Question regarding VoIP and hybrid systems

[iSteve]

Hello,

 

I'm just scratching the surface of testing out a VoIP system at school based on trixbox. I have this set up, and have added two extensions using softphones on a couple of Macs. I'm also getting hold of a couple of 2nd hand hardware phones just for the sake of it.....

 

My question is, how do I connect the trixbox server in to the current phone system? This is not something we will be doing straight away as it is purely a test set-up at the moment. I read something about an FXO card, but I couldn't find much of an explanation of what this is, or what it does, or how it connects! What do I need to build or buy to be able to call from an IP phone, to a "real" phone on our Samsung DCS system, or from an IP phone to the outside world?

 

Any advice is welcome!

[powdarrmonkey]

Normal two-wire lines are either FXO (to go from your box to a provider of some form, like your outside line) or FXS (to go to a handset).

 

Trouble is, unless you want to run analogue cables (lots of them) you need to interface directly to the system, which probably won't work if it's proprietary. If you're going to call the outside world, do it over your Internet connection through a provider like VoipON, Voiptalk, etc.