Creating a telephone 'network'

[Big Dave]

I am currently planning the installation of a home network for the family pc's. I thought it would be nice to include a telephone 'network' at the same time using some of the cat5 cables. The pc network is not a problem but how do you set up a telephone network. I read somewhere that you should not use a hub or switch but just a patch panel. Any help much appreciated.

Sorry.. forgot to mention that the phone line is NTL oops I mean VirginMedia...

[dave87]

I know Dad's office has it done that way, but afaik its only possible with a digital switching network, which usually operates over an ISDN line. = £££.

You could always use CAT5 cable and just patch it like a conventional phone system?

[Anseur]

What exactily is it you intent it to do? How many phones in the house? How are they all currently connected? What do you want the phone 'network' to do for you?

I seem to remember Tom's hardware had an article on something similar some time ago. Can't seem to fi nd the exact article right at this moment tho.

tomshardware.co.uk/tomsnetworking/index.html

[Splash]

Think you're looking at some form of PBX. Take a look at Trixbox.

[Big Dave]

What exactily is it you intent it to do? How many phones in the house? How are they all currently connected? What do you want the phone 'network' to do for you?

I seem to remember Tom's hardware had an article on something similar some time ago. Can't seem to fi nd the exact article right at this moment tho.

tomshardware.co.uk/tomsnetworking/index.html

I want to have telephones in each of the bedrooms and a few downstairs in the living room, study and workshop etc. The original thought was to run the extra cat5 cables to each room for the telephones but have the facility to swap them over to the pc network if my kids had their friends over and they want to play network games. I would not have a problem dedicating set cables for the telephone system. At the moment I have not bought the phones but likely to be about six. I know this would exceed the REN limit but I have yet to look at a booster to resolve this.

The ultimate would be able to phone room to room but this is not a priority.

[Big Dave]

Think you're looking at some form of PBX. Take a look at Trixbox.

Just took a quick look at Trixbox. Unfortunately it look just a bit too expensive for what I need. It as more functionality than I am likely to use. A Cut down version (on price at least) would be interesting...

[Ferral]

Why not just get a set of dect phones, saves having to mess about with cables. Only the master handset has to be plugged into the wall socket, the rest just need plugging in round the house in the rooms you want them.

[Splash]

Trixbox should be free afaik - were you looking at the appliance, or the commercially supported versions?

It evolved from Asterisk@home - more info at http://asteriskathome.sourceforge.net/ which is definitely free.

[Big Dave]

Why not just get a set of dect phones, saves having to mess about with cables. Only the master handset has to be plugged into the wall socket, the rest just need plugging in round the house in the rooms you want them.

I am currently using a dect phone. Good as it is the rechargable batteries dont seem to last long and more importantly I keep losing it or the kids leave it in their bedroom

[directhex]

asterisk is a powerful free-software PBX. it should do what you need - and there are likely to be easily configurable versions out there for you

[Big Dave]

OK so my quick look was just a bit too quick. The software looks like it does all of the things I could possibly want from a phone network, and more besides. I would be a bit concerned about the Linux side of things, only really used Windows but as its free and I have plenty of spare pc's I may give it a go. Have not found much information about how to connect the phones and cables etc but there is a lot of information to go through. Thanks

[Splash]

There's not much to it from an OS side of things from memory - you boot from the ISO, go through the wizard and then pretty much everything is configured through a browser. That said if I get the chance I think I'll be having a look-see myself tonight (again - I have no need for such a thing, but stuff like this is FUN!)

[Big Dave]

There's not much to it from an OS side of things from memory - you boot from the ISO, go through the wizard and then pretty much everything is configured through a browser. That said if I get the chance I think I'll be having a look-see myself tonight (again - I have no need for such a thing, but stuff like this is FUN!)

FUN - Couldn't agree more. Just got to have fun with the actual phones and how to connect the network together and I think I will be in fun heaven...

[herulach]

THe obvious answer would be to just use the spare pairs in the cat 5 to wire it up like an ordinary phone. That or do two runs of Cat 5, as its phenomenally cheap. Wire one as a phone and one as data, then you can always change the socket later if you need to

[Big Dave]

asterisk is a powerful free-software PBX. it should do what you need - and there are likely to be easily configurable versions out there for you

I have looked more at this software and it does do all (and more) than I need. However to connect the phones requires FXO and FXS modules and these seem to cost quite a bit. In addition I cannot find any information about what is required for a NTL (VirginMedia) phone line, unless you treat it like an analogue system. Does anyone in the UK know much about this. I think I will start a new thread asking for information on this.