Trixbox, built on the Asterisk PBX system, is a great VoIP solution for a variety of people. For the casual user it can help you manage your calls by either routing based on the time of day or forwarding a call from your home phone to you cell phone to keep that conversation going without having to hang up and call again. For the business user it can help you route calls between various departments and keep track of average call statistics.
Whatever type of user you are, you can agree that automated unsolicited calls are best left away from your telephone number. With a simple Trixbox server, you can accomplish this.
With some basic used equipment or a cheap new system, FXO card, VoIP adapter for your phone, and a few MP3s, you can setup a system that will trick the autodialer to think someone picked up the phone. By the time the person on the other side picks up their phone to begin the sales speech, they are listening to your music on hold while your actual phone rings. This will most likely confuse the caller and they will hang up. I have personally tested this on a user who normally receives many unsolicited calls, and their unwanted calls dropped dramatically. Sometimes a few rings got through, but the calling party usually hung up before you ever had a chance to look at the caller ID.
Once you have your system setup, you can easily expand it to provide more features, more phones, and even handle more calls. As an example: Say your child is talking to their friend on the phone, but you need to make a call out and don’t want to use your cell phone. Well if you setup service with an online phone service, you can have outgoing calls route over it if your main line is busy. You could have it also route calls in to your residence, but you would also have to invest in a monthly telephone number.
Product Links:
- Trixbox CE (Trixbox.org)
- FXO Card (X100P.com)
- Barebone Computers (Newegg.com)
- Linksys PAP2 VoIP Adapter (Amazon.com)
Support Links:
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