"Running Asterisk@Home Under Windows"

VoipSpeak - Running Asterisk@Home Under Windows

"We have been touting how cool the Asterisk Open Source PBX is and especially how nice the Asterisk@Home installation package is for some time now. You are all excited to try it out but don't have an extra machine, or maybe you are like us and want a way to show clients the web interface and the features but you don't want to run Linux on your laptop or carry a second machine. Well now, with the help of a few free downloads, you can now do a complete installation into a virtual machine on your system. You won't want to run a production system like this, but it does work great for developing scripts, testing IVR menus, and doing product demonstrations.

Requirements
Keep in mind that you will be emulating an entire computer system within the Windows environment, with that in mind you will better appreciate the need for a high-end machine for this setup. The system we used for this is about the minimum we would want to try this on:

Pentium M Processor 1.7ghz (Hyperthreading processor recommended)
512mb RAM (1gb recommended)
4gb of available disk space

..."

I've been wanting to play with Asterisk since I first heard about it... I mean why spend $50 on a new answering machine when I can use a $500-$1000 PC? ;)

I'm thinking of a system of vmail boxes for the family with no default box as one method to avoid the coming election year vmessage crap storm... Kind of a phone CAPTCHA system.

"If you are a human, press 1 to leave a message. If you are an automated message, stay on the line to leave a message in the VSPAM Must DIE voice mailbox..."

:)

(via Make: - HOW TO - Running Asterisk@Home Under Windows)