Re and X-posted because I'm getting a lot more help from 'uk.d-i-y' and
'uk.teleccom'.

"David WE Roberts" wrote in message
...

I am contemplating building a computer based call screening service.

I have found some Linux packages including Asterisk which seem to offer
this potential.

As far as I can tell I will need a hardware card to control the line and
optionally play announcements.
I may also need another card to allow intelligent switching to phone, fax
etc. but I regard this as icing on the cake at the moment.

Minimum is that the card sits in parallel with phones etc. and indentfies
the CLI and drops the call if it is on my 'blacklist' preeferably before
any internal phone rings.

Next level is that it takes the call on the black list and plays a
pre-recorded announcement before dropping the call.
{...and futhermore shove the aforementioned object...]

A step up from that is the ability to direct a call to one of a number of
handsets (or the fax) - however this is just me seeing ways to play with
the technology.

Adding VOIP to allow us to make/take Skype calls on analogue handsets
would of course be nice, but this is just trying to maximise the benefits
from investing in the technology.

It would be nice to be able to offer telemarketeers a voice prompt menu
which is a convoluted maze.........

Ah, well.

Any information welcomed.

Cheers

Dave R


--
No plan survives contact with the enemy.
[Not even bunny]

Helmuth von Moltke the Elder

(\__/)
(='.'=)
(")_(")

On 25 Aug, 20:58, "David WE Roberts"
wrote:
Re and X-posted because I'm getting a lot more help from 'uk.d-i-y' and
'uk.teleccom'.

"David WE Roberts" wrote in ...



I am contemplating building a computer based call screening service.

I have found some Linux packages including Asterisk which seem to offer
this potential.

As far as I can tell I will need a hardware card to control the line and
optionally play announcement

snip previously posted ****e

haven;t we already dealt with this?

FFS
Jim K

David WE Roberts wrote:
Re and X-posted because I'm getting a lot more help from 'uk.d-i-y' and
'uk.teleccom'.

"David WE Roberts" wrote in message
...

I am contemplating building a computer based call screening service.

I have found some Linux packages including Asterisk which seem to
offer this potential.

As far as I can tell I will need a hardware card to control the line
and optionally play announcements.
I may also need another card to allow intelligent switching to phone,
fax etc. but I regard this as icing on the cake at the moment.

Minimum is that the card sits in parallel with phones etc. and
indentfies the CLI and drops the call if it is on my 'blacklist'
preeferably before any internal phone rings.

Next level is that it takes the call on the black list and plays a
pre-recorded announcement before dropping the call.
{...and futhermore shove the aforementioned object...]

A step up from that is the ability to direct a call to one of a number
of handsets (or the fax) - however this is just me seeing ways to play
with the technology.

Adding VOIP to allow us to make/take Skype calls on analogue handsets
would of course be nice, but this is just trying to maximise the
benefits from investing in the technology.

It would be nice to be able to offer telemarketeers a voice prompt
menu which is a convoluted maze.........

Ah, well.

Any information welcomed.

Cheers

Dave R


Wonderful plan.
But cant help you with a card or box.

In article ,
David WE Roberts wrote:
Re and X-posted because I'm getting a lot more help from 'uk.d-i-y' and
'uk.teleccom'.

"David WE Roberts" wrote in message
...

I am contemplating building a computer based call screening service.

I have found some Linux packages including Asterisk which seem to offer
this potential.

As far as I can tell I will need a hardware card to control the line and
optionally play announcements.
I may also need another card to allow intelligent switching to phone, fax
etc. but I regard this as icing on the cake at the moment.

Minimum is that the card sits in parallel with phones etc. and indentfies
the CLI and drops the call if it is on my 'blacklist' preeferably before
any internal phone rings.

Next level is that it takes the call on the black list and plays a
pre-recorded announcement before dropping the call.
{...and futhermore shove the aforementioned object...]

A step up from that is the ability to direct a call to one of a number of
handsets (or the fax) - however this is just me seeing ways to play with
the technology.

Adding VOIP to allow us to make/take Skype calls on analogue handsets
would of course be nice, but this is just trying to maximise the benefits
from investing in the technology.

It would be nice to be able to offer telemarketeers a voice prompt menu
which is a convoluted maze.........

Ah, well.

Any information welcomed.

You need a PC that you can leave running 24/7 - you need to put Linux
on it and run Asterisk, however there are many pre-canned installations
avalable - e.g. Trixbox, pbxinaflash and so on.

Hardware wise, one of these will do:

http://www.voipon.co.uk/openvox-a400p11-p-680.html

The red module goes to the BT socket, the green module goes to the rest
of your house phones.

You also need a few hours/days/weeks of patience and learning how to
drive Linux and program asterisk.

And that still won't run Skype, but it will run standards based VoIP.

Gordon

Gordon Henderson wrote:
In article ,
David WE Roberts wrote:
Re and X-posted because I'm getting a lot more help from 'uk.d-i-y' and
'uk.teleccom'.

"David WE Roberts" wrote in message
...

I am contemplating building a computer based call screening service.

I have found some Linux packages including Asterisk which seem to offer
this potential.

As far as I can tell I will need a hardware card to control the line and
optionally play announcements.
I may also need another card to allow intelligent switching to phone, fax
etc. but I regard this as icing on the cake at the moment.

Minimum is that the card sits in parallel with phones etc. and indentfies
the CLI and drops the call if it is on my 'blacklist' preeferably before
any internal phone rings.

Next level is that it takes the call on the black list and plays a
pre-recorded announcement before dropping the call.
{...and futhermore shove the aforementioned object...]

A step up from that is the ability to direct a call to one of a number of
handsets (or the fax) - however this is just me seeing ways to play with
the technology.

Adding VOIP to allow us to make/take Skype calls on analogue handsets
would of course be nice, but this is just trying to maximise the benefits
from investing in the technology.

It would be nice to be able to offer telemarketeers a voice prompt menu
which is a convoluted maze.........

Ah, well.

Any information welcomed.

You need a PC that you can leave running 24/7 - you need to put Linux
on it and run Asterisk, however there are many pre-canned installations
avalable - e.g. Trixbox, pbxinaflash and so on.

Hardware wise, one of these will do:

http://www.voipon.co.uk/openvox-a400p11-p-680.html

The red module goes to the BT socket, the green module goes to the rest
of your house phones.

You also need a few hours/days/weeks of patience and learning how to
drive Linux and program asterisk.

And that still won't run Skype, but it will run standards based VoIP.

Gordon
Looks pretty good.

Can you pick up CLI from a card like that?

"Gordon Henderson" wrote in message
...
In article ,
David WE Roberts wrote:
Re and X-posted because I'm getting a lot more help from 'uk.d-i-y' and
'uk.teleccom'.

"David WE Roberts" wrote in message
...

I am contemplating building a computer based call screening service.

I have found some Linux packages including Asterisk which seem to offer
this potential.

As far as I can tell I will need a hardware card to control the line and
optionally play announcements.
I may also need another card to allow intelligent switching to phone,
fax
etc. but I regard this as icing on the cake at the moment.

Minimum is that the card sits in parallel with phones etc. and
indentfies
the CLI and drops the call if it is on my 'blacklist' preeferably before
any internal phone rings.

Next level is that it takes the call on the black list and plays a
pre-recorded announcement before dropping the call.
{...and futhermore shove the aforementioned object...]

A step up from that is the ability to direct a call to one of a number
of
handsets (or the fax) - however this is just me seeing ways to play with
the technology.

Adding VOIP to allow us to make/take Skype calls on analogue handsets
would of course be nice, but this is just trying to maximise the
benefits
from investing in the technology.

It would be nice to be able to offer telemarketeers a voice prompt menu
which is a convoluted maze.........

Ah, well.

Any information welcomed.

You need a PC that you can leave running 24/7 - you need to put Linux
on it and run Asterisk, however there are many pre-canned installations
avalable - e.g. Trixbox, pbxinaflash and so on.

Hardware wise, one of these will do:

http://www.voipon.co.uk/openvox-a400p11-p-680.html

The red module goes to the BT socket, the green module goes to the rest
of your house phones.

You also need a few hours/days/weeks of patience and learning how to
drive Linux and program asterisk.

And that still won't run Skype, but it will run standards based VoIP.


I presume
http://www.ipchitchat.co.uk/index.ph...Card-base-only
would also do?
I provisionally costed this at £79 with two add-on cards.
The card you specify comes in at around £99 including VAT etc. which is the
price of an off-the-shelf box which does much the same thing and is being
promoted in the 'call barring' thread.
http://www.truecall.co.uk/
However computer based control of Truecall seems to require use of a web
page.
First year (as usual) is free.

I can drive Linux and various flavours of Unix.
Programming Asterisk might take a little longer but I am reasonably computer
literate.
I already have Ubuntu Linux installed on the candidate PC which already runs
mainly 24/7 (though mainly dual booted into Windows XP Home).
I also have a few other older PCs which might do as an alternative for a
pre-canned installation.

I can't remember if there are gateways between Skype and the other VOIP
networks with PC clients - this would be nice.

All the costs being roughly equal I would prefer the PC based solution.

Cheers

Dave R

--
No plan survives contact with the enemy.
[Not even bunny]

Helmuth von Moltke the Elder

(\__/)
(='.'=)
(")_(")

On 25 Aug, 22:59, "David WE Roberts"
wrote:

I can't remember if there are gateways between Skype and the other VOIP
networks with PC clients - this would be nice.


SkypeforAsterisk works nicely, but it does cost USD 66 per channel for
an unlimited duration license. It is locked to the MAC addresses of
all the ethernet ports on the PC running Asterisk, so choose your
hardware carefully before installing it.

It is (was when I did it) necessary to set up a new Skype account for
use with SFA.

I have been running it for a few months without any problems as an
alternative input route for meetme conferences.

John

John Walliker wrote:

SkypeforAsterisk works nicely, but it does cost USD 66 per channel for
an unlimited duration license. It is locked to the MAC addresses of
all the ethernet ports on the PC running Asterisk, so choose your
hardware carefully before installing it.

Or install it in a virtual machine where you can choose the MAC address ...

David WE Roberts wrote:


Minimum is that the card sits in parallel with phones etc. and indentfies
the CLI and drops the call if it is on my 'blacklist' preeferably before
any internal phone rings.


Linksys spa3102 will do this without any other bits, about 40 quid. You'd
best have handsets with muted ring and connect them direct to pstn rather
than talk through the linksys because of echo. You can data log the clid
output to a pc too.

AJH

On Wed, 25 Aug 2010 20:58:26 +0100, David WE Roberts wrote:

Re and X-posted because I'm getting a lot more help from 'uk.d-i-y' and
'uk.teleccom'.

"David WE Roberts" wrote in message
...

I am contemplating building a computer based call screening service.

I have found some Linux packages including Asterisk which seem to offer
this potential.

As far as I can tell I will need a hardware card to control the line
and optionally play announcements.
I may also need another card to allow intelligent switching to phone,
fax etc. but I regard this as icing on the cake at the moment.

Minimum is that the card sits in parallel with phones etc. and
indentfies the CLI and drops the call if it is on my 'blacklist'
preeferably before any internal phone rings.

Next level is that it takes the call on the black list and plays a
pre-recorded announcement before dropping the call. {...and futhermore
shove the aforementioned object...]

A step up from that is the ability to direct a call to one of a number
of handsets (or the fax) - however this is just me seeing ways to play
with the technology.

Adding VOIP to allow us to make/take Skype calls on analogue handsets
would of course be nice, but this is just trying to maximise the
benefits from investing in the technology.

It would be nice to be able to offer telemarketeers a voice prompt menu
which is a convoluted maze.........

Ah, well.

Any information welcomed.

There is no substitute for a real Digium card, but it'll cost more;
typically not much change out of 150 quid (for one line; extra ones just
need an extra module (to a max of 4 per card), and are cheaper).

Cheap alternative is the X100P card, which can be found on eBay.

--
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK:
http://www.mirrorservice.org

*lightning protection* - a w_tom conductor

Bob Eager wrote:

Cheap alternative is the X100P card, which can be found on eBay.

Cheap and nasty though, most people (myself included) seem to have
insurmountable echo problems with those.

On Wed, 25 Aug 2010 23:10:03 +0100, Andy Burns wrote:

Bob Eager wrote:

Cheap alternative is the X100P card, which can be found on eBay.

Cheap and nasty though, most people (myself included) seem to have
insurmountable echo problems with those.

I agree; I only mentioned it because I reckoned someone else would if I
didn't.

In my case I was unable to use it because of lack of drivers....but
that's another story.



--
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK:
http://www.mirrorservice.org

*lightning protection* - a w_tom conductor

On 25/08/2010 22:30, Bob Eager wrote:


Cheap alternative is the X100P card, which can be found on eBay.


When I built my first Asterisk server, I used one of these.

Biggest problem I had was that it can't detect Polarity Reversal, which
makes CLI impossible with a BT line.

( BT signals CLI with a polarity reversal before the first ring ).

There is an ugly hack around which buffers some mSec, so it can look
back in time to a pre-trigger (ring) event and try to pull the CLI data
after the event.

I bought a 400 series card shortly after, and I'm much happier with it.

--
Ron

There is an ugly hack around which buffers some mSec, so it can look back in time to a pre-trigger (ring) event and try to pull
the CLI data after the event.

Sounds quite elegant to me!

--
Graham.

%Profound_observation%

On Wed, 25 Aug 2010 20:58:26 +0100, David WE Roberts wrote:

I have found some Linux packages including Asterisk which seem to offer
this potential.

As far as I can tell I will need a hardware card to control the line
and optionally play announcements.
I may also need another card to allow intelligent switching to phone,
fax etc. but I regard this as icing on the cake at the moment.

SNIP

All of what you want to do is possible - been using it myself for several
years. A card is quite expensive though, but what you want is a
TDM400/410P (PCI) or AEX400 (PCI Express), with one FXO. You can add FXS
cards (up to a total of 4 FXO/FXS) to the main card - FXS cards allow you
to wire up (with a master-type socket) ordinary phones to the Asterisk
system.

The supplier I used for my 3 FXS/1 FXO combination is no longer trading,
but there are plenty of others about.

--
Phil Reynolds
mail:
PLEASE followup news posts in news
- that's what it's here for

"Phil Reynolds" wrote in message
news:9mgdo.19978$Hu7.8913@hurricane...
On Wed, 25 Aug 2010 20:58:26 +0100, David WE Roberts wrote:

I have found some Linux packages including Asterisk which seem to offer
this potential.

As far as I can tell I will need a hardware card to control the line
and optionally play announcements.
I may also need another card to allow intelligent switching to phone,
fax etc. but I regard this as icing on the cake at the moment.

SNIP

All of what you want to do is possible - been using it myself for several
years. A card is quite expensive though, but what you want is a
TDM400/410P (PCI) or AEX400 (PCI Express), with one FXO. You can add FXS
cards (up to a total of 4 FXO/FXS) to the main card - FXS cards allow you
to wire up (with a master-type socket) ordinary phones to the Asterisk
system.

The supplier I used for my 3 FXS/1 FXO combination is no longer trading,
but there are plenty of others about.


Thanks Phil - I am still not sure if I need the FXS.
IIUC this allows you to build a true PABX with different extensions instead
of just 'snooping' on the exchange line and intercepting calls with the FXO.
Links to a couple of cards are a bit further up this thread.

--
No plan survives contact with the enemy.
[Not even bunny]

Helmuth von Moltke the Elder

(\__/)
(='.'=)
(")_(")

"Phil Reynolds" wrote in message news:9mgdo.19978$Hu7.8913@hurricane...
On Wed, 25 Aug 2010 20:58:26 +0100, David WE Roberts wrote:

I have found some Linux packages including Asterisk which seem to offer
this potential.

As far as I can tell I will need a hardware card to control the line
and optionally play announcements.
I may also need another card to allow intelligent switching to phone,
fax etc. but I regard this as icing on the cake at the moment.

SNIP

All of what you want to do is possible - been using it myself for several
years. A card is quite expensive though, but what you want is a
TDM400/410P (PCI) or AEX400 (PCI Express), with one FXO. You can add FXS
cards (up to a total of 4 FXO/FXS) to the main card - FXS cards allow you
to wire up (with a master-type socket) ordinary phones to the Asterisk
system.

The supplier I used for my 3 FXS/1 FXO combination is no longer trading,
but there are plenty of others about.

Or he could port the number of the POTS line to a VoIP provider and run Asterisk
with 100% virtual trunks

Of course the phone line might also be carrying his broadband so could get messy.

--
Graham.

%Profound_observation%