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Phill Pafford
Asked: 2012-07-03 05:54:36 +0800 CST

PBX with Fax and Google Voice

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Looking to replace/port my home number which I use for mainly faxing for my home business to a PBX server ( Thinking Asterisk or Elastix ).

My question is:

  1. Does Asterisk/Elastix support Faxing ( Incoming / Outgoing )
  2. Does Asterisk/Elastix support Google Voice

Here is what I'm looking to do:

Run some sort of PBX software from my own home server that will allow me to use Google Voice for my home number, possibly allow multiple Google voice ( Though I could live with just the one ) and must support Faxing ( Incoming and Outgoing ). Would Asterisk/Elastix support all of this or would you recommend something else for this? Looking to avoid some of the pitfalls that could happen

I like Ubuntu if a Linux environment is needed

pbx google fax asterisk voice

3 Answers

  1. Sounds like your looking for a free solution but I thought I would throw this out as a potential alternative that does not require any setup, installation or complexity on your end. The trade off... a little bit of money every month:

    http://grasshopper.com/

    It's designed for small business but it does everything Google Voice does and supports faxing and faxes to PDF/Email. I think the cheapest plan is like $10 a month.

    Asterisk will certainly do what you want, however if you are not familiar with Asterisk is can be a bear to setup and manage. Both of the requested features can be added through Asterisk Modules. However by just searching I found a couple of Asterisk implementations that have most of the features you are looking for built-in: http://incrediblepbx.com/

    So bottom line: pay someone else to do it or be prepared for some personal time to setup and configure whatever Asterisk distro/comp you decide to use. If the above doesn't look good I highly recommend FreePBX.

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  2. YES!

    The answer to your question is 100% yes. Elastix supports incoming and outgoing phone calls with Google Voice, you don't need any other service (freepbx is built into elastix but would recommend staying away from it).

    As for incoming and outgoing fax, yes. I have 5 or six extensions, each with it's own incoming google voice phone number, and outgoing numbers. As well as an IVR that allows you to choose what machine you are looking for. Elastix and Asterisk are not the same thing. Asterisk is the base system that FreePBX, Elastix, PBX In A Flash, and some of the other flavors use. To be completely honest. Elastix is the MOST user friendly version i've seen (i've tried them all). Very quick and easy setup, and no headaches.

    The following post from the forums will guide you to be where you need to be to setup google voice.

    http://www.elastix.org/index.php/en/component/kunena/10-success-stories/98971-multiple-google-voice.html

    Elastix is Centos, and would prefer you continue to use it that way, Ubuntu is not as stable with elastix as Centos.

    If you have questions i can give you some pointers.

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  3. Take a look at the Obihai OBI202. It supports Google Voice and T.38 faxing. They work great and are very easy to setup.

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