[Freeswitch-users] My First FreeSwitch OR Is this easy to do?

[Matt Neimeyer]

I apologize for the length I'm not sure yet what is "relevant"

My partner and I run a small business out of our home and we're
getting big enough that I want to take advantage of some "modern phone
technology" primarily we're interesting in an auto-attendant at this
point but more will come later I'm sure.

We have two analog lines coming into the house (provided via Verizon
FiOS) and then in every room we have two line capable analog phones.
In our FiOS settings I have both lines ring both lines simultaneously
(to emulate a hunt group) so if someone is on line 1 the incoming call
still rings audibly on line 2 instead of just buzzing call waiting.

I will be getting a (hand me down) TDM1600P V2 card which, in its
current configuration, has four FXO and four FXS ports. So my plan was
to install FreeSwitch and "splice in-line" where the phone lines come
out of the FiOS box. So two lines would go into the FreeSwitch Box and
two "extensions" would come out the other side. Whenever I rewire the
house I'll decide then whether to run a data connection to each
"endpoint" and get SIP phones, add more FXS modules to the TDM1600P,
some mix, or whatever but I'm starting small (I think).

As far the auto-attendant goes 95% of what I need now is to filter
"non-humans". So I would set up a simple menu "Press 1 for Tech
Support, Press 2 for Billing, Etc)". This should filter autodialers
that want us to update our Google listing and so on... but I assume we
can still have all of the options (until we hire on more staff) ring
both extensions. Assuming this lets unanswered calls go to voice
mail... On our analog phones though I'd really love to modify the
Caller ID to show which option they selected. So instead of "Bob
Customer / 234-567-8901" it might show "TS - Bob Customer /
234-567-8901" if they selected Tech Support. If possible I'd also like
to "fill gaps" in Caller ID from a database because a few of our
customers only show the number and not a name.

Short term, I'm currently planning on downloading the Blue.box ISO and
using that as my start point. Medium term I'd like to set up email
notification of voice mails. Long term I'd love to integrate Google
Voice and/or Skype. Really long term I might need to "convert" to a
multi-tenant setup for Personal, Company (now with Employees) and Side
Project Company.

I think that's it... Any advice? Comments?

Matt