I would like to provide some kind of scripted message/service/info line which will be used by charities providing recorded information for those without internet access. Yes, you’d be surprised at how many older people there are without the internet, and in the UK, almost all landline call packages give free evening and weekend calls. Perfect fit, right?
There will be NO need for outgoing calls, switching, indeed anything above and beyond scripting up to 9 audio files to be selected from a menu 1 or 2 levels deep. There does not need to be any GUI as the linux box is a VPS I’ll be ssh-ing into to configure it.
I’ve been googling and reading FAQs for just over half a week and I’m slightly more confused than before!
The idea is that audio files of possibly up to 45 minutes duration will be loaded onto a server; a user (perhaps a few concurrently) will dial in and will be able to select which file to listen to, and, most importantly, be able to select other info recordings, return to a main menu at any point, and to skip back and forth in increments (a minute/5 minutes at a time, like mobile voicemail does for example). Possibly, as a bonus, the caller may be able to leave feedback about the message they’ve just heard, but that’s less important right now.
I’ve got a Digitalocean Ubuntu droplet, I’m happy spinning up an Amazon instance if that’s better, and I’m reasonably comfortable with scripting, compiling and installing packages etc.
I’m particularly interested to see wiki.freepbx.org/display/HTGS/In … rver+14.10
This is particularly useful as all the “hosted” providers I’ve tried so far insist on WAV files and don’t provide transport control, which is a non-starter really.
Ultimately, what I need is something for the charity producing the information to be as simple as “upload/ftp 10 numbered mp3 files to this location, press the button and you’ll be live” (I can take care of the upload bit).
I’m still a bit confused about how I terminate a “real” number into a an IP address in the UK; I think I can eventually work that one out with some more Googling.
I’m happy to put the learning time in if someone can confirm that this is all going to be able to do what I think it is. Suggestions or pointers to FAQ’s for the cheapest flat rate incoming UK PSTN>VOIP (terminology?!?) provider and most minimal setup for a 512Mb VPS also appreciated
Hope that all makes sense - thanks!
To pre-empt the obvious suggestion of “why not just hire someone to build it”, well:
1: They’re a small local charity.
2: It would be an interesting project to learn with, and I enjoy learning new things.
3: If I spent the time learning it well, I could possibly even add Asterisk to my skills list.