Thanks for the pointers. I’ve been reading for a day now and plan to keep reading today too, before i try anything (asterisk.org wiki, voip-info.org, asteriskdocs.org and these forums of course).
If i want to connect the fax to the asterisk server, i would need an additional analog pci card (or a card with analog and isdn), right? at the moment we are using an old (but trusted!) USR Courier modem hooked up to our linux server with hylafax, which works pretty good. so even if we have to keep using pstn for fax, it wouldn’t be that big a problem.
i was planning on using AsteriskNOW, i downloaded the newest version and from what i read, version 1.8.x should be installable, but does not have the T.38 gateway, but i can install free fax for asterisk. Any downsides to Free Fax for Asterisk versus the T.38 gateway in version 10.x? Apart from only having one channel (but we can always pay for more channels if needed).
are there any converters that will let you use the old analog phones with and asterisk server? these siemens phones weren’t cheap, but i guess even if there are, all the extra buttons wouldn’t be supported.
any recommendation for a hard phone not too expensive with extra buttons to transfer calls between the users of the asterisk pbx? I did come across the Aastra 57i while reading up, which is too expensive, but it’s smaller sibling the 53i is affordable. Are there any cheaper phones like the 53i?
As for an VOIP provider i was looking into Radik.nl and Belcentrale.nl after comparing prices. Radik supports T.38, but each sip trunk only has 1 channel. As for Belcentrale, they have yet to reply to my email about sip trunking and T.38 support.
Thanks for all the help.