[ale] Recommendations for cheap phone service?

[Jim Lynch]

George Carless wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> My girlfriend's non-profit organization (www.ahimsahouse.org) is in the process of moving into its first office, and 
> they're looking at options for getting phone service there. Ideally, a low-cost solution that would allow multiple people 
> to make calls at once (though only a single inbound phone number would be required). Here's what we've been looking at so 
> far:
>
>   
Trixbox is a full featured PBX in software.  Actually it's a wrapper 
around Asterisk, the PBX, but Trixbox makes it usable.  That said, 
there's a pretty steep learning curve around making it do what you want, 
but it's quite powerful once you get there.  Add pots lines, voip lines, 
ethernet phones, pots phones etc.  Don't expect any voip solution to do 
faxes well, if at all.  There are ways to make it work but it requires 
special hw and/or sw at both ends.  I'd recommend keeping a pots line 
for faxes if necessary.

Jim.