Hi. I’m looking at switching my VOIP provider to one which supports asterisk. My goal is to have 2 lines working on my 2 line cordless phone setup. What I’d like to know is the cheapest setup I can but that will do this without any problems. From what I’ve learned so far I need 2 FXS adapters? There are so many of these devices, I’ve gotten a bit lost on what will work and honestly have no clue what to get. I’d really love any suggestions on hardware to use for my setup, and possible places to buy as well. (is there a forsale forum around here? 
. Anyway, thanks in advance to anyone with any insight.
welcome, and congrats on making the switch. Since you are new, insert the obligatory book reference here (Asterisk: The Future of Telephony, available from O’Rilley or download from www.asteriskdocs.org ).
You need two FXS ports, many adapters have two ports. You can also use an FXS board (Digium TDM400 series with two FXS (green) modules). That will be more expensive, $225 for a Digium TDM400 with two fxs modules (price from voipsupply.com).
an ATA (analog telephony adapter) would be a better bet I think. I suggest a Sipura SPA-2000 series (SPA-2002) adapter. It has a multitude of options which may be somewhat confusing at first, but they work quite well.
You could also save a few bucks and get a Grandstream HT-386 (about $20 less), I’ve never used those though. I’d assume they still work decently well, check voip-info.org for more info on them.
As for buying, try voipsupply.com . I’ve used them a few times and never had any problems. Good selection too.
So would this be a good choice for me?
voipsupply.com/product_info. … cts_id=321
It looks like what I need. Also what are all the features you were mentioning? One thing I’d really like to do is integrate asterisk into my home automation setup, I read a little about how that’s possible but haven’t found any details as of yet. I have read some of the doc you linked, and will probably read the rest as soon as I get the hardware picked out and ordered Anyway thanks for the quick reply
voipsupply.com/product_info. … cts_id=713 that would be a better one, no need for a dual ethernet model unless you think this will prove useful.
what kind of home automation setup do you have? I have heard of asterisk integrating with something called ‘xpl’, also there is a set of scripts called ‘mister house’ that might work…