Ever wanted to use a VoIP client to answer phone calls over your traditional phone line instead of getting VoIP service? (Surprisingly difficult since everyone seems to want to use their crappy old phones on VoIP instead) Well, here’s the trick: Buy an FXO card like the Voxzone X100P and install the open-source Asterisk PBX software.
Not only do you get to use the VoIP client and high-quality $7 Skype-certified, noise-cancelling microphone of your choice, you can trap telemarketers in a voice-mail maze of your own fiendish design. 🙂
In essence, an FXO card is the “voice” portion of a voice modem isolated and made Linux compatible so Asterisk users will buy them. As such, they’re cheaper than an equivalent voice modem and, since voice is the core function rather than an afterthought, their noise/echo-cancellation is usually better.
Oh, and if you want to plug traditional telephones into VoIP… perhaps to use Asterisk as a full-fledged PBX, you’ll want an FXS card (internal) or an ATA (external, Analog Telephony Adaptor). (FXO cards act as phones, FXS cards act as phone lines)
Update: Given how unpredictable quality can get when you have multi-process C++ compilation running in the background, I decided to use a dedicated box. If you like the idea of open hardware, take a look at the IP04 Open-Source PBX. (I use the one-port version with an FXO module and a bunch of Linksys PAP2T-NA ATAs)
The Trick To Linux Speakerphone-building by Stephan Sokolow is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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