----- Original Message ----- 
Subject: Re: Telephone System

> > http://www.asterisk.org/ is your answer i believe.  PBX (Private Branch
> > Exchange) is the term you are looking for.  the possibilities are
endless
> > with something like this.
>
> Do Asterisk and PBX require special "PBX" phones? Or will a regular phone
> function on these systems?
>
> BYW, thanks for the Asterisk link. Looks like a very well developed piece
of
> software.
>
> -Greg

It looks like you can use regular analog lines for this but the digital PBX
phones would be a nice touch, however unless you had a T1 or multiple phone
lines it would be pointless other than hold/transfer/multi-line
availibility, but for a simple SOHO application it looks to be the way to go
(cheaply).  I have the seimens gigaset telephone system at home and it seems
to do the important things, there is the ability to call another handset
from any handset or base station and do the conference thing with as many
internal callers as handsets you have and up to two with the two line setups
or more with the three-way feature on most phones now days. the higher end
base stations even do multi mailbox voicemail all digital.  I am happy with
mine (have been using it for almost 4 years now)

Hope this helps
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Brian Dominguez