I’m quite new to Asterisk, and I’ve been looking around and reading the excellent documentation (and book!) for a time, but I have still no practical experience with Asterisk.
My needs are very simple. I just need a PBX to implement a IVR (Interactive Voice Response), to record the conversations and to log the calls to my small office.
I have just a POTS line and a couple of traditional analog phonesets. I’m used to GNU/Linux, so I’m not afraid of installing and configuring Asterisk, but I’m a bit lost about what HARDWARE do I need for my purpouse.
AFAIK I need a TDM400P with 1 XFO port and 2 XFS ports (TDM21B), but my budget is reduced and I wornder if there is a simpler possibility. I have an Ethernet network, is ATA an alternative? Is the TDM400P PCI card the optimum choice? Is there any better alternative, am I missing something?
Thanks for your point of view, but I’m decided to implement the IVR service too, and to use Asterisk and a GNU/Linux box to do this task, because I’d like to give Asterisk a chance and to learn it.
But I’m unsure about what hardware to use for a one phone line and two or three phonesets setup.
Do I need a TDM400P card or is there any cheaper solution? I’ve heard about Openvox clones too, but I’m unsure.
Thanks for your point of view, but I’m decided to implement the IVR service too, and to use Asterisk and a GNU/Linux box to do this task, because I’d like to give Asterisk a chance and to learn it.
But I’m unsure about what hardware to use for a one phone line and two or three phonesets setup.
Do I need a TDM400P card or is there any cheaper solution? I’ve heard about Openvox clones too, but I’m unsure.
The TDM400 is the cheapest decent card I know of. Cheap X100P clone cards are available for £10 on ebay but they truly are poor quality. only good for your first ever test system in my opinion.
the fxs ports for the tdm card normally cost as much as a cheap IP phone or a decent ATA such as linksys PAP2T. the choice is yours.
one way to reduce costs would be to go for soft phones insead of the fxs ports.