Yes, you can have Asterisk handle faxes/etc and even use that second line for outbound dialing when you don't have incoming faxes. Trixbox uses asterfax which captures faxes well and sends them to email.

Adminsparadise uses hylafax and works both directions; pretty slick setup. It uses 'iaxmodem' to simulate a real modem and does a great job. You can use a real modem if you want to but since Asterisk is very touchy with IRQ's (don't share IRQ's with asterisk hardware!) I prefer the software modem to the hardware one just so I can turn off the serial and parallel ports in the bios. Fax over voip is iffy. I did it for awhile and it worked sometimes; lots of issues with smearing and dropped calls.

As far as ip to pstn adaptors.. there are many to choose from for less that $100. Most are sip based and as long as you're inside of your network those work fine. Outside your local network natting can make getting it to work a challenge (one way audio, calls that dial and disconnect/etc). The Iax (asterisk's native protocol) based ones will work through firewalls/etc as long as it can talk to the UDP port 4569.
If you go with a TDM400 card or the equivalent from Sangoma/Rhino then just get an FXS module (gives dialtone) and 2 FXO modules (receives dialtone) for your inbound lines. Also you could buy a few voip phones and plug them in wherever you need a phone. If you set up your port forwarding right you can even plug them in anywhere with a good internet connection and use your PBX as if you're in your home office.

VOIP.. keep in mind that it is only as good as your bandwidth. ISP's love to do things to cram more users into the same bandwidth.... traffic shaping, compression, lopsided bandwidth (heavy download, light upload), etc that can affect your ability to make calls. Unfortunately speed alone isn't good enough; latency can really wreak havok on voip calls. I can sneakernet 10G an hour to the other side of the valley; it wouldn't be a good conversation though (grin).
There are tools online to get an idea of how good your connection is: http://www.dslreports.com/tools
Run the speed tests from several servers, the line quality test, and the voip bandwidth tester.
Keep in mind that if you're on a connection that varies such as cable that your results may vary.

If you get rid of your second line then you'll need a good voip provider to make more than one call at a time (inbound/outbound).
These are the ones I recommend currently: voipstreet.com, les.net, vitelity.net, junction networks (junctionnetworks.com), and teliax. I've heard nothing but good things about voicepulse but haven't used them. Junction networks and teliax are a bit pricey but they're reliable.
I recommend signing up with more than one for those occasions where they flake out or temporarily outgrow their hardware/bandwidth. Stay away from Broadvoice and nufone.

Asterisk has a bit of a learning curve.. if you don't mind it you'll love Asterisk. If you're already adept with Linux (especially Centos) then you're 1/2 way there. In many ways Asterisk is like Linux was in the mid-90's. It is accelerating quickly and becoming more robust every day. Project such as FreePBX make it MUCH easier to manage.

JD

Jon M. Hanson wrote:

I, too, would like to eventually get Asterisk set up at hy mouse if for
no other reason to say I have my own PBX (not to mention the extensive
features that Asterisk has). I'm thinking of installing Asterisk@Home
(now TrixBox).

Fortunately my entire house (phone jacks and network jacks) are all CAT
5e so it should be really simple to set up IP phones throughout the
house.

I am going to need the analog adaptor for my cordless phone and the
add-in card to interface with the PSTN (I'm not going pure
voice-over-IP). Can someone make some recomendations for the analog
phone adaptors? Also, I'd like some links on where to find the PSTN
interface cards below if possible.

I actually have two incoming lines (one goes to a fax machine). Is there
a way for Asterisk to detect an incoming fax and then store it for
e-mailing or display later? If so then I wouldn't need the separate line
and I could just let Asterisk automatically detect an incoming fax call.


On Wed, Sep 26, 2007 at 08:09:38AM -0700, JD wrote:

Asterisk is cool!
If you're going all voip you don't need pstn hardware.

Sangoma and rhino cards are usually  less expensive and have built in echo cancellation.
The x100p cards aren't  very good; get tdm400 card if you go digium.

As far as ip phones...polycom, aastra, snom are good; grandstream 2000 is ok; stay away from grandstream budget phones.
JD

--
sent from phone

-----Original Message-----
From: chip33az@netscape.net
To: "Main PLUG discussion list" <plug-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us>
Sent: 9/26/07 7:51 AM
Subject: Re: asterisk: forward disconnect and Cox

I will be looking into Asterisk very shortly as my company will no 
longer pay for my home office phone line.  I have Vonage now and like 
it, but it costs more than I use.  I'm thinking of going with VoicePulse 
for the long distance/phone service.

Have you looked at the actual digium cards?  They sell for about $140, 
but are supposed to be the best out there.

PLUGd@LuftHans.com wrote:

moin moin,

still trying to get Asterisk working in my spare nanoseconds.

I found documentation suggestion I verify that "disconnect supervision"
aka "forward disconnect" is enabled.

I hadn't realized we have Cox phone service rather than Qwest. Sorry for
not having that info on previous emails.

Just talked to phone tech support at Cox ( after getting Internet tech
support twice and being disconnected ). The person was nice, patient and
appeared to be willing to help out. She didn't know what "disconnect
supervision" or "forward disconnect" were, so put me on hold to talk to
internal tech support.

The response she got was that my answering device isn't compatable with
Cox phone service :(.

Does having service via Cox rather than Qwest change what I need to do to
get Asterisk to recognize call initiation and termination? Asterisk
doesn't recognize hangups and ties up the line for long periods of time.
Some might see this as a bonus :).

Do I need to call it something else when asking for support from Cox?

Any recommendations for a card that actually works? I want to connect to a
POTS line for receiving and initiating phone calls. I want the possibility
of that POTS line to be whatever source of POTS lines we get in the
Phoenix area.

I also want to ring through the phone card to a phone.

I also want to use a small Sipura SIP box that has 2 RJ11 connectors and
can handle two phones.

There are many other things I want to do, but that's the initial setup. If
I can get that working such that I don't break it with further
experimentation I can play with Asterisk.

ciao,

der.hans

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-- 
JD Austin
Twin Geckos Technology Services LLC
email: jd@twingeckos.com
http://www.twingeckos.com
phone/fax: 480.288.8195