Embedded VoIP (Asterisk) install in home router?

Question

Is it possible to flash an average home wireless router with a new OS that includes an embedded PBX server to route VoIP calls (such as Asterisk)?

Does the average $50 router in the living room have the hardware capacity to support such a requirement?

Answer 1

It would appear that some builds of DD-WRT have Asterisk included, and DD-WRT will run on a very large selection of home routers. The documentation Wiki appears to be down right now (browser's hanging trying to load it), but there's enough google cache results to give hope.

Answer 2

Doubtful. Asterisk can take quite a lot of cpu power so there is a possibility that it won't work properly.

But since the average $50 router can vary greatly in terms of cpu power, the only way to be sure is to try it. Asterisk has been known to run on cpu's as slow as 100 MHz Pentiums which is slower than what a WRT54GL has.

PS: to help others in the future you should mark answers as accepted if they work for you. Some people might not answer your questions with a 0% accept rate like you have now.