sundance-communications.com/forum Forums VOIP Phones & IP PBX VoIP & Cloud Phones, Hosted PBX, General IP Phones Asterisk Project

I read recently that you can use some standard fax modems with Asterisk now.

I'm thinking about using an XP computer with MagicJack with a virtual machine running Asterisk and using two Cisco 7940 SIP phones with a POE switch.

It's not for a client, I'd like an IP phone near our server room and one on my desk as well as an AA and voicemail.

Would it be remotely possible?

Your biggest issue may be having the virtual machine recognize the required hardware in the host machine. I'm all for virtualization, but in this case I think you're better off using a dedicated machine.

As far as I know it has always been possible to use certain modems with Asterisk, but they would generally be older and harder to find models. It could be that some of the newer ones will work now, but either way I would start by trying to find the modems you need.

Clinton has some pretty good insight into it already. Virtualization does not lend itself well to realtime applications like audio communications or video conferencing. You can use virtualization in an R&D situation but I would always recommend going to dedicated hardware for production. Given the current state of technology and how relatively little power Asterisk requires to function there is no good reason not to. A P3-1Ghz with 512-megs or ram would do nicely for most labs. Even in production you could easily handle a T1/PRI's worth of traffic without call recording.

As far as the fax applications go you have two options: TX/RX Fax, and HylaFax. Both option require real Fax modems with onboard DSP's. Just like Clinton said this is either going to be the older modems or the more expensive ones like USR Courier's or MultiTech MultiModem's. Hylafax also has the ability to do a software-based modem called "IAXmodem". This allows you to use CPU horsepower in place of a modem but consequently make the system even less tolerant of virtualization (if it can even tolerate it at all).

Unless you have the Crisco SIP phones laying around i'd recommend either SNOM 300 or Polycom 320/330. It's been my personal experience that Cisco is just a nightmare to work with. And yes, I know, there are people who "have done it" but I am not one of them. I just wanted to add my 2-cents.