[wellylug] Asterisk PABX - Does Any one use this?

[ed hintz]

On 2/21/04, chris at archnetnz.com thus spake:

>I am looking at using the Asterisk PABX at work as a play toy / demo'ing
>VoIP and so forth, as there was talk about it at work, so wanna get
>thigns rolling :)
>
>But, does anyone know if you "need" the ISDN hardware to make the system
>go?  - As in not making external to the POTS network, but if we just
>wanted to demo it internally could we do this with out the hardware and
>just install the software?

    Yeah, it works fine without a hard link to the PSTN. I set one up
yesterday with a couple of local extensions and an IP link to the US PSTN
(voicepulse.com) for playing around. You could in theory use soft clients
as well, though if you're trying to sell a PHB or two I'd highly
recommend getting an ATA-186 or the like so that it feels like a real
phone system. Most people will have a bad impression of the soft clients
and that will make it an uphill battle gaining acceptance. But you could
easily install it and play around while waiting on the adapters to
arrive, the only problem with soft clients is the public perception of them.

Regards,

Ed Hintz
ed at hintz.org