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Asterisk Breeds A Cottage Industry

Posted by timothy on from the press-4-to-hear-monkeys-screaming dept.

gardel writes "The open-source PBX is popular, powerful and affordable. But setting up and maintaining Asterisk in its distributed form is a technical challenge for even the most accomplished of geeks. Now, Voxilla reports, several new companies (more than 60, at last count), smelling a good business opportunity, offer simplified graphical front-ends for Asterisk. And more are on the way."

39 of 155 comments (clear)

  1. Note by elid · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Note that not all of the solutions are open-source like PBX, although AMP is.

  2. THAT popular? by oskard · · Score: 4, Funny

    The popular open-source PBX is popular

    No way really?

    --
    Sigs are for Terrorists.
  3. Re:cool by mindstrm · · Score: 5, Informative

    It is primarily used for voip, actually, though handles leased lines (T1, E1, etc) perfectly well with supported hardware. Everything form $20 pots cards so you can use it as an answering machine at home to multiple T1 cards are supported... and lots of voip.

    You can do everything with it, but configuration is a lot of text files in true unix fashion.. it's more of a framework than a completed solution... which is what the article is about.. asterisk is really powerful, but setting up a complicated setup is sort of, well, complicated (though I find the complexity is about right for the level of flexibility)

  4. This is the way most open source works... by netcrusher88 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    A setup/administration GUI is what Red Hat sells(sold?), what SuSE sells, what Mandrake(or whatever it's called now), Xandros, and Linspire sell... This is probably a sign that Asterisk is here to stay. Or since we knew that already, that Asterisk not finished growing anytime soon.

    --
    There's an old saying that says pretty much whatever you want it to.
  5. Re:cool by cduffy · · Score: 4, Informative

    WRT tapping lines and rerouting calls -- having just installed an Asterisk-based phone system at work, I find myself not informing the business-types of its full capabilities just for the sake of not making them nervous. Very, very cool stuff -- though we now have some extra dependencies involved in making the phones work, we also have a fully customizable (and largely customized), featureful phone system. As it is, we're tied into a T1 for the outside world and doing VoIP (IAX when we can and SIP when we can't) to talk to the phones themselves. Features on the TODO list include integration with the CRM system (to make a note whenever a customer calls one of us or visa-versa, for instance) -- nothing about it's hard, just time-consuming.

    Unfortunately, IP phones with quality full-duplex speakerphone support (unlike the otherwise excellent Sipura SPA-841s we're using) are *expensive*. (Know of a sub-$200 SIP phone with good speakerphone support? Let me know!)

  6. This is cool... by Saint+Aardvark · · Score: 4, Interesting
    ...but what I would really like is an in-depth intro (contradiction in terms, I know) to telephone technology. I can set up a web server, I know how to firewall in three different languages, and I can understand at least a third of any C you put in front of me -- but man, phone technology just makes my head hurt.

    The company I work for is moving in a couple months, and we're taking the opportunity to upgrade our voicemail system. For a while I had hopes of maybe getting Asterisk to do it -- yay Free Software -- but then I started looking into it. As near as I can figure, after a day's Googling, our regular, analog, non-VOIP Meridian phones just won't talk to Asterisk-compatible hardware...but that's what I told the boss. (That, and I didn't have time to do it.)

    The honest truth is, I suspected it couldn't be done, or at least couldn't be done cheaply, but I couldn't wrap my head around what I was reading. I began to understand how my father feels when I try to explain to him what I'm doing.

    I have rarely felt so ignorant as when I tried to understand what hardware and what connections from the phone company would be needed:

    1. to connect Asterisk to the telephone company's wires (the CO, I think)
    2. to connect Asterisk to our own phones so calls could come in
    3. and to let us make phone calls out.
    I tried finding some consultant or company who could do this for us, but no luck. So we're getting a bigger and better version of the Norstar system we've got now. And that's fine -- it's done, someone else is doing it, and someone else is going to support it. But some kind of phone-networking-for-dummies would've been great.

    --
    Carousel is a lie!
    1. Re:This is cool... by bluGill · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Write it yourself... VOIP is still young. Linux was really hard to install before slackware and the like came out. It wasn't easy until RedHat came along.

      In time VOIP will become easy, but for now you need to be willing to learn all the hard details. The best way to do this is setup a system at home. Until it is ready don't go live with it, but just start testing. Then write docs to help everyone else. A book would be nice. Once it is working and you understand it go live.

      Though outsourcing telephone often does make sense.

    2. Re:This is cool... by jfb3 · · Score: 2, Informative

      If he could write it himself he wouldn't need it. What he needs is something from somebody who ~already~ understand this. So do I.

    3. Re:This is cool... by JM · · Score: 2, Informative

      It's doable, and not that hard.

      The only thing to remember is that the Meridian phones are proprietary crap. So you can't just plug them into asterisk, but rather you'll have to
      plug your asterisk server between the phone lines that come from the phone company and your PBX.

      Then, expand your system by either buying some Sipura 2000 boxes and regular telephones, or some IP phones.

    4. Re:This is cool... by bahwi · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Yeah, one of the big problems with Asterisk is, even though it is a *nix program, it is not really a *nix program, but takes a *nix box and makes it into a very configurable PBX, not the other way around. It's great, but, uh, difficult.

      1. To connect to the telephone co, you'd need a T1 or ISDN PRI(Voice T1, not Data).
      2. Digium (digium.com) has hardware to connect it to regular phone lines, ditto for out.

      To connect to regular phones you need FXO ports, and to connect to outgoing phones you need FXS ports. Digium has hardware, and a few others. DLink has a good VoIP router(with QoS and everything).

      I'm slowly getting my stuff together to be a consultant for this stuff, but I've got a lot to learn myself. It's too big of a market, but coming together.

      You want a new PBX? Use Asterisk. You just need Voicemail? Asterisk. Want an IVR? Asterisk. Need a call center? Asterisk. Want to do call queuing? Asterisk. Need a predictive dialer? Asterisk.

      Holy crap, that just solved so many problems, but impossible to configure.

    5. Re:This is cool... by femto · · Score: 3, Insightful
      He is (and you are) the best person to write it.

      Someone who is learning as they go will be forced to write to the level of an inexperienced person, and will have a better idea than an experienced person of what newbies have difficulty with.

      Getting involved is not just for experienced people! Just jump in and have a go.

      The most important (and hardest) thing is to start writing. It doesn't have to be perfect, just force yourself to start and do the best you can at the time. Once you've finished the text, and understand things better, you can go back and correct any factual errors you may have made (or release it and let others correct it for you).

    6. Re:This is cool... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      I currently use an asterisk system for my business from a company called switchvox. They just sent me a box I plug into my network and it works. It's simple for me and I'm willing to pay for that. Plus their support is really nice.

      It also allows me to have extensions that route to my sales person's phones at THEIR home. Our clients don't know any different and people get to work from home. There are a lot of features I don't use, but it saves us about $400/month on long distance calls and adding additional lines can be done my IT staff rather than an Avaya tech.

      The immature part of the asterisk technology is not asterisk itself, but the VOIP providers that work with asterisk. I have yet to find a reliable VOIP provider that can work with asterisk, I've tried LiveVOIP (horrible horrible service), Teliax, iax.cc, voicepulse, broadvoice, and SIPPhone. If someone can become a reliable VOIP provider that works ALL the time with asterisk, they can make a ton of money. We have to use analog lines for our incoming and outgoing lines because the VOIP providers are not caught up the reliability of asterisk.

    7. Re:This is cool... by Rafke · · Score: 2, Interesting
      I advice you to subscribe to the asterisk users mailing list and read it for some time. It has a surprising mix of pros and newbies.

      Asterisk-Users mailing list

    8. Re:This is cool... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Doubt you'll be able to understand, say, QSIG, in time to connect your Asterisk to your Meridian (a dreadful, proprietary P.o.S., IMHO; no offence).

      It will be cheaper to buy some nice little SIP phones. You can get $1-$5 each for those nasty old Nortel 26xx's. Get rid of them now, before you have to pay somebody to haul them away.

      If you RTFA, you'll see some reference to companies who are making a business of installing Asterisk for businesses. If you follow some of the references, you'll find even more.

      It'll be waaaay cheaper than moving your Meridian (Merde-ian, I call 'em), even with paying an integrator and buying new telesets.

      And, BTW, your boss will be expecting 99.9999% uptime from his phone system. This is not the time or place for you to try your hand at the Asterisk equivalent of "Hello World"

    9. Re:This is cool... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative
      To connect to regular phones you need FXO ports, and to connect to outgoing phones you need FXS ports.

      No, to connect to regular phones ("stations") you use FXS ("foreign exchange station") ports. FXO ("foreign exchange office") ports are for connecting to the phone company CO ("central office").
    10. Re:This is cool... by sirsnork · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Whilst this is good advice, be prepared for a TON of email on that list... it's a VERY busy list

      --

      Normal people worry me!
    11. Re:This is cool... by geggo98 · · Score: 4, Informative
      It's easy to connet Asterisk to your Telco's line. Just use a standard ISDN-Card or a modem. To connect your internal devices is a little bit more tricky. You can find appropiate hardware on http://www.digium.com/ or http://www.junghanns.net/.
      Background: You can't connect two ISDN devices or two modems with some kind of cross cable witout some additional tricks. To drive analog phones, you need a modem card with FXS support, for ISDN telephones, the card must support the NT-mode. E.g. the Junghanns QuadBRI card support NT and can drive up to 4 ISDN lines. The Wildcard TDM400P supports FXS can drive four analog devices. Both run fine with Asterisk.

      Acronyms:
      FXS: Foreinge Exchange Subscriber
      NT: Network Trminator

    12. Re:This is cool... by signingis · · Score: 3, Funny

      You run Gentoo, don't you?

      --

      I prefer a void in conversation to a vacuous one.
    13. Re:This is cool... by LWATCDR · · Score: 3, Informative

      1. POTS lines will work. You will need an FX0 card per line. Not practical if you need a lot of lines. There are some multi Line FXO cards available. FX0=Hook up to telephone lines. There is a flavor of Intel Modem that will work as a single Line FXO card. They are pretty cheap and would be a good way to build a cheap test or home system.

      2. To hook up just plain old phones to Asterisk you need FXS cards. FXS= hook phones up to Asterisk.
      Or you can get VoIP phones and hook them up to a 100BaseT or 1000BaseT network. I will probably also want to use a power inserter so you can have power over ethernet or PoE. That way the phones will get their power over the network connection and will not have to have a wall wart.
      Or you can use a softphone. A softphone is a program that runs under Windows, Linux, BSD, PalmOS, WinCE, or the Mac that uses your computers soundcard as a telephone.
      Your best place to look is the VoIP Wiki http://www.voip-info.org/tiki-index.php.
      Another good site is the Asterisk@Home project http://asteriskathome.sourceforge.net/. It is a Linux/Asterisk distro. Pop it in and you get an Asterisk box. Warning! This is NOT a live CD. It will reformat your hard drive and install Linux and Asterisk on it.

      --
      See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
  7. 60 solutions for solving the same problem by Husgaard · · Score: 3, Insightful
    This is some heavy reinventing of the wheel.

    Most of these solutions are proprietary, and probably will die as 2-3 FOSS solutions gets generally accepted.

    But these 60 companies will probably prosper anyway, with supplying consultancy and support for what I think is the most successful FOSS project ever in it's application domain.

    1. Re:60 solutions for solving the same problem by bahwi · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Asterisk is too complex, I think it'd be more around 10-20 FOSS solutions that would be generally accepted, but the need for proprietary systems in this industry is huge(or good UI FOSS projects, which rarely if ever exist). The manager, who has no clue what the difference between a CPU and a monitor is, needs to be able to configure the phones. And it's gotta be from IE.

  8. Who needs a GUI? by zmanea · · Score: 2, Interesting

    If a GUI is so important wouldnt Cisco have one for their routers/switches? Setting up extensions in Asterisk is no harder than setting up an access list on a router. If you need a GUI then maybe you should not be doing it.

    1. Re:Who needs a GUI? by datafr0g · · Score: 2, Insightful

      A system administrator who's managing a network that contains a vast number of voice & data routing devices would probably prefer a GUI.
      Also the receptionist who is asked to add new users to the PBX would be lost in a world of shit if she didn't have a GUI.

      --
      "Who says nothing is impossible? Some people do it every day!" - Alfred E. Neuman
    2. Re:Who needs a GUI? by __aadhrk6380 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I see there are a few CLI purists in this thread, and I understand their point. Granted, a GUI adds bloat. It isn't as pure. And yes, major PBX systems like Meridian are all CLI.

      On the other hand, GUI's are a blessing for people that are smart enough to know what needs to happen but who might need a reminder or two to hit every config point. When I can see an option in a GUI panel versus having to juggle 60 or so config files in my mind I am a lot better off.

      My guess is that most FOSS folks here are on the data and not voice networking side. Conversely, I just got done overseeing a T1 circuit install for a customer move and had an opportunity to talk with the PBX guy. I mentioned Asterisk and got a blank look in return.

      If a GUI would help spur adoption of this technology by making it a tad easier to use for us data types, I am all for it.

    3. Re:Who needs a GUI? by houghi · · Score: 3, Informative

      And yes, major PBX systems like Meridian are all CLI.

      I used to work on a Aspect phonesystem that has the complete callflow in a GUI kind of way. Just drag and drop the different steps and you were done.

      Although not completely easy, it is a lot easier to do on more complicated callflows. A lot easier then working on a sort of basic where you needed much more knowledge on another system.

      Another advatages was that you could inform both management and people what happend in a phonecall by just doing a printout and follow the system. Also very easy to addept if waiting times are too long, when there are hollidays or to insert emergency messages.

      Perhaps not needed if all you need is a message when you are closed and an aswering service for those that are not in. It will become handy if you have several numbers recieving larger amounts of numbers from different sources fr different reasons with different priorities.

      Or even first start with one number and then want to insert extra possibilaties as your company grows, without having the need for a programmer.

      I am in Belgium so what we had was naturlay first language choice, then department choice, then depending on the department another extra choice, then connection to the different people if they were in, otherwise to others. All depending on the language skills of the people as well.

      e.g. see that if the person had a question about his bill that he would not be connected to the reception.

      A lot more choices and options were involved and we were working on even more.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
  9. Asterisk is many things, but not without hardware by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Asterisk is a FOSS PBX (private branch exchange) and Voice over IP gateway. The PBX part means that you have phones on your desks that don't connect to the real phone lines unless you want to dial out of the company. The VOIP gateway means that it can talk to SIP and H323 systems, as well as having its own protocol, IAX. Most of the useful features require extra hardware, called FXO and FXS cards. These cards allow it to talk to the phone company lines and to talk to the phones on the desk. Without the extra hardware, you just have a computer that can talk to software phones and take voice mail. You cannot just use regular modems. It is very flexible, and if you have two or three offices, it can save you long distance charges by routing those calls over the internet. This is just a basic idea of what it can do, it what Asterisk is used for. Check out "Asterisk at home" for a fairly simple installation that includes a good web interface.

  10. Will it take off? by datafr0g · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It wasn't long ago (still is in some parts) that PBX tech was primarily proprietory software running on expensive proprietory hardware.

    As most PBX manufacturers are moving towards converged networks, VoIP, etc - more and more focus is being placed on Software and standards making these systems cheaper and cheaper.

    Asterisk will have a lot of competition in the small biz market. I really love the technology, and think the project's fantastic, but if I were running a business and looking to purchase a PBX, I'd probably stear clear of Asterisk.
    Purely because the Telephone System is the communications hub of most businesses. It's the one thing you don't expect to go down - so reliability is critical. There's no vendor backup, etc - same with most Open Source software, and while that wouldn't be an issue with most other applications - PBX's are a different kettle of fish.

    I really hope it works out and at a minimum, hopefully it'll draw PBX costs down, but as the vendor based systems cost is currently very low and given that the margins for support, etc are also low in this field, I don't expect too much from the biz side of these things.

    HOWEVER, if someone can translate the tech into something that can really save a business money and they can garuntee uptime, then they'll do well.

    --
    "Who says nothing is impossible? Some people do it every day!" - Alfred E. Neuman
    1. Re:Will it take off? by The_Morgan · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I can't imagine that you have actually priced out a 'vendor' system. They are anything but low priced. After being quoted 20 grand for a 15-20 phone system and being told that support costs will be outragous, you would do exactly what my boss did.

      Keep the ancient system that was fried by lighting. God knows the PC tech will keep the system limping along 15 years past its due date.

    2. Re:Will it take off? by smallpaul · · Score: 3, Informative

      Purely because the Telephone System is the communications hub of most businesses. It's the one thing you don't expect to go down - so reliability is critical.

      Do you have some inside knowledge that indicates that Asterisk is unreliable? I hadn't heard that.

      There's no vendor backup, etc - same with most Open Source software, and while that wouldn't be an issue with most other applications - PBX's are a different kettle of fish.

      I don't know what you mean by "vendor backup". If you buy a Asterisk-based solution then it is backed by your solution provider. They have access to the source code in the same way that a proprietary software vendor has access to the source code. On the other hand, unlike the situation with a proprietary software vendor, there is competition between solution providers with equal access to the source code.

      It's the one thing you don't expect to go down - so reliability is critical.

      Google.com and Amazon.com are both based in large part on open source software. Would you say that reliability is not "critical" for their websites?

      I'm by no means an open source zealot (I write proprietary software) but I can't let illogic just pass by. There is some highly reliable open source software and some highly reliable proprietary software. And there is some crappy open source and proprietary software out there.

  11. Re:I challenge the technically challenged assertio by aXis100 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Try it without the @Home bit. The whole point of this article is that simplified graphical front ends are good, which is what you are seeing with Asterisk@Home.

  12. Rolled Asterix out this weekend by Colin+E.+McDonald · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Rolled out an Asterix PBX this weekend. Snom 360 IP POE phones connected to Fedora Core 3
    box (HP DC 7100) with two Digium FXO cards. VoIP from the desk sets to server then outbound PSTN
    (Public Switched Telephone Network). Used the Asterisk Management Portal front-end GUI so the
    local users could have complete control over the management of the system. All I can say is....sweet.

  13. Re:Using Asterisk on a call center by masonc · · Score: 2, Interesting

    You are on the right track. The Call Detail Records (CDR) are comprehensive and there are packages to analyse them. I am also using a Call Accounting package that does costing by groups of extensions.

    Call Monitoring, the recordsing of each call tot he ahrddrive is a native application and I am about to implement for a stock trading company I am working with.
    Asterisk is stable, powerful and free. If you are using IP phones and routing all calls through a VOIP provider, all you need is a linux server. I you need to connect to the PSTN lines, a 2 in 2 out card is only $500, and there are much larger interfaces for large scale analog phones and pstn lines.
    Contrary to opinion, learning to configure Asterisk is not hard, it just takes some time and a chance to experiment. I implemented it as our home office system first before offering it to clients. My family are fed up with the often broken system but you have to have that chance to play around if you are going to understand the dialplan options.
    Send me an email if you need any help (masonc ..at..masonc .. dot com)

    --
    CM www.cometenergysystems.com Blog: http://caribbeanrenewable.blogspot.com/
  14. The article fails to link to.... by Rob+from+RPI · · Score: 4, Informative
    the most important and popular Asterisk site. Specifically, voip-info - a wiki where you'll find documentation on everything you'd like to know about Asterisk and various ways of administering it.

    I'm doing the Documentation for AMP which is probably (IMO) the best admin tool, and it's what is used for 99% of the administration of Asterisk@Home. AMP is rapidly becoming more than just a basic interface to Asterisk tho - the current CVS handles LCR, ZAP Trunks (eg, physical connections to the PSTN via ISDN or normal 2-wire FXO/FXS), Call Groups, Inbound call queues with everything you'd expect ("Your call is 4th in the queue. Your expected wait time is 3 minutes"). The current CVS of Asterisk, when used with AMP, gives you attended transfers, call (audio) recording, and a whole pile of other stuff.

    Probably the best thing for someone new to VoIP is to get the latest version of Asterisk@Home (which is 0.9 at the time of this post) and an old machine, a couple of soft-phones (VoIP software that lets you make calls from your PC using your sound card) and a FWD number and start playing.

    Feel free to leave me voicemail on my FWD number - 47876 - if you have any questions or comments!

    --Rob
    --
    Schlock Mercenary.
  15. Corrected links... by Rob+from+RPI · · Score: 3, Informative
    The above article forgets to link to the most important and popular Asterisk site. Specifically, voip-info - a wiki where you'll find documentation on everything you'd like to know about Asterisk and various ways of administering it.

    I'm doing the Documentation for AMP which is probably (IMO) the best admin tool, and it's what is used for 99% of the administration of Asterisk@Home. AMP is rapidly becoming more than just a basic interface to Asterisk tho - the current CVS handles LCR, ZAP Trunks (eg, physical connections to the PSTN via ISDN or normal 2-wire FXO/FXS), Call Groups, Inbound call queues with everything you'd expect ("Your call is 4th in the queue. Your expected wait time is 3 minutes"). The current CVS of Asterisk, when used with AMP, gives you attended transfers, call (audio) recording, and a whole pile of other stuff.

    Probably the best thing for someone new to VoIP is to get the latest version of Asterisk@Home (which is 0.9 at the time of this post) and an old machine, a couple of soft-phones (VoIP software that lets you make calls from your PC using your sound card) and a FWD number and start playing.

    Feel free to leave me voicemail on my FWD number - 47876 - if you have any questions or comments!

    --Rob
    --
    Schlock Mercenary.
  16. Crap. Wrong link by Rob+from+RPI · · Score: 3, Informative

    That should be voip-info.org. I'm so used to mozilla just auto-completing, I type 'voip' and push enter in my address bar - I don't think about the top domain. (Annoyed Grunt).

    However, voip-info has been having significant performance issues, so I think that *not* linking to it was a good idea. It looks like it's been slashdotted just by having the VoIP meme high in the geek global awareness.

    --Rob

    --
    Schlock Mercenary.
  17. Asterisk in actual use by syslog · · Score: 3, Interesting
    We develop some highly sophisticated field services software (GPS tracking, jobs sent to phones, black boxes, GIS etc etc). One of our key modules is "Call Ahead". When a cable guy, for example, completes installation at customer A, our software automatically calls the next customer on his job list, informing them that the cable guy is on his way, and will be there in x minutes. We do this via Asterisk (obviously). We charge our client (the cable company in this example) a small fee per call. If not for asterisk, we would have had to use some proprietery solution from Avaya, Intertel Tech etc, along with service from a carrier like MCI or SBC etc. This would have cost BIG dollars. We could not have provided our clients with an economical solution. This is a perfect example of open source enabling a business that could not happen otherwise.

    Asterisk is a really extremely full featured high-end telco switch. The configurations is a little painful, but the quality is superb.

    naeem

    Agilis Systems

  18. Asterisk lets you be really creative. by ashitaka · · Score: 2, Informative

    Since the API is really open and can call your own little procedures in just about whatever script language you want makes for some really wild features being added to the Asterisk world that mystify traditional PBX people. Things like quick routing to voicemail or somewhere else based upon your AIM logged-in status.

    The possibilities are huge.

    I've just started cataloguing some of the more creative ones.

    --
    If you don't want to repeat the past, stop living in it.
  19. YACSA - Yet another cliche supporting article by mamladm · · Score: 2, Informative

    Unfortunately, this article lends yet more support to those who like to dismiss Asterisk based on the cliche that it can only be handled by hard core Linux geeks.

    Sure, if you want to use Asterisk to its full potential, then you have to learn a thing or two. But that isn't any different from any other tool, be it Apache, IIS, Oracle, PeopleSoft, Siebel, InDesign, Photoshop, Bryce, Final Cut, etc etc etc.

    The important thing however is that you can get started with Asterisk very easily and without any special skillset.

    The article doesn't mention anything about the fact that you can download an Asterisk installer for MacOS X along with a few configuration wizards and have a running PBX within a few minutes. It also doesn't mention that there is a similar Asterisk installer for Windows. At present, the Mac is the easiest platform to set up a basic PBX with Asterisk, but it shouldn't be too long before there will be configuration wizards for Asterisk on Windows, too.

    Asterisk for MacOS X: http://www.sunrise-tel.com/

    Asterisk for Windows: http://www.asteriskwin32.com/

    How can we expect decision makers in companies to consider Asterisk if it is always presented as a Linux toy which requires Linux gurus to set up and run. That's precisely the kind of perception the incumbent proprietary system vendors love to promote when they pinch their overpriced stuff.

    Let those people know that Asterisk is multi-platform and have them play with it on their platform of choice and there will soon be more mainstream deployments and more ease of use front ends.

    Other than for Linux, Asterisk is so far available for FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, DragonflyBSD and Irix (both through the NetBSD package manager), MacOSX/Darwin, Windows and Solaris. Zaptel drivers (to use telephony interface cards) are available or in the works for FreeBSD, NetBSD, MacOSX and Solaris. If that doesn't deserve mentioning in an article about an Asterisk cottage industry, then I don't know what does.

    --
    the macintosh asterisk mailing list http://www.astm
  20. Quality, Cheap SIP phone? Sure. by JohnBaleshiski · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Do you have a good speakerphone already for pots? Keep it and buy a Sipura 2000. It provides 2 lines and I bought one for $82 on eBay. At home, I have 2 normal cordless phones connected to it, and of course Asterisk running on a dedicated box. Good stuff.