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Yep, just do it. That said, if you want some abstraction, putting FreePBX in between you and Asterisk does give a lot of ease of install, and you can always re

Yep, just do it. That said, if you want some abstraction, putting FreePBX in between you and Asterisk does give a lot of ease of install, and you can always read the conf files that FreePBX creates when it configures asterisk based on web commands. On the uplink side, I push all my calls through voip.ms. I pay per minute inbound and outbound (I think it's about $0.01/min, which seems expensive, but then there's no crazy $30/mo crap). DIDs (aka inbound phone numbers) cost $2-4 month, depending if you need e911. Calls are handed off via Asterisk's IAX2 protocol, although SIP works too. We use Polycom phone hardware, which has been really solid for over 10 years, and which has great call quality, given Polycom's experience in conference room phones. If you want to get hardcore with digital lines from your telco, you can use a used cisco device as a media gateway for under $2k. My PBX is just a VM on our infrastructure like any other.

amingilani 7y ago
Thank you! One more question: What kind of hardware would I require to connect my server to the plain old telephone system? In my country, we don't have VOIP gateways for consumer use.
- secabeen 7y ago
  So, assuming your phone network is compatible with the US POTS (Plain old telephone service) system, here's what you need. Analog interfaces for phones run in two modes: FXO or FXS. An FSX adapter, is a device that you connect a phone device to. It generates dial tone. That's not what you need. What you need is an FXO device (sometimes called a channel bank). That is a device that emulates a phone device, and which consumes dial tone. Many devices sold as FXO gateways are expensive. If you have a real server, you can get an FXO PCI card from Digium for some hundreds of dollars, but that's expensive too. Some cheap FXS devices can also operate in FXO mode. The cheapest one appears to be the Grandtream HT813 for $89: https://www.voipsupply.com/grandtream-ht813-gateway-ata https://www.voipsupply.com/grandtream-ht813-gateway-ata
  - amingilani 7y ago
    Thank you so much! I've already gotten started installing Asterisk and playing around. This has been most helpful!

amingilani 7y ago

Thank you! One more question: What kind of hardware would I require to connect my server to the plain old telephone system? In my country, we don't have VOIP gateways for consumer use.

secabeen 7y ago
So, assuming your phone network is compatible with the US POTS (Plain old telephone service) system, here's what you need. Analog interfaces for phones run in two modes: FXO or FXS. An FSX adapter, is a device that you connect a phone device to. It generates dial tone. That's not what you need. What you need is an FXO device (sometimes called a channel bank). That is a device that emulates a phone device, and which consumes dial tone. Many devices sold as FXO gateways are expensive. If you have a real server, you can get an FXO PCI card from Digium for some hundreds of dollars, but that's expensive too. Some cheap FXS devices can also operate in FXO mode. The cheapest one appears to be the Grandtream HT813 for $89: https://www.voipsupply.com/grandtream-ht813-gateway-ata https://www.voipsupply.com/grandtream-ht813-gateway-ata
- amingilani 7y ago
  Thank you so much! I've already gotten started installing Asterisk and playing around. This has been most helpful!