … oogle_base

google.com/images?hl=en&q=et … a=N&tab=wi

or usb sip phone
google.com/images?um=1&hl=en … =&gs_rfai=

mobile phone as GSM Gateway, via data cable + sound card ports
3G voice modem as GSM Gateway,
WiFi SIP phone
SIP TAPI phone

No. An ATA device like a SPA3102 or Grandstream, or many others has both ethernet ports and FXO/FXS. I paid about C$70 for my SPA3102, although now that I’ve gone and bought it I hear the Grandstream works better.

So you would connect your computer with ethernet to the SPA3102, and the phone and/or phone line to the ATA. I use that with Asterisk at home and it works fine with the phone.

Chris

3 standard 2 wire analog phones with a single PSTN line.

You could look at a card with three fxs modules or you could use a Cisco / Linksys / Sipura SPA2102 which gives you 2 x FXS ports for standard 2 wire PSTN handsets. And use a SPA3102 which has an FXS and an FXO for hooking into your existing phone line. There are plenty on eBay, just make sure that they are not locked.

This way you can chop and change machines, configs etc without having to rip cards out.

But the best bet is a bunch of SIP phones. Much nicer and with the Aastra 30’s as cheap as they are, you’ll never look back.

Aduio Codes are my vote. I’ve used them all and to me they are the best. They may cost a few extra bucks but its worth the performance.

Here is a direct link on their site. Lots of wholesalers/retailers sell their products.

http://www.audiocodes.com/products/mediapack-20x

[quote=“csullivan”]No. An ATA device like a SPA3102 or Grandstream, or many others has both ethernet ports and FXO/FXS. I paid about C$70 for my SPA3102, although now that I’ve gone and bought it I hear the Grandstream works better.

So you would connect your computer with ethernet to the SPA3102, and the phone and/or phone line to the ATA. I use that with Asterisk at home and it works fine with the phone.

Chris[/quote]

thanks csullivan. i think this seems like a viable option. Ideally, I would have like to go with a single box solution with a compact pci/usb fxs. I dont need fxo since I’m never connecting to a pstn at all. Also, I will not need more than 1 fxs since it will connect to only 1 phone.