asterisk users - Mar 2003 - channel bank/multiplexer recommendation

Hello.

I am totally new to this PBX/asterisk/telephony world.

I understand that what I need between the T100P/E100P and the POTS 
analog lines is a channel bank/multiplexer?

I am looking for recommendations on this type of hardware.  I have been 
looking around and found a product from valiant communications 
(http://www.valiantcom.com/) and/or 
(http://www.oriontelecom.com/brochures/pri_isdn.pdf) VCL-PRI ISDN
I would appreciate your recommendations on these or any other hardware 
that can do the job.


I understand the above mentioned hardware has 15 cards (2 analog 
lines/card).  Ideally I would like something that would allow a small 
office to grow. What I mean is something like the equipment above but 
with less cards (= lower price?) and add additional cards as neccesary.

Any idea as to how much these equipments cost?.

Another newbie question:  can I use this channel bank/multiplexer (or 
any other you recommend) and have X number of the analog lines ports for 
incoming lines from the POTS and the remaining ports for extensions 
within the office?

thanks.

Ivan

On Mon, 3 Mar 2003, Ivan Ochoa wrote:
> I am totally new to this PBX/asterisk/telephony world.
welcome, *'s a beauty
> I understand that what I need between the T100P/E100P and the POTS 
> analog lines is a channel bank/multiplexer?
right, since E1 channel banks are bloody expensive, and you're dealing
with POTS anyway, then the best bet maybe to just buy a T100P, which'll 
give you 24 ports to be broken out using a channel bank built for a T1 
which are much cheaper and much more readily available
 
> Another newbie question:  can I use this channel bank/multiplexer (or 
> any other you recommend) and have X number of the analog lines ports for 
> incoming lines from the POTS and the remaining ports for extensions 
> within the office?
in a perfect world, all the ports on a channel bank should be configurable
to be FXO (incoming lines from the POTS) or FXS (lines for extensions)  
[crudely put]... in real life, this may or may not come true... it depends
on the channel bank, but with any decent hardware, you should have some
sort of options, like 4FXO/12FXS or 12 FXO/4FXS or 2FXO/14FXS or some
other option... this may be configurable as jumper switches, eeprom
settings, or pluggable modules providing the fliexibility

- wasim