If you would indulge me please for a moment while I geek out..
For sometime I have wanted to play with Voice over IP, or VoIP as it is better known. I wanted to build a completely open-source PBX (private branch exchange). Essentially trying to provide the same kind of system that costs 40 to 50 thousand to install. With all the spare time that we have in our lives i decided to convert an old machine that I finally got back off loan into a TrixBox. It allowed me to teach IP Phones and computers how to interact with it. While waiting for a part from China I ordered a SIP trunk (think of it as a phone line that comes over your internet connection) and taught TrixBox how to use it when I wanted to talk on the phone. Using it, as well as Google Voice and some help from a friend I was able to essentially have an phone line with unlimited in and outbound calls for around 8-11 dollars a month after 911 location service.
Since, I have gotten the card in from China and now have my POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) line jacked into TrixBox as well so I can tell it which to use.
Pretty boring stuff I know, but something I’ve wanted to figure out for a while. Sorry again for the geek lesson, but it is cool to see it all working.
Geek, I mean Wes, out for now..