Folks, I am a newbie to the VOIP world and have a question (might as well sound silly to some). I would like to set up a PC-to-Phone call from my desktop to a regular PSTN number. Does the Asterisk PBX itself act as a VOIP-PSTN gateway or do I have to subscribe to a VOIP provider for this? Are there any free IP-PSTN gateways which I can subscribe to? Do I need any specific hardware to set up such calls? If there is no additional hardware or subscription to a VOIP provider required, are there any resources that have information about configuring asterisk for such gateway functionality? Note: I believe that for receiving calls, you may need some form of a FXO card or something, but if my requirement is to just make calls from a softphone on my computer to a PSTN no. and NOT vice versa, do I still need any additional hardware? Thanks in advance, Aniket.
Francesco Peeters
2005-Aug-28 01:48 UTC
[Asterisk-Users] Calling PSTN lines from VOIP softphone
On Sun, August 28, 2005 1:15, Aniket Bhat said:> Folks, > > I am a newbie to the VOIP world and have a question (might as well > sound silly to some). I would like to set up a PC-to-Phone call from > my desktop to a regular PSTN number. Does the Asterisk PBX itself act > as a VOIP-PSTN gateway or do I have to subscribe to a VOIP provider > for this? Are there any free IP-PSTN gateways which I can subscribe > to? Do I need any specific hardware to set up such calls?With correct hardware to interface between the PSTN/ISDN and (*) it is possible for (*) to do this for you, but you can also get a VOIP provider to do it for you. The latter means you will not be able to call 911 (for instance) The best is usually a combination using least cost routing...> > If there is no additional hardware or subscription to a VOIP provider > required, are there any resources that have information about > configuring asterisk for such gateway functionality?There is *no* way asterisk can get a VOIP call onto the PSTN without being connected to it either directly (hardware) or through a third party (VOIP provider)> > Note: I believe that for receiving calls, you may need some form of a > FXO card or something, but if my requirement is to just make calls > from a softphone on my computer to a PSTN no. and NOT vice versa, do I > still need any additional hardware? >See above...> Thanks in advance, > > Aniket.-- Francesco Peeters ---- GPG Key = AA69 E7C6 1D8A F148 160C D5C4 9943 6E38 D5E3 7704 If your program doesn't recognize my signature, please visit http://www.CAcert.org/index.php?id=3 to retrieve the Root CA certificate.