Hardware Needed?

Asterisk Asterisk Support
1

Hi There,

I want to start running Asterisk as a PBX over a server. I have a pentium 3 server that will not be running anything else. I am wondering what other hardware is needed in order to run a basic Asterisk system?

I am trying to have one incoming line that will be re-directed to 4 different cellphones based on extensions…

Is this possible? and if so what other type of hardware will i need? (excluding the server with linux and asterisk)

Thank you very much for the support.
Jon

2

Now that’s not a “basic” Asterisk any more. Let me guess: the incoming “line” is an analogue line you already have? How many additional analogue lines do you currently have? Or do you plan to subscribe to some VoIP provider?

These will have a lot of bearing on the kind of hardware you’ll need. In the extreme case, you don’t need any additional hardware.

3

I’m going to subscribe to a VoIP provider…

There will be no analogue lines.

Thanks for your help.

4

Bingo! You won’t need any additional hardware. Assuming you are going to redirect an incoming call to one of 4 cell phones, server hardware should be adequate. (Asterisk is not going to be too happy if it has to do 1 + 4 voice streams on a PIII, but someone did 4 concurrent calls (8 voice streams) on a Pentium 166MHz.)

5

Thanks for your response…

So Any VoIP provider will do? Do I need a special package of any kind?

If it is possible I am going to use my current internet provider and just order digital phone. Will this package be enough? Or do i need to move to a specific VoIP provider? (Canada)

Thanks again valley

6

You must obtain service from an Internet telephony service provider, or ITSP in industry jargon. They are commonly called VoIP providers in this community. Just an ISP is not enough when you want to call the “real world” such as cell phones. I don’t know about specific providers but voip-info.org should be a good starting point for a search.

Your provider must allow you to have more than one concurrent conversations if you want to forward calls programmatically from Asterisk. You probably also need to pay for more than one “phone number” (sometimes known as DID numbers). This is not strictly necessary if all you need is what you described, but in order to give your more than one concurrent calls, a provider may want to bundle one number for each concurrent call.

These items are technical drivers behind price. Package is just a marketing gimmick on top of these. You need to examine your own needs first. (Read about VoIP services and providers will help you identify your needs.) Then, when someone throws you a package, you know what to ask.