Newbie- Question on PSTN/POTS with Asterisk@Home

Asterisk Asterisk Support
1

You guys are great for putting up with n00bs like us…

We want to stick with only PSTN/POTS for now- and we have 4 lines.

Correct me if I’m wrong:

  • I buy 4 X100P (or some equivalent card- please suggest)
  • Hook the normal PSTN/POTS lines up to them
  • I install AAH on a reasonably fast machine.
  • Connect the ethernet card from the machine to a switch
  • Hook the SIP phones up to the switch

Everything works fine and I can use AAH as a very nice IP-based PBX system?

I’d appreciate any advice/assistance.

Thanks.

2

I’m not sure exactly what you are asking. But,

You will want a TDM400 digium card with four FXO modules.
Hook up the ethernet before you install AAH.
You will want a router instead of a simple switch.
Yes can hook up sip phones or softphones.

have fun.

3

OK. Found the TDM400 pretty easily in Froogle.

What I was asking was how you hook up the phones and server to interface. I’ll obviously plug the phone lines from the wall into the TDM400, and then I can just plug the Asterisk server and the SIP phones into a router together? If I had a switch coming off the router, could I connect everything to that?

Appreciate it.

4

The phones and Asterisk should connect to the switch. The switch then connects to a router for Internet access (if you actually require Internet access for Asterisk – you may not want to use an external VoIP provider).

5

Yes, the incoming phone lines from the wall go into the FXO ports of the PSTN. The model of TDM400 depends on what modules you want, you will need the one with 4 FXO ports.

Then you just plug the ethernet cables to your network. I stated not to use a switch alone as you will need a DHCP server to assign an ip address to all of your hardware. Correct me anyone if I am wrong, but a simple switch does not act as a dhcp server. You can start with a simple router (wired only can be had for under $30), then add as many switches as you wish!