Hmmm, I wonder if you could use Distinctive Ringing for multiple inbound numbers. DR generates a different ringing pattern for different phone numbers. If the FXO card can sense the ring pattern, it could be used for DID. > > There are a couple of linux based telephony systems. The most robust > that I've seen is a project called Asterisk. > > http://www.asterisk.org/ > > It includes a voicemail system that looks very full featured. > > Note that it does require some specific hardware (trunk cards, FXO > cards, FXS cards, etc.) depending on the configuration that you need. > They have a comprehensive list of supported hardware. > > I haven't set one of these up myself yet, but I've been toying with it > as a possible project. There would likely be a fairly steep learning > curve if you're not already familiar with how PBX and voicemail systems > work and the common telecom terminology. > > Asterisk is a complete linux+commodity hardware PBX system, and may be > more than you're looking for. > > For instance, a single port PCI FXO card is about $100. That lets you > take an analog line from the telco and plug it into your linux server. > A 4-port PCI FXS card is about $300. That lets you plug 4 analog phones > into your linux server. You could then share the 1 analog line from the > telco between the 4 analog phones. If you wanted you could have the > telco aim 4 numbers at that 1 analog line, and then have seperate > extensions for each of the 4 phones off of the FXS card. > > Note that the design I've detailed above has lots of functional > limitiations due to only having a single channel to the telco. For > instance, you could conference an outside caller with several of the > internal extensions, but you could only have a single outgoing or > incoming call at any given time. Also, Qwest likely won't aim multiple > extensions (a small number bank) at a single residential service analog > line. > > Of course, you can also buy cards that support ISDN digital phones > internally and cards that support T1 or multiple T1 links to the telco. > ISDN phones are more expensive than analog sets, and give you a lot > more functionality. T1 service is overkill for a home system as I have > trouble envisioning a home system that needs to support 23 or 24 > simultaneous calls. A 2-port or 4-port FXO card may be reasonable > though. > > With a bit of scripting, Asterisk can even provide some basic IVR > functionality. For instance, you could play an announcement when > someone calls prompting the caller to press 1 for Bob, 2 for Judy, and 3 > for little Timmy, and then route the call to a particular phone > connected to the FXS card. You could route calls to voicemail based on > time of day. If your family sits down to dinner between 6:00pm and > 7:30pm and you don't want to be interrupted, you could route calls to > voicemail during those hours. > > If you're receiving ANI from the telco (functionally, like caller-ID > information but technically a bit different), you can route calls based > on ANI. Say you want to talk to your brother Ralph any time (even > during dinner). You can check ANI on the incoming calls. If it > matches Ralph's home phone or cell phone then allow the call. All > others get routed to voicemail. > > Anyway, you can gain a great deal of functionality, but such a project > could get expensive. However, if you're a telecom geek it's still a lot > cheaper than putting a small Siemens or Lucent (excuse me, Avaya) PBX > with Phonemail or an Octel VMX system in your basement. > > Jeff > > > On Tue, 13 Apr 2004, Randy Clarksean wrote: > >> >> Anyone out there had any experience with using "voicemail" software on >> Linux? I am considering using my server for voicemail (save a few $ >> on the monthly phone bill) ... I know I can go and Google a bit to see >> what I find ... but I am still no farther ahead because I have no >> "real" feedback on how it all works. >> >> Suggestions or experience/stories would be greatly appreciated. >> Thanks in advance! >> >> Randy >> >> > > > _______________________________________________ > TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota > http://www.mn-linux.org tclug-list at mn-linux.org > https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list _______________________________________________ TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota http://www.mn-linux.org tclug-list at mn-linux.org https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list