Questions[voice](server)

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

Has anyone successfully configured Zenoss to send an SMS or Voice alert? Googling only comes up with a service called TeamTILT for Zenoss. Is this the only alternative available? Has anyone solved this without using this service? Thanks.

I've got an interesting one for you. I've been going over my server monitoring and notification systems (Nagios based), and realized that if our internet connection goes down, there's no way for it to notify me. I already have a modem listening (Via CentOS 5) on a spare POTS line so that I can dial-in in case our internet goes down. I was wondering if I could come up with a script (Shell, Python, etc) that can dial out and play a recorded message (wave file I'm guessing) when it's picked up. I know Windows supports voice calls over a voice modem, I was wondering if a solution existed for Linux...

I know asterisk can probably do it, but isn't that overkill (A full blown VOIP system just for a notification mechanism that will hopefully never be used)? And wouldn't it interfere with the modem's primary function as a backup network interface (PPP spawned via mgetty)?

I've done some searching, and haven't really come up with much. I know how to dial out from the command line, but only as a modem (not as voice). Worst case, I could set it up to dial out as a modem, and then just realize that if I get a call with modem sounds from that number that it's the notification... Any insight would be appreciated...

Currently we have a T1 which we use for both our voice and data.
We are looking at getting a bonded T1 but have been told by the provider that it would be a bad idea to run both voice and data on a bonded T1 (Multilink PPP) and that we should either:

A) Put in a bonded T1 for data only and have a 2nd non-bonded T1 for voice, or
B) Put in a 2nd T1 for data only and make the current T1 voice only

We don't use the voice as much and the reason we looked into a bonded T1 is for more internet speed, but obviously we still need to keep voice services with good quality and reliability. Unfortunately T1 is the only thing available to us since all the lines here are copper.

I am not familiar with bonded T1s. Tried googling about bonded T1s and having both data and voice on it but couldn't come up with anything helpful. So my question is, will we lose service quality by getting a bonded T1 and putting both voice and data on it?

I am using Asterisk and there seems to be a problem with the delay that the server answers a call. What actually happens is that the caller hears a busy tone and then hangs up, but a channel is opened on the server so after around 20 seconds the phone rings at the fail over destination of the IVR. When the receptionists picks up the phone, there is no one on the other end of the call.

I called my provider and there was a 2 seconds timeout on their call transfer. I asked them to remove it, and the problem seemed solved. I was contacted by my customer today and they were saying that the problem still occurs but there is no "busy tone" anymore.

Since the origin of the problem is a timeout of the call pickup, I was wondering if there is a way to speed up the call pickup by asterisk, because the call is transferred from our provider to our asterisk server, but it is taking too long for our server to accept the call so the caller hangs up, or it simply doesn't connect and the caller hears ringing until he hangs up.

Any ideas would be appreciated as I am at a lost right now.

Thank you,

Philippe