Can I use this as an answering machine on a normal analoge phone line?

[haku1004]

I guess I asked the question in the subject line.  Can I use LinuxMCE as an answering machine (Voicemail) on a normal analoge phone line??

Thanks
Haku

[teedge77]

you would need a card with FXO/FXS modules and then youd need to configure asterisk after that. this will help you get a start.

http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/index.php?page=Asterisk+hardware+home+analog

itll explain it much better than i could.

[GoManutd]

You can but you need to get an analog telephone adapter.  You plug your phone into one end of the ATA and then connect the ATA to the network... You need to configure the ATA so it connects to the asterisk server

Check out http://www.sipura.com/products/index.htm. 

[teedge77]

An ATA will only work for a VOIP application right? he still needs a way to connect to the phone line...if he doesnt intend to use VOIP.

haku1004 did you want to use regular phones lines or voice over IP?

[GoManutd]

Actually, I seem to recall reading something on Trixbox (precompiled version of Asterisk running the FreePBX GUI).
I seem to recall reading something on that site about a way to use a Sipura ATA.... But that would bypass Asterisk all together

You're right he would need a card with at least one FXS and one FXO port if he wanted to use an analog phone line for handling inbound/outbound calls to his phone company.

[darrenmason]

The FXO allows you to interface to an analogue phone line.
The FXS allows you to use analogue phone handsets.

The ATA, which I think stands for Analogue Telephone Adapater, is basically an FXS. There are some models which have two FXS (allowing two different extensions) and there are some that also have an FXO built in.

There is a fair bit on info on Asterisk out there, I believe that the best quality solutions come from utilising dedicated digium cards with plug-in modules for FXO and FXS depending upon your needs.

But the short answer to the original question is yes you can use linuxMCE as an answering machine on an Anologue phone line. It integrates with Asterisk and that, with the right hardware, certainly allows you do do what you want (and a whole lot more).