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On Sun, 2 Aug 2009, Edwin Rhodes wrote: > Hello can I setup FreePBX in a virtual machine and use it to setup a group > of ciso phones for both internal calls and external via sip to other > people??? I presume pstn cards are needed to connect to phone network or can > I configure the phones to connect using sip to the phone network? Very new > to this pbx thing. Thanks ed. Well... The easy answer is yes... The long answer invovles sucking of air through teeth and ... Cisco phones support Ciscos own protocol, which isn't SIP. Asterisk supports this protocol too, but from what I've heard, not very well. Some Cisco phones can be re-flashed with SIP firmware, and I'm told that this is the prefered way forward. Personally, I'd not run asterisk in a virtual machine, but others have done so. You can make external SIP calls to other people if you register with them (or if they accept anonymous SIP calls) If you want to call "normal" numbers via SIP, then you need an account with an ITSP (Internet Telephony Service Provider) - basically a company that will do the "plumbing" to connect VoIP to the PSTN, and bill you for it ... :) There are a great many of these ITSPs - Some even provide you with free calls to various destinations. Some provide personal support, others none. You get what you pay for. If you need to talk to existing PSTN connections at your own location, then you need an interface card of some sorts - POTS (i.e. ordinary analogue phone lines), ISDN2 or ISDN30 are all avalable - for a price. Again, not sure I'd ever recomend it in a virtual machine - it depends on how good the VM is at letting an instance access underlying hardware and take interrupts from it. I'd also suggest that if this is a PBX for a business, to do it properly - dedicate a server to it, because if the VM server goes down, so does your phones. You also need a business quality ISP with a good rotuer, and I'd strongly suggest an ITSP with a business level of support. But if this is just for playing at home, then anything will do. No guarantees though :) Gordon -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html