Voice Over IP + Reinvented = ?

Since moving in to the new palace of digital pleasure a week ago, I have been without a telephone. As chronicled earlier, I’m moving the old phone number over here, and switching service to Eastlink at the same time. Everything is scheduled to fly on Tuesday next.

There are, however, no phone jacks down here in the Green Room. But there are plenty of Ethernet jacks. Which has prompted me to invest in a Sipura SPA-2000 device from Pulver Innovations.

Having earlier acquired a Digium Wildcard X100P, which is sitting upstairs in this webserver waiting to be called into action, my plan is to plug the Sipura into the Ethernet jack here in my office, the X100P into the Eastlink phone line, and then to use Asterisk to manage my calls.

In theory, I should be able to take the Sipura with me to Yankee, plug it into Ethernet there, and have my office phone ring through.

Watch this space (or Labs, depending on degree of difficulty) for details.

Comments

Jevon's picture
Jevon on December 19, 2003 - 17:53 Permalink

Wow, that just makes a lot of sense.

Dave Hyndman's picture
Dave Hyndman on December 19, 2003 - 19:20 Permalink

Great set-up. Keep us posted on real-life experience.

Cody Swanson's picture
Cody Swanson on December 21, 2003 - 20:57 Permalink

Having just completed a VOIP rollout at work using Avaya’s IP Office system I can say the biggest leap I had was providing a secure way for our remote employees (myself included) to access the switch and providing priority to VOIP packets so remote users don’t sound like Max Headroom.

Although it was a pain in the rear to complete it’s nice being able to call the office without worrying about long distance. Now I just need to convince Avaya to release a linux version of the software. :-)

Ken's picture
Ken on June 4, 2004 - 23:21 Permalink

Can you tell me where you got your x100 card? Too bad a modem won’t work as a line card, that could trigger a massive shift into astarisk.

I’m about to put Shrike on a 800Mhz Celeron which will be my asterisk server.

Does asterisk have GUI’s or can I just install Linux server?

Peter Rukavina's picture
Peter Rukavina on June 5, 2004 - 02:26 Permalink

I bought my X100P directly from Digium (www.digium.com). Apparently there is someone offering cheaper Digium “clone” cards, but I’m not sure where, when, or how.

All you need the X100P for is to interface with a POTS telephone line; if you just want to do 100% VOIP, then you don’t need any additional hardware to use Asterisk.

There is a limited GUI for Asterisk, called Gastman, but it’s more of a call control system than an Asterisk configuration utility; to install Asterisk itself you’ll need to follow the instructions on www.asterisk.org, grab the latest sources via CVS, compile and install.

Ken's picture
Ken on June 5, 2004 - 14:52 Permalink

Asterisk sounds promising, I can’t wait to install it. I’m doing some new work with Nortel testing equipment installations for the CS2000 Gateway which is a protocol converter that does SS7 signals on the circuit switched side and SIP-T, H.248, MGCP out to the IP world.

I have a very strong telecom view and need to learn asterisk in order to understand the IP view in more detail.

Tarballs, GNU, Kernels need to be as clear to me as All Ones, loopbacks, and loopstart!

Ken's picture
Ken on June 5, 2004 - 17:00 Permalink

This is my first Reinvented entry from RedHat!

Now to install asterisk, hmmm this is going to be interesting.
Let me see if I can get that asterisk directory from my win2k box over the LAN…then unzip it and hope it prompts me through like a highway flagman through construction back onto pavement!

RedHat, what refreshing fonts you have!
It’s like a new skin.

Ken's picture
Ken on June 5, 2004 - 17:47 Permalink

Asterisk has successfully been installed.

It was easy to get the asterisk-0.9.0.tar.gz from my win2k box, just clicked network servers, chose it, pwd, there it is my old windows hard drive in RedHat via LAN.

Ran make not as root, then remembered and noticed lots of
/did not do
/whatever, nothing done
/not done
/etcetera

Logged in as Root, lot less /
didn’t-do’s and more /blabla0:12223 write good ok

Now what! Tweak tweak. Should I load the make samnples or dive right in and edit the .conf’s?

I am running Asterisk man!

Ken's picture
Ken on June 5, 2004 - 18:10 Permalink

Configuration to do I guess, when I actually typed:
./asterisk -vvvc
it said this and did not give me the CLI> prompt.

More confriguration to do!

Ken's picture
Ken on June 15, 2004 - 23:56 Permalink

The Tyne Valley convenience store is installing an auto-dialer that will remind late-movie renters to return their DVD’s.

The owner asks me how to install the dialler card into his PC, which I assume he did by now! He’s not running Asterisk, but give him time….

Ken's picture
Ken on June 22, 2004 - 00:34 Permalink

Ordered a wildcard TDM400, an FXO module, and 2 FXS modules from <font color=”orange”>Digium<font color=”black”>today.

I see AT&T offers a local phone number from any US area code, CallVantage VoIP like a Foreign Exchange service.

Do you know a good, cheap long distance VoIP gateway?
What VoIP services can Asterisk tap into?

Peter Rukavina's picture
Peter Rukavina on June 24, 2004 - 03:35 Permalink

I’ve been using VoicePulse Connect. Works native with Asterisk’s own IAX protocol.

Ken's picture
Ken on June 25, 2004 - 00:46 Permalink

This Asterisk project has been enjoyable, I’ve done datafill on Nortels’s DMS exchanges for local and cellular and Asterisk does in a microcosm the same awesome dial tone services and trunking.

Thanks Peter Rukavina for tipping me off on Asterisk!

Tesla FingerLake Wunderkind!

Ken's picture
Ken on July 2, 2004 - 23:09 Permalink

Question: I want to put my Asterisk server in a utility room, and telnet to it; however telnet server doesn’t respond — do I need to start telnet service or install a new RPM to provide that.

What is the best way to remote access my Linux RedHat9 from my other Win2K PC?

In advance, thanks for your valuable time.

Peter Rukavina's picture
Peter Rukavina on July 3, 2004 - 00:37 Permalink

Ken, if your server is on the Internet, either directly or indirectly, you shouldn’t use telnet, as it lets password information (and anything else over the link) pass in clear text. Use SSH instead, which should have been installed by default under RedHat 9. You’ll need an SSH client on your WinTel box to do this: I recommend PuTTY, although there are many others.

Similarly, you can use SCP or SFTP to transfer files to/from the server; I suggest WinSCP for this.

Ken's picture
Ken on July 3, 2004 - 01:41 Permalink

Your response was the fix! Now if Digium’s cards arrive…
I owe you a bucket of clams, do you eat shellfish?

Ken's picture
Ken on July 15, 2004 - 13:37 Permalink

I’ve just arrived in Atlanta do do some work testing and maintaining Nortel’s VoIP based on Passport switch.
In the next year there will be a lot of new rollouts offering more service for Asterisk and the like. From what I see it is the next big thing in telecom, which is no secret but nonetheless very exciting as it liberates the phone system even more from Ma Bell.

Used to be internet was dialed up on the telecom network, now the telecom network is going to exist on the internet.

Ken's picture
Ken on October 4, 2004 - 23:53 Permalink

Outstanding Rob, thanks for that link.

There should be a X-prize for the first person who can create their own nationwide phone company for under $1000

Ken's picture
Ken on December 28, 2004 - 20:48 Permalink

Normally I would look for this answer myself, but can you tell me how to make asterisk load when my Linux system boots?

I’m sure it is a certain text file to add it to, like autoexec.bat, just don’t know exactly.

Peter Rukavina's picture
Peter Rukavina on December 28, 2004 - 20:59 Permalink

Simply add the command to start up Asterisk in your /etc/rc.d/rc.local (assuming you’re using RedHat).

Ken's picture
Ken on December 28, 2004 - 21:05 Permalink

Me & Santa are Red Hat users.
Also, I have Black Rubber Boots.

Randy's picture
Randy on December 29, 2004 - 18:58 Permalink

I just recently (week ago) ordered a couple of the X100P clones from a guy on ebay. His S&H charges are outrageous, packaging questionable (bubble padded envelope), but if you consider the price as a whole its verry resonable ($13.98 per card). The cards arrived safely and fully functional.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISA…

I have two of them working quite nicely in an asterisk box as 2 FXO ports. (Note this will not given you any FXS ports)

Danny Lane's picture
Danny Lane on September 18, 2010 - 23:55 Permalink

Starting an Asterisk project any advice on hardware cards I should be getting before getting started?

Peter Rukavina's picture
Peter Rukavina on September 19, 2010 - 15:10 Permalink

I use a very, very old Digium single-port board to route my POTS line to&#160Asterisk. The only complaint I’ve ever had with it is that I’ve never been able to make it interpret and forward the “call display” information to Asterisk; otherwise, it’s performed well for more than 5 years.