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[Red Squirrel]

Anyone have their own Asterisk setup at home? When I move out I'm considering to do this but I don't really know much about it. What would be involved, and does any VOIP phone work on it? I'm guessing each phone has it's own IP and has to be programmed to talk to the Asterisk server?

What about power over Ethernet, do I need expensive cisco switches for that or is there consumer grade ones that do it?

The thought of having a managed PBX for home would be pretty neat. I could also setup an IVR to throw off telemarketer robots.

[kris1351]

You can get Linksys POE switches now that work with Cisco phones and others. Just have to match up which phones you are going to use and make sure they are compatible. The problem you will run into is downtime as DSL/Cable does go up and down. If you have FIOS you are probably fine as a call should be 20k or 80k with overhead included.

[Red Squirrel]

Oh I'd still use POTS for outgoing, but use VOIP within the house. Is that doable? I was thinking of plugging the phone line into a 56k modem on the server, so incomming and outgoing calls are handled that way.

I'd most likely want a power fail phone somewhere in case the asterisk server is down such as an extended power outage.

[KC-JRPark]

You are not going to be able to run VoIP calls over the 56k modem. I know lots of people, including myself, who are running Asterisk at home. It gives them great flexibility and an easy way to route business/office calls to their home office as well.

If you don't want to buy a POE switch you can just get a power brick for the phone.

[zendzipr]

Asterisk is a powerful tool and can be configured to do just about any telephony setup you can think of. I use it for both business PBX and home use. Back when I was playing in the sand, we were built an asterisk setup that involved cell phone and pots connections so the variety is endless. You may be able to get voip to work over 56k but you won't be happy with the quality.

The best phone I would recommend is the Polycom one. It was made with asterisk in mind and can do POE or use a wall wart.