Asterisk and Google Voice are all the RAGE

[bcjenkins]

When we recently moved we had signed up for phone service through the the local carrier and the number provided was besieged with calls from bill collectors. So, we turned it off.

Recently I have been reading a bit about using my GV number paired with a SipGate or some other service to plug-in to Asterisk.

Take a read here:

http://nerdvittles.com/?p=637

Pretty cool..

B

[wayner]

Sounds cool but I am betting that it has the potential to be even more of a time drain than Sage

[bcjenkins]

Actually the PBX in a Flash distro made it very easy to setup. The calls were working ok, but the quality is suspect. I don't know if it is due to me running it in a VM or if it is the quality of SipGate, but too many complaints on calls killed the WAF.

I may set Asterisk up on my SageTV server and give it a whirl. I also thought about converting my SageTV server over to PBX in a Flash's distro which is based on CentOS 5.2.

Still, the concept is cool and Asterisk is really powerful for a home based system.

B

[Flash69]

I have been using Asterisk and another well known IP PBX on my ESXi host for months. I use this system everyday and stay on conference calls for hours with no problems with quality.

Are you using ESX, ESXi, VMware server, workstation or player?

If you are using ESX or ESXi give your VM configuration some CPU and memory reservation and that should clear up any quality issues with Asterisk.

[stanger89]

So, what sort of phone number do you get? Can you get a "local" one so friends/family can call locally?

[wado1971]

Google voice allows you to pick anything - tons available & no problem to get a specified area code.
BUT it's unclear to me if it's the gv # or the "IPkall RingBack DID" assigned number (which is limited to 4 area codes) that outside lines need to call in.?

[bcjenkins]

You set up the GV number to use the SipGate as one of the phone numbers. Inbound and outbound are GV numbers.

B

[wado1971]

Originally Posted by bcjenkins

.....Recently I have been reading a bit about using my GV number paired with a SipGate or some other service to plug-in to Asterisk.
Pretty cool..
B

Pretty cool indeed! Thanks 'B' for the general info on using Asterisk pbx. I'm now the proud owner of a full blown Trixbox/Asterisk server and ready to drop the $40/month landline as soon as my number is ported over to my voip provider (Vitelity). I'll be adding GV in the future but the voip provider will be my main line.

For anyone looking for a cool project --- this is it. Not for the faint of heart, but this is my first (working) linux box and I'm not too computer savvy. The various Distro's make it painless (TrixBox, Elastix, PiaF, etc)
I used a mini-itx with a 330 Atom for low power consumption (24/7) together with an OpenVox a400p (1x-FXS, 1x-FXO) and an old case, psu, & hdd. My total hardware cost (~$230) will pay for itself in about 8 months. I love free toys.
The best part will be calling up cablevision and telling them to cancel my phone service.

[Skirge01]

This is interesting, indeed. Clearly, I have a LOT of reading to do if I wanted to do this. But, I'm hoping someone can explain a couple of things:

1. I kept seeing "free" and then I got to the Vitelity, which says $3.99/month. Is this the VoIP provider which is required in order for any of this to work?

2. Do you need to hook up IP phones which would require a LAN jack in every room you want to have a phone?

[matt91]

yes, interesting. We have VOIP (Viatalk) now, but it ends up costing up $23/mo. Quality is pretty good (not great), and features are pretty good (not great).

We're relatively light home phone users (both parents out of the house working all day), but as our kids grow, I see increasing need for a flexible phone system.

I was forced to clean out all my old computer parts this winter, but I think many of them would have been too old for this anyway.

Maybe a $200 'starter' computer and some IP hardware might be a fun project.

[brainbone]

I set this up awhile ago using SipGate / GoogleVoice (GV), and it worked pretty well -- used it for about a month, but the novelty wore off. If/when GV allows me to port my existing numbers, I'll probably give it another shot (I still use Asterisk, but with VIATalk as my provider)

How it works:
SipGate offers free incoming calls. You need to pay for outgoing. This is where GV and Asterisk (PBX in a Flash is an easy way to get asterisk) come in. Asterisk is configured to call out on GV, and GV is configured to call back in on your free SipGate number. Asterisk (and some customized scripts) takes care of all the routing, so this is all transparent.

For phones, you can use IP phones, Soft Phones or an Analog Telephone Adapters (ATA). I use an ATA (You can usually pick one up for around $30 used -- just make sure its not locked to a specific provider, and that it is compatible with asterisk. Unlocking my SPA 2102 ran ~$20, but not all locked ATAs can be unlocked). The ATA acts as a gateway between your VOIP provider (your own asterisk server in this case) and your standard old phones (POTS). Most ATAs support up to two lines, and a single ATA can drive all the phones in your house.

Note that GV does NOT support 911/E911 at all -- with children in the house, this was another reason I stopped using GV/SipGate.

[Brent]

I'm going to give Ooma VOIP a try. Hope they don't go out of business any time soon.

I can recoup my cost in 5 months if all goes well. They will have google voice integration sometime in the next month, but I'm not 100% I'll use that at first. More likely I'll port my existing home # to it for now.

[brainbone]

Another cheap phone option is the MagicJack. There are ways to pull the SIP credentials used with your magicjack, and then spoof the magicjack in asterisk, allowing you to use it like any other Voip provider, without the "jack".

($24mo., for Viatalk seems high. I currently get 2 lines for $199 for 2 years = ~$17mo. for 2 lines). To get better quality out of Viatalk, configure your ATA to use G729a, if it supports it.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by Brent

I'm going to give Ooma VOIP a try. Hope they don't go out of business any time soon.

I can recoup my cost in 5 months if all goes well. They will have google voice integration sometime in the next month, but I'm not 100% I'll use that at first. More likely I'll port my existing home # to it for now.

Yeah, ooma intrigues me greatly. I'm one of the Cell-phone-only people, but let's be honest, cells just don't have the call quality and stability of a landline.

I've got a docking "station" to dock my cell to normal cordless phones so I can call using "normal" phones and it goes out my cell, but the quality is sorta iffy sometimes.

So I'm continually trying to figure out how to "fix" what I pay for phone. I've got a family plan for my Cell through ATT (put my mom's Cell on the plan to "save" money). Problem is it' like $65/mo, which means effectively I pay like $10/min for phone service

So I've been thinking I need to figure out a different cell solution since I generally use < 10min/mo, and then it would be nice to have a "landline". I keep thinking maybe ooma+prepaid/pay-as-you-go cell is the way to go. But then I'm sort of a phone snob and I don't want have to step down from a Razr to some cheapo cell.

[damage]

we switched over to magic jack about 8 months ago. it's been uneventful. my wife & i have had google voice since it was grand central and use it all the time for incoming calls. i use bluetooth presence detection to determine where to foward calls to based on where we are ( http://bit.ly/5LYpzV ) no sense bothering her with my GV # ringing the house when i'm at work, etc.

[wado1971]

Originally Posted by Skirge01

1. I kept seeing "free" and then I got to the Vitelity, which says $3.99/month. Is this the VoIP provider which is required in order for any of this to work?

This is what got me interested but I veered off course from the GV free thing. Basically you can set the whole thing up with GV and a free DID (not Vitelity) and get all local incoming/outgoing calls free. I decided to go with a standard VOIP provider (Vitelity) for more dependable service and I needed international dialing. I'll be adding the GV + free DID thing at a later time just for fun.

Originally Posted by Skirge01

2. Do you need to hook up IP phones which would require a LAN jack in every room you want to have a phone?

IP phones is only one way to go but ATA's and PCI analog telephone cards allow you to use existing plain old telephones. I went with a PCI card from OvenVox ($120 on ebay with 1FXO & 1FXS).
This card allowed me to connect my incoming cablevision line to the asterisk box (via FXO) and have another line connecting to my existing telephones (FXS). So I used my existing wireless phones plugged into my existing telephone jacks to receive a mixture of VOIP & cablevision service without my wife knowing what was up. I gradually switched from landline to VOIP until after about 6 weeks it was all VOIP and not a single complaint. I then gave her the news that she'd been using VOIP for the past month and we were canceling the old telephone service. As you can tell I'm extremely proud of my deception.

Keep in mind that Asterisk is a project... very powerful and open to all kinds of wild possibilities with phones. While MagicJack & Ooma are simply viable ways to replace your existing phone service with VOIP.

[bthurber]

Honestly ooma is no fun at all because you plug it in and it just works. At least that's how it went with me. Of course I use the phone about once a month so I don't really care how well it works. My wife on the other hand is a pretty heavy phone user and OOMA gets high marks from her. We subscribe to OOMA premium which allows for e-mails when a voicemail is left. It also allows you to blacklist callers - and even collaborate with other OOMA users on what numbers should be blacklisted - pretty cool!

I setup an 8-line Asterisk system for our business office some time back using Polycon handsets. Considerably more things to tweak than OOMA, but I would rather put my energy into SAGE. For a business though Asterisk is wonderful!

Brad

[stanger89]

So, necroposting and all, but I see Google just added real VOIP calls (ie call any phone number) via Google Voice to Gmail. This changed anything? It's at least revived my curiosity about the setup.

[bcjenkins]

Originally Posted by stanger89

So, necroposting and all, but I see Google just added real VOIP calls (ie call any phone number) via Google Voice to Gmail. This changed anything? It's at least revived my curiosity about the setup.

No, to my knowledge they haven't exposed any SIP/IAX services for use with something like Asterisk or an ATA.

B

[Jason]

Originally Posted by bcjenkins

No, to my knowledge they haven't exposed any SIP/IAX services for use with something like Asterisk or an ATA.

B

:-)

All I can say is SipSorcery to the rescue... I have not had a true landline in several years! I used to have to go through a few 'hacks' but this truly simplifies it all! A cheap ATA and your off to the races!

https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0A...eA&hl=en&pli=1

-Jason