[GRLUG] VOIP "Dialtone"

[Collin Kidder]

On 4/28/2010 1:53 PM, John-Thomas Richards wrote:
> On Wed, Apr 28, 2010 at 12:46:49PM -0400, Adam Erickson wrote:
> [snip]
>    
>> In Febuary I picked up a service called Ooma Telo. I have no
>> complaints. $350 for the hardware and a minimal fee around $17 per
>> year for taxes. I use it for home and fax. Compaired to Verizon, ROI
>> is about 7 Months, and you can use your regular phones and port your
>> old numbers to it.
>>
>> It sells at Miejers and Best Buy - www.ooma.com.
>>
>> Asterisk may be the way to save if you need several lines.
>>      
> Anyone here have any real-world experience with Asterisk?  I need to
> setup a new office space this summer with at least a couple phone lines.
> Is Asterisk overkill for two or four lines?  I'm not a sysadmin.  Is it
> too much for a somewhat knowledgeable end-user?
>    

I've got asterisk running with 6 incoming lines and 7 SIP phones 
(Linksys SPA942). I've got overhead paging, call parking, and queues setup.

I wouldn't say that it's super easy to setup but there are GUI based 
distros like AsteriskNOW or FreePBX or Elastix which greatly simplify 
the process for new users. Asterisk is also popular enough that it's 
easy to get help at a variety of forums and by googling.