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Old 16th Sep 2017, 9:32 pm   #27
julie_m
Dekatron
 
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Derby, UK.
Posts: 7,735
Default Re: Interconnecting old telephones?

A Raspberry Pi is a great choice if you are running SIP hardware or software phones and a SIP trunk to the outside world. But if you want to run analogue telephones, and especially if you want to connect to an analogue landline, you need separate ATAs (Analogue Terminal Adaptors) and the setup can quickly become unwieldy.

In this situation, you would be better off with a "proper" PC (i.e., a motherboard with expansion slots) and an FXS+FXO card. (I've also got a GSM card in mine, so it's also a mobile phone; but then again, I'm a show-off.) You can get Asterisk-compatible 8-port cards from The Usual Places online, with various combinations of FXS (phone) and FXO (exchange line) modules; if you configure it with six FXS ports and two FXO ports, then it will run half a dozen phones and two exchange lines. Digium cards (and the cheap clones thereof; which use the exact same drivers and firmware, and are generally fine for experimental or home use, but are to be avoided in any mission-critical business application) support pulse dialling; I do not know about other makes.
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