[TriLUG] automatic calling software for school

[Aaron S. Joyner]

Doug_Newcomb at fws.gov wrote:

>
>
>Hi,
>      My son's school has an automatic calling system to remind parents of
>meetings, activities, volunteer events, etc.  It died.  Any suggestions for
>a replacement?  I have forwarded info about Asterisk, but that may be a bit
>much for them.  Cheapest they have found so far is $2400.
>  
>
Depends on what they want it to do.  Provided that you have someone 
capable of setting it up, Asterisk is a fabulous solution for this 
purpose.  Take an old computer they have lying around, through a minimal 
distro on it, slap in a few $14 modems off Ebay (depending on your 
requirements for concurrent lines), do a little setup and recording, and 
you have a good automated dialing system.  It's that "do a little setup 
and recording" step that requires someone at least vaguely familiar with 
Asterisk to tackle.  When it comes down to the particulars of how to do 
it, check out voip-info.org, the Asterisk-Users mailing list, and this 
list as well -- all will be good resources.  Depending on the cost of 
the time of the person doing that setup, this is likely a cheaper 
solution, and certainly a more flexible solution, than anything you'll 
find in the commercial world for $2400.

Best of luck,
Aaron S. Joyner