Asterisk step-by-step setup

Asterisk is a Open Source PBX.   You will need SER for a proxy I believe.
You will definately need a IP media board to interface with.  I use dialogic but that is for conferencing not just single user setup.

Im thinking you need two or three machines.  
1. Linux Suse for the Proxy
2. Linux running asterisk
3. Windows Box that has the Digital Telephony board.

http://www.iptel.org/ser/

Thanks for the reply, but that becomes expensive in terms of hardware. Anything to tone it down a couple of notches?

Its not that bad if you have some machines lying around that you can put the linux ISO's on.
EBAY will have the cheapest digital telephony boards.

Have you read the free asterisk document?

http://downloads.oreilly.com/books/9780596510480.pdf

Asterisk is a software PBX with pstn/voip capabilities. You do not need more than one server for your needs. You do not need any extra software. No need for SER. For a home pbx with just one or two lines you do not need great hardware either. I have small pbx running with a pentium III processor and 512Mb of RAM (3 lines / 10 extensions).

If you have a regular telephone line, you will also need an analog card with one FXO port for each of your phone lines, and you might also want to have as many FXS ports as phones/extensions you want to connect to your PBX. You can also use hardware or software ip phones if you want. An analog card with FXO/FXS will let you connect regular PHONE LINES/ANALOG TELEPHONES.

If you use asterisk , you might want to shop for voip providers that lets you use their service openly, and not locking you down to use some particular device. That way you configure services providers as "trunks" on your pbx, and then you can create routes to dial out through them.

If you want to call your PBX so you can obtain "cheap voip dialtone", you can use DISA for that. It ask for a pin and lets you dial out.

And for starting, the best way is to install a linux distribution already prepared for that, like Elastix http://www.elastix.org or PBX in a Flash http://pbxinaflash.net/

You do not want to connect your vonage box into an FXO port as you will be doing a double analog/digital convertion. As far as I know vonage does not provide the information needed to configure them as trunks on an ip pbx (maybe they do now?), however there are plenty of good an open voip providers, you can see a list an lots of useful information in www.voip-info.org.  There are several voip providers that are "asterisk" friendly and even provide with sample configurations and dialplans.

I'm really looking for specifics. But, thank you.

Too broad of a question.. It is impossible that you will have one answer that will tell you how to do all of that. I gave your all the proper pointers.

1) A decent linux server will work
2) You can use only Asterisk on it, for a quicker install and shorter learning curve, install Elastix
3) Elastix uses FreePBX that is a web based GUI for configuring extensions and your dialplan
3) You will install a PBX at your house
4) You need an analog card, either digium or other brands, with FXO ports for your PSTN lines, and FXS lines for your regular analog phones.
5) Do not use vonage but another voip provider, so you can configure it directly on the asterisk server without the need for extra hardware/connections
6) You can use DISA in Asterisk to call your home phone, dial some code, and get outbound dial tone that might be routed to your cheap voip provider.

Elastix has pretty good documentation. Expect to read a  lot, you cannot build this by reading a reply on Experts Exchange.

Good luck!

Thanks. I downloaded the Elastix with no tears book and am going through it now.

So, an elastix server with a TDM card should suffice my need. I can switch to VIaTalk. But, as an expert, would you be willing to say that that would be all that I need to complete my requirement?

Thanks

Thank you asternic