Yes I am a novice to asterisk. Before I begin with Asterisk I would like to know if it will fit my application. All I really want to do is hook up 10 to 15 people three times a week to listen to a program which is approx. 2 hours long. Conference calling is way too expensive so I thought we could use asterisk as an alternative.
What additional hardware other than a computer will I need and what is the best way to proceed?
Excuse me if my question does not sound intelligent. I do have to start somewhere though.
This is a live program. The feed is not a problem. We have a 2 line POTS system with 3 way calling. Currently we are hooking people up through a daisy chain of three way calling. But that is cumbersome and time consuming( it is however very cheap). I have purchased no hardware to date. I am still researching options. Any recomendations for hardware is greatly appreciated. We have a other option of calling my company with 5 lines (POTS) and using the broadband cable service we have. I’m just not sure how to hook 10+ people up to this without getting a PRI or T1 from the phone company. I would like to avoid conferencing companys (Even the free ones) since long distance charges would apply and these would add up quickly. I have roughly 700.00 I could invest in equipment. I’m just not sure what is the best way to proceed without buying the wrong equipment.
If you have a broadband connection that’s wide enough and your listeners can use VoIP (a softphone plus their PC/laptop speaker) would do, then you should be fine using the MeetMe function of the Asterisk.
I understand that your source has to call into the Asterisk via POTS line. That would require a (relatively cheap) bit of hardware. Check out the Digium site for that. Of course it would be best if the source could also do VoIP.
As for the VoIP protocol to use…if your users are somewhere on the big bad internet, then IAX2 is probably easier than SIP, especially when you have to navigate various firewalls and routers.
Btw, a left-over PC from a few years ago should be enough for your application. No need to buy a brand new one.
You can use a normal phone to call into your Asterisk box if you have a proper SIP provider and bandwidth enough. A SIP provider takes care of the interconnection to the “normal” phonesystem.
You can use a softphone like zoiper to have a direct registration to your asterisk box so you don’t need any telephony provider at all for this connection. The easiest way is to use iax2 because of nat traversal. If you prefer SIP then you have to take care of nat traversal.
Asterisk will take care to get the lines all in the proper conference room. You have to write some lines but it is not as complicated as it seems at first.
If you are in a hurry you could add a request on the “jobs” part of this forum. What you want is very easy to configure on a standard Asterisk box and it can’t cost a lot. All you need is a proper not to old PC and enough memory.
If you want to learn to configure it yourself start reading “the future of telephony”. You can download it for free.