Hello everyone , i was looking for some help on how i can get a call from a POTS line to my astrisks connected softphone?
basically a skype in type of service for astrisks
any help and sirection will be appreciated
i think i might need to orginize some sort of inward calling #s ?
Thanks
DMS@unitytunes.com
probably your easiest bet is www.ipkall.com (a service that gives you a free DID (phone number) from washington state, 360 area code)
sign up for an account, put in any exten # (say 1234) and put proxy as the IP or fqdn of your * box (IE asterisk.mydomain.com). Use something like dyndns.org if you have a dynamic ip.
then on the * side, in sip.conf turn on allow guest and set context= in the general section to a NON-PRIVELAGED context that has an exten 1234 (from above) in it. I say non privelaged in that it can’t dial out or do anything ‘bad’-- otherwise someone could randomly call your ipkall number (or put a SIP connection direct to your * box) and get things they shouldnt.
From there you can write your dialplan as needed, ie-
exten => 1234,1,Goto(some-other-context,1234,1)
or
exten => 1234,1,Dial(SIP/yoursoftphone,20,r)
exten => 1234,2,VoiceMail(1234@default)
etc etc etc
You can also get a DID from any number of providers. Connect.voicepulse.com will sell you one in a large number of area codes for $11/mo/number with unlimited incoming calls. Outgoing calls (for which you can set your own Callerid) are like 1c/min.
Hope that helps!
Hello, thank you very much Iron Helix for this information , it definetly puts me in the right dircetion 
i was curious on how skype can charge so litte for DID #s , it seems that did wholesalers are charging more then what skype rents them for
anyways , im gonna try what you told me ,
i was curious as well how are DID #s avail , i mean is it someone just giving up their own phone #s? and if so can i use my own somehow?
Thanks again
JMD
keep in mind the number i quoted was one provider. There are many others. Often you can pay as little as $1/did/month but you pay for usage.
Also if you have a lot of traffic volume you can negotiate directly with CLECs (the telcos) and get better rates. Skype buys DIDs and minutes in bulk, thus the good rates. You can get similar rates from other providers.
The DIDs are available from CLECs (competitive local exchange carriers). These are telephone companies that set up operations linked to the local and regional ILECs (incumbant local exchange carriers- ie verizon, sbc, att, etc) throughout the country. The CLECs often sell services such as VoIP. Generally any company offering such services goes through a CLEC, even the big guys like Skype and Vonage.
You could use your own phone number if you either hooked your phone line up to a FXO port on * (requires buying a FXO port) or if you ported your phone # to a voip provider that allows BYOD (bring your own device- the service isn’t locked to an ATA) such as broadvoice and viatalk. Then * would handle all your in/out calls and you could of course do anything else with it.