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Question of the Day: What is your employer's plan for the 30 June protests?
VoIP phones
- Thread starter dd1313
- Start date
In general, no. Asterisk/Trixbox is a true VOIP solution - to find a phone that supports it, you generally need to look for a SIP phone (they'll normally have a RJ45 ethernet jack).
USB phones are for 'fake' VOIP soltions like skype that requires a PC to work. Those phones are normally simply a USB soundcard (with some extra buttons) designed to look like a phone. If you install that phone on your PC, you'll see it's going to add a new soundcard to your audio devices that has to be used in your software voip application.
Saying that, yes, you theoretically can use that type of phone with Asterisk, but you will have to use it in conjunction with a software SIP client (like X-Lite). This will require you to have your computer on all the time and the software running constantly. One thing you need to make sure, though, is that the phone has software that can interface with x-lite, otherwise you won't be able to use the buttons on the phone itself to dial other numbers or answer calls (you'll have to use your mouse and click on buttons on your computer to do that).
Having used VOIP for almost 2 years now, I can tell you though - it really is worth it spending the extra money to get a proper SIP phone. They work exactly like your normal Telkom phone and makes things so much easier.
USB phones are for 'fake' VOIP soltions like skype that requires a PC to work. Those phones are normally simply a USB soundcard (with some extra buttons) designed to look like a phone. If you install that phone on your PC, you'll see it's going to add a new soundcard to your audio devices that has to be used in your software voip application.
Saying that, yes, you theoretically can use that type of phone with Asterisk, but you will have to use it in conjunction with a software SIP client (like X-Lite). This will require you to have your computer on all the time and the software running constantly. One thing you need to make sure, though, is that the phone has software that can interface with x-lite, otherwise you won't be able to use the buttons on the phone itself to dial other numbers or answer calls (you'll have to use your mouse and click on buttons on your computer to do that).
Having used VOIP for almost 2 years now, I can tell you though - it really is worth it spending the extra money to get a proper SIP phone. They work exactly like your normal Telkom phone and makes things so much easier.
kilos
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