Voip to POTS brigde

[matheusber]

I'm really not so sure its the right forum place, but a search showed no place with voip (and voip sound to me like network)

I have a local call free plan from my telco, and I'd like to make a VOIP-to-POTS bridge using this line. I have a FreeBSD router and I'm trying to find out how to do this.
As asterisk is all I hear when it comes to Voip, I bet it can make me do it.

Does anyone knows if I can do this with asterisk and a modem (28/33/56k) ? they are bridges to me (analog to digital and also the opposite)

any clues are really wellcome

thanks in advance ...

matheus

 

[xollox]

While I don't have any specific experience with Asterisk, I have read about it. I believe what you'll need is something like this:
http://www.digium.com/en/products/hardware/analogcards.php

I don't think a standard modem will do what you want.

 

[netsysadmin]

The Digium TDM400P is a nice card. There are cheaper ones out there, but I have heard that they can cause all kinds of headaches. I have that Digium card in my Asterisk@Home setup and it works great!

To do what you want to do you will need a card like the one above and an Asterisk box. The link below is a newer version of Asterisk@Home that is fairly easy to setup. There is a lot of info on that site that will help you get setup.

http://www.trixbox.org/


John

 

[cmetz]

matheusber, what problem are you trying to solve?

 

[matheusber]

sorry for the delay...

the thing is:

i have:

a local-free telephone contract
a dsl connection
an analog modem
a FreeBSD server as a router (DSL)

and what i want is:

make a gateway (at least internet to pots) for having long distant calls cost like local one. ex:

i travel to Japan, and there if I have a internet access I can use my router to route me (Japan) to local pots and phone my girlfriend whith no cost ...

is this feasible ?

thanks

matheus

ps: I saw some dlink/linksys voip hardware, if they work with asterisk they should be fine too. not only internal pci cards. I really think they're cheaper in here. Could they be my IP-POTS GW ?

 

[matheusber]

I just saw this one, seemed to me like the simplest one there, but even though it is much more then i need

and $241 for me, as I'm not in USA, will get here way too much expensive. all I want is to use one single phone line, as described above ...

in asterisk must use digium's cards ?

thanks for your input

matheus

 

[cmetz]

matheusber, I think that setting up an Asterisk server for what you want to do is going to cost more and be more headache than if you chose a different approach.

I suggest that you sign up with a pay-as-you-go VoIP provider, and pay $0.01 or $0.02 per minute (in the US, don't know about your country, probably similar) for the calls you make, with no capital cost, no monthly costs, etc. It will be someone else's problem to make it work. You'll get much better call quality. Unless you're doing a really really high minute volume, that's a better option.

Or, if your GF has a reasonable Internet connection, give her an IP phone and set it up so you can call it by IP address, or use FWD. A SNOM 300 is a good one for $100ish, or you could go as cheap as a Grandstream BT 200 ($70).

You could even do a softphone, or even (ick) Skype.

Incidentally, VoIP over a modem can technically work but that's not usually the way it works out.

 

[matheusber]

I do like to make things work in the hard way
I like reading manuals and making it work by hand, so even thought there was not any fees to pay I'd like to go this way. So, when there are fees ....

as said, I'll search and research for a dlink/linksys stuff that does this bridge for me. so if anyone knows any that can work with asterisk, please

the solution for me is something like to have this dlink thing running and plugged in to the pots line and listening to connections, and to have a software that talks to it, so when I connect to my router from outside my lan, it redirects there and makes the call through pots line.

What i find from this I can post here if there is anyone interested in this ...

thanks to all that helped me

matheus