Voice Over IP for Linux?

aibrahim asks: "Does anyone know of a way to make a Linux/*BSD box into a router for Internet telephony ? I am curious if there are soltuions available for Linux like those offered by TEK DigiTel. If there isn't a solution, then what do you think the hurdles are to implementing one?"

Several Options

[voxman]

All of them involve some coding, as this is a fairly new thing to do with a Linux box.

If you want only one port, you can grab a quicknet linejack and use their API. The card will run a couple hundred bucks. You could put more than one card in a box as well.

If you want a large number of ports, and money is no object, you can grab any of the cards from Audiocodes or NMS and work with them. They both have linux support, although NMS is the only open source driver you'll find.

If you are looking for more of a challenge, you could grab any number of products that weren't exactly made for the task but has some Linux support. Pika has supported linux for quite some time and their cards make a great linux based pbx (see ACS at voxilla.org). Dialogic is rumored to be releasing drivers for their line of cards. Also, Linmodems.org is gradually reverse engineering drivers for "win-modems" with the added advantage of no command set. There are already voip test apps available for these things, and they only cost 15 bucks. If you have and AD-TRAN frame relay switch, there is an open-source PBX available for that at linux-support.net (The ad-tran does voice over frame relay). And I suppose you could control some of the commercial voip boxes with just about any PC.

Anything else you wanted to know?

Some Resources

[Anonymous Coward]

Linux Telephony [linuxtelephony.org]

Open Telecom [opentelecom.org]

LinuxTel [linuxtel.com]

Asterisk Open Source PBX

[markster]

I have been developing the Asterisk Open Source PBX [linux-support.net]. Right now its channel support is somewhat limited, but the first release should be coming out either later this year or early next year at the latest, and it can already be accessed via CVS (anonymous coming shortly). Feel free to join the Asterisk mailing list (directions available at the web site) if you'd like to talk about what kinds of VoIP you'd like to bring into it.

Open H.323 stack

[DonPablo]

Hi there! Some guys at http://www.openh323.org are developing free H.323 stack needed to build completely free VoIP solutions. Regards, Pablo

IP Gateway on Linux

[nerd1701]

Yes, Dialogic will be releasing drivers for Linux as announced in a recent press release.

If you are really ambitious, you could combine this with a SS7 box or card from DataKinetics, which has Linux drivers now, and make a real IP gateway that could go in a CO environment.