I’m new to Asterisk but have 10 years of Linux experience, so I’m part way there to understanding this promising technology.
I’d like to start with a simple setup, and grow from there.
Is it possible to set up voicemail on an Asterisk server to only pick up for one particular distinctive ring? I have a 3 phone numbers sharing one line. I’d like one of those numbers to go directly to voice mail. The other goes to fax, and the third (actually the primary/normal ring number) is for personal voice calls and answering machine. I’d like to use Asterisk to separate the personal answering machine from my home office voice mail.
What would I need for that? Can I keep phone wiring standard and just plug an FXS card into an Asterisk server and connect that to an existing phone jack?
If that won’t work, I suppose the other option is FXO and FXS cards, and Asterisk would sit between my phone co. incoming regular line and in house wiring.
Any suggestions greatly appreciated! I’ve read some of the documents but haven’t found the spot dealing in particular with distinctive ring tones and having Asterisk only pick up for voice mail on one of them.
You will need a Digium FXO card. You will configure the Asterisk to recognize the different distinctive rings and point them to different contexts in your extensions.conf. Each context will have a different s extension that you can point in different places. If you want to use your analog phones you will need to get an FXS card, I would go with this store.yahoo.com/asteriskpbx/newitastdmde.html
zmanea - Thanks so much for the pointer! That’s exactly the information I needed.
About analog lines…
If I just get the FXO card, and plug my it into my premisis wiring, can I configure Asterisk to pick up only on one type of distinctive ring and let the others go?
I definately want to start playing with Asterisk, but I want to start small. I’d like to know if its possible to make * just pick up that one ring sequence and drop it into voice mail. For the other rings, I want * to leave the line alone and I’ll answer a regular phone or the fax will get it. Would that work? Or do I have to disconnect all POTS phones if I plug the FXO into the premises wiring? (I do understand that if I want regular phones through * I need FXS cards, but to start small, I wonder if I can just keep regular phones separate from Asterisk.)
I have never used the distinctive ring feature myself but I do not think it will be selective about when it answers the line, but you can still accomplish the end result. Just have Asterisk answer the line, regardless of the distinctive ring and then have it ring your phone. For this to work you would have to rewire the incoming line so it goes to your FXO and then patch in the current phone line to your FXS.
