Step One:
I would like to put some ATA’s (Handytone HT503s) at each of my family members homes and tie them into my freshly installed Asterisk server at my home. The idea is that each member’s household would be a simple extension. We could even conference multiple households at the same time (is there a limit?).
Step Two:
The HT503’s have an FXO as well as FXS ports available. I’d like to set up a dial plan (<- right terminology?), to allow any extension to call out of the FXO in the corresponding city so instead of a POTS call long distance, they could go via Asterisk to the FXO port and have it be a local call.
I understand that I’ll have some work to do with my Asterisk server being on my private network with DNS, port forwarding and whatnot - but does the rest of this sound reasonable? Could Asterisk detect a dialed call from a given extension and automatically route it out the corresponding FXO port, or would more complicated dialing be necessary (thinking of my parents, which aren’t the sharpest knives in the drawer anymore!)?
Thanks!
-Lyle
FYI - my experience is pretty limited right now as I’ve just got the server installed and setup two softphone extensions. I’m able to make calls between them - so I’m getting there!
The only limit on conferencing would be the type of machine that you use and your bandwidth.
I would set up the dial plan to look at the area code dialed and route it appropriately. The issue you may have is that if Sue in New York is using Grandma’s line in Florida, Grandma will not be able to make a call out. You may want to have SIP for fail over in such a case.
To have the system all out from the same device (so grandma uses her own line) you can either have every phone set to its own context or you can work off the caller id of the device calling.
That’s a great point! Didn’t think much about the line being tied up and grandma being stuck without service. Thanks for the info. I’m hoping the 503’s show today so I can start playing around with this stuff.
I think what I’ll do is setup my fxo port here to allow outgoing calls as I’m in a more metro area and they do more calling up here than anywhere. I never use my local line for anything and the only reason I keep it is my phone company says I need to for DSL (ie they need more money from me).
That’s a great point! Didn’t think much about the line being tied up and grandma being stuck without service. Thanks for the info. I’m hoping the 503’s show today so I can start playing around with this stuff.
I think what I’ll do is setup my fxo port here to allow outgoing calls as I’m in a more metro area and they do more calling up here than anywhere. I never use my local line for anything and the only reason I keep it is my phone company says I need to for DSL (ie they need more money from me).
