New to VOIP Please help

Asterisk Asterisk General
1

I do not know if Asterisk is able to do the following thing and I will need some help and advice on how to get started.

I have 100 virtual numbers (DID) all over the US right now I’m using a hosted service that let me use these number.
all these 100 numbers are forward to my 3 local numbers I have.

The first thing a would like to know is -

  1. is Asterisk will be able to do the same (forward virtual number to local)
  2. What kind of hardware do I need to use if I would like to have more virtual lines (around 500 - 1000)
  3. is it will be easy to configure all of these numbers ? also what kind of Internet line should I use (is T1 good or I need better then that)
  4. where do I buy just virtual line without a service involve?

I will appreciate your advice and help.
Thank you

2

hi,

  1. is Asterisk will be able to do the same (forward virtual number to local)
  • asterisk could forward your DID to your local numbers.
  1. What kind of hardware do I need to use if I would like to have more virtual lines (around 500 - 1000)
  • the actual hardware depends on how many concurrent calls you have;
  • in my experience, a dual-xeon machine with >= 2G ram could support 80-100 concurrent calls (assuming that your internet is sufficiently stable so as not to have any voice quality impact)
  • you might have to install a fxo card (eg from digium or sangoma) for connecting asterisk to your 3 local numbers
  1. is it will be easy to configure all of these numbers ? also what kind of Internet line should I use (is T1 good or I need better then that)
  • it is not difficult to configure the forwarding in asterisk extensions.conf;
  • as an alternative, you could consider trixbox or elastix, etc as they provide gui interface for dial plan configuration;
  • a t1 (1.5M) could support 23 channels and looks sufficient as you just have 3 local numbers for actual conversation;
  • however, you need to check that whether your DID provider is using 711 or 729 codec as their bandwidth consumption is different.

regards,
derek