voicemail and other possibilities?

[marcw]

I've recently gotten a spa3k with Broadvoice. I've configured the spa3k so that I can accept incoming from either BV or POTS but all outgoing is BV only (nice low payments on my monthly POTS bill with measured service!). Using the spa3k config wizard and these forums helped make this fairly easy.

My whole goal of using BV and the spa3k was to eliminate long distance charges. It's done that. Everything is working well. BV and the spa3k are top notch. Life is good.

Now for the Asterisk questions.

I'm contemplating setting up a * machine for voicemail purposes because with 2 incoming lines (BV and POTS) I'm required to have two seperate answering mechanisms - BV's own VM and an answering machine for POTS. (Or just the AM for both, I suppose.) I want to do away with this and have just one voicemail system. Is this possible using *?

Secondly, would there be any other benefits to using * in a basic environment such as mine? The spa3k seems to do everything I need or want but I don't want to overlook other possibilities that I may not have even thought of.

Thanks!

[PhoneBoy]

I was using my Asterisk server as an overglorified answering machine for quite some time. It's perfect for that, among other things.

[mberlant]

Read up on Asterisk and you will find that it can do just about anything a regular PABX can do. It does have a learning curve, though.

If you are competent in Linux I recommend that you put the latest Asterisk CVS onto the non-X core of your choice. If that last sentence doesn't really make sense to you, then I recommend downloading Asterisk@Home for a smooth entry into the world of Asterisk.

Either way, I would start at www.asterisk.org and continue from there.