On 03/29/2011 04:32 PM Stephen Harris wrote: > On Tue, Mar 29, 2011 at 02:52:16PM -0500, Les Mikesell wrote: >> On 3/29/2011 1:37 PM, Stephen Harris wrote: >>> Exactly correct. It also works the other way; pick up the phone and >>> dial a number and asterisk routes it via google chat so you get your >>> free US calls and cheap international calls. >> Do you know if asterisk (freeswitch, 2600hz, etc.) can do this over >> bluetooth? I've seen some base stations with wireless extensions that >> can connect to a landline and/or pair with a bluetooth phone that would >> ordinarily be your cell, but it would be kind of neat if it could be >> asterisk without the ATA intermediate or even a direct hardware connection. > > In my mind, it'd be very unlikely that Asterisk would talk bluetooth > directly; that's not the Linux way. Instead you'd probably want to > make your BlueTooth phone pair to the Linux server, and create an IP > connection between the two, and then use any SIP client on the phone. > > But I could be wrong :-) I'm an asterisk newbie. Les, This was one feature I was interested in with the "answering machine" I spoke of before: I'd want to be able to pick up an incoming call with a bluetooth phone so I could walk around and not be tethered by a phone line. A friend of mine got a bluetooth/skype phone which works on PCs and Macs, a Qpe. I'd think if that phone would connect with skype, why not with something else like asterisk? Well, the answer depends on the state of development of the bluetooth drivers. Somebody on http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-software-2/bluetooth-headset-and-skype-330929/ said he got his bluetooth headset working with skype using the bluetooth-alsa driver from http://bluetooth-alsa.sourceforge.net/. That site says: "What we have working now is a scheme with two independent alsa-lib plugins and two independent daemons to run things. When you switch to the alsa-lib device that provides SCO (headset in the example configuration), you can do voice calls and two-way audio. When you switch to the device for a2dp (a2dpd in the example), you get one-way stereo to the headset." What tames my enthusiasm about bluetooth though is its maximum range is said to be 20'. Gimme a wifi phone.