How to Use Asterisk @ Home to build a VoIP Telephone Exchange System

With the decrease in the cost of using VoIP, family and individual users are receiving more and more requests for using Vonage (or other similar products). As VoIP Communication continues to grow in the area of home calls, in addition, open source code projects are becoming more and more powerful. Based on this background and environment, Asterisk is a new product that can replace traditional PBX and is suitable for small and medium-sized companies.
This idea is to use a Linux PC, add some hardware devices to connect to several traditional analog phones, connect the PC to the Internet through broadband, and run some software on it. Through the VoIP method and open source code, you have a low cost option in terms of handling incoming and outgoing call telephone switches. This requires only a small cost and a low cost, after you connect, you can hear beautiful music. Just like using the best commercial telephone switch, you can have the call transfer function and your personal voice mailbox (the cost is very low ).

TIPS: PBX (Private Branch eXchange) is an on-site number or analog phone eXchange station used by companies/organizations to connect dedicated and public telephone networks.

What is Asterisk?

Asterisk is an open-source PBX system for VoIP. It has two different versions: Core Asterisk software and user interface-friendly Asterisk @ Home (AAH ), the latter has a GUI-based WEB interface. Asterisk @ Home allows users to manage all VoIP active connections from a control panel, which is visible on every computer in the connected network, AAH is installed on a dedicated computer to act as a PBX in the network. Users can manage the system through a web browser, or even over the Internet.

Asterisk @ Home: Why is this name used? It is mainly used to simplify operations on the Asterisk product for Home users. Although this software has been relatively simplified in design, most of the major functions of Asterisk are still reserved. If the servers used are strong enough, the AAH can manage hundreds of lines, and dozens of connections can be processed on a machine around 2 GHz, AAH is a good choice for small businesses and domestic users who need cheap VoIP devices to handle multiple incoming calls.

Asterisk @ Home vs. Asterisk

I have been searching for the two keywords Asterisk and Asterisk @ Home for a long time. The real difference between the two is that I have no clear and clear answer, however, from the information I have collected and mastered, the functions of AAH are exactly the same as those of Asterisk. The biggest difference between them is that the control and configuration methods are different. AAH can be configured and controlled through a Web page, but all Asterisk operations can only be done through the command line and configuration file.

In fact, AAH only places a more friendly user interface between the standard Asterisk configuration file and the command line and the user, however, skilled advanced AAH users can still use their underlying interfaces to change their settings, but these settings may be overwritten on the web configuration page.

Asterisk is an open-source software VoIP PBX system initiated by Digium. Digium is a company that also produces hardware VoIP products. Asterisk @ Home is a third-party release version, including Asterisk,
AAH has two different application methods: one is to use it as a package in the installed Linux system, and the other is the CD image file (ISO format ), the image file contains a CentOS 3 Linux release.

Required to build the Asterisk @ Home PBX system

To establish and run the AAH VoIP PBX system, the following things are required:
A dedicated computer
One broadband connection
Telephones with VoIP Functions
VoIP service provider account

The most important thing is to determine the number of simultaneous calls that you want the system to support, so that you can determine the approximate bandwidth required for running the AAH computer and the Internet connection. AAH has a great advantage is in dealing with a few lines does not need a strong configuration of the computer, according to The VoIP-info.org site on how to calculate a Asterisk System Requirements, they claimed that it would be enough to process three lines with a Pentium 133 MHz and 16 MB memory, but it is better to use the current mainstream configuration for the sake of security.

On a Pentium Pro 200 MHz and MB memory machine, you can easily process five lines at once, which is still subject to my Internet connection bandwidth, another 700 MHz Athlon and 1 GB of memory machine can handle 8 lines immediately without any effort, which is limited by VoIP service providers. To learn more about how to calculate the requirements of AAH, Please carefully read the relevant pages on the VoIP-info.org website.

After reading the above content, it should be noted that the ability to support more simultaneous call connections may be more limited by the bandwidth of your Internet connection than the current processing capability of the processor, the ability to process simultaneous calls also depends on these factors such as audio encoding, phone type, and supported call features. Each VoIP call is in two directions (both upstream and downstream) the speed from 20 to 90 kbps can be used.

However, if your VoOP communication data is routed through a common Internet connection, it may be caused by unsatisfactory voice communication and complaints from Data Communication users, this is especially true for small upstream bandwidths that are "given" by most ISPs. Therefore, if there are 10 to 12 users in an office, it is wise to use another DSL line (preferably symmetric upstream and downstream bandwidth) for dedicated VoIP communication.

If the computer used to run AAH is ready and configured with broadband connections, the next step is the telephone.

Software telephones are a good choice (because many first-class software telephones are free of charge), but software telephones have to be turned on, we should also buy some decent headsets. This is not free. In fact, a SIP Phone is not very expensive. Wherever you want, you can buy a Cisco 101 from about $60 for Grandstream BudgetTone 300 to $7960. However, there are plenty of other options for you to choose from. Their prices are roughly between $100 and $150.

If you still have some traditional Analog phones and want to continue using them, you have to buy an ATA (Analog Telephone Adapter, Analog phone Adapter) for each phone, ATA is also called the FXS gateway, which converts analog interfaces of traditional telephones into VoIP connections with Ethernet interfaces. You can purchase a single-port FXS gateway/ATA, which is about $60 like Sipura SPA-1001.

Another option is to use the multi-port FXS gateway. In essence, it is to make many ATA in one box and share a separate network connection. However, the current price of such products remains high, which is relatively expensive, far less expensive than those of VoIP hardware products, for example, they can be priced from a Mediatrix four-port FXS gateway of $530 to an Audiocodes twenty-four-port Gateway product of $2300. Some FXS gateways can also be connected to PSTN lines (called FXO connections ), it can be used as a backup when the power is down or when the Internet connection is faulty.

The last one in the list is to select a VoIP service provider. Many famous VoIP service providers, such as Vonage and AT&T CallVantage, are willing to sell "commercial" VoIP services, however, this is not suitable for VoIP PBX systems that you own and run.

Two companies are working on VoIP DIY, namely Voicepulse and Broadvoice. Voicepulse company describe their VoicePulse Connect! The product is a "terminal service that supports SIP and IAX due to enterprise level requirements", Connect! The service is prepaid, and the cost is to call the U.S. phone number for $11 per month. Broadvoice's BYOD provides various rate schemes for you to choose from (from $9.95 to $29.95 per month), but you can use your own device, of course, Asterisk PBX.

Install AAH

Asterisk @ Home has been bound with CentOS, a Linux-based operating system. The Installation Process of AAH is actually very simple. After you set the computer to the optical drive to start, you just need to insert the CD into the optical drive and then start the machine. After the screen content shown in 1 appears, press the Enter key and wait for a while. After the installation is complete, the computer will pop up the CD and restart it. After the restart, all installation processes will automatically proceed.

The entire installation process lasts about 20 to 90 minutes, depending on the speed of your machine. In my experience, it took about an hour and a half to install it on a MHz computer, but it took about 30 minutes to install it on another GHz computer.

After the installation is complete, a logon screen appears in the command line status (figure 2). After successfully logging in, you can see the IP address of this AAH machine, this is also the address you visit on the web GUI. After all this is done, you can remove the display, keyboard, and mouse running the AAH machine, and then perform all the management work through the web GUI interface.

The web GUI is also considered as the Asterisk Management Portal (AMP), which allows you to read and edit databases, view reports, and change settings (Figure 3 ).

Configure AAH

The whole configuration process is very simple and clear. Each specific setting is reasonably classified under different labels, and the mouse arrow is moved to a tag, there will be a simple description box about this information, which is very useful for you to change a large number of settings, because sometimes you will be confused, the content to be changed cannot be completely determined.

For some of the most basic settings, the AAH User Manual (http://asteriskathome.sourceforge.net/handbook/) cited some of the necessary configuration methods, after reading the entire user manual, however, if you encounter some problems in the actual operation process, it may be a little bit of trouble, because there is no troubleshooting or troubleshooting content in this user manual. But there are some other AAH help content on the Internet: Wiki page at voip-info.org (http://www.voip-info.org/tiki-index.php? Page = Asterisk + at ++ Home), Forum (http://sourceforge.net/forum? Group_id = 123387) and IRC channel.

However, for fault diagnosis and troubleshooting, the Wiki content is not so comprehensive, and the response on the forum is not so timely. Therefore, the IRC channel may be the best choice. There are many senior users online in this channel, but because with Asterisk @ Home is targeted at Asterisk, it may be difficult to get some help here, because many administrators of this channel use Asterisk.

There are four main parts in the AMP: Maintenance, setup, report, and panel. We haven't started setting up yet, so we need to set the tag first. Its main function is to maintain management incoming and outgoing calls, including setting relay, digital operator, and voice mailbox, you can even process the music played after the bell rings (similar to the ring tones on your mobile phone ).

The first thing to do is to set up Relay (figure 4), which will tell AAH how to communicate with your chosen VoIP service provider. The online user manual (http://asteriskathome.sourceforge.net/handbook/Section_3.3) provides content about how to set up Free World Dialup (FWD) and Voicepulse, with other companies setting methods similar to those of the two instances. Some VoIP service providers also provide instructions on how to configure AAH on their websites.

There are four different relay types available: ZAP, IAX2, SIP and ENUM, plus a custom type, the VoIP service provider you select should have relevant information to guide you in which specific type you choose.

After you set up the relay, now AAH has established a connection with your VoIP service provider. Next, use the "Add an Extension" Page (figure 5) to set your phone number, you must specify a name, number, and password for each Extensions option, and specify a voicemail directory for it at will.

Configuration and features

After an Extensions has been created in the AMP, you still need to set it for each phone. There are several "software" and "hard" phone numbers in the AAH user manual, the IP address, Extensions number, and password of the AAH server must be entered into the phone. After these settings are complete, the phone cannot start to work. For internal extensions and calls via aah pbx, you must test the incoming and outgoing calls.
Maintaining tags allows you to check many system settings, change configuration files, edit databases, and view log files. However, this is also the most difficult tag, because there is no immediate introduction to related content on its page. After you click maintain tag, the system status is displayed (Figure 6). You can also check other system information and manually change the configuration.

On the system status page shown in figure 6, you can see that the "Reboot" and "Shutdown" buttons are arranged in the lower part, this function works very well when your AAH machine is far away from the control computer. The report tag (Figure 7) looks simple and has only four categories: Call records, comparison records, Monthly Traffic, and daily load. Some of these reports are incomplete, however, the system does not allow you to adjust the data width range.

The Compare call function only allows you to view the number of Calls for four consecutive days. The monthly traffic is only a call statistics, and the daily load is only one day; A convenient function in call reports is to allow you to export records into a PDF or CSV file.

The Panel tag (figure 8) is an operation panel created by Flash. It contains different extensions, queues, and interruptions and allows you to view who is using the system, you can also transfer the call, hang up the line, and create a teleconference through the panel.

Conclusion

Asterisk @ Home is very practical and widely used, and its cost is very low. It runs normally on some computers with very old configurations and is easy to configure. Its main disadvantage is that there is still some advanced application information in the user manual and Wiki, so if you want to use AAH, you may need to explore more in some aspects.

AAH provides a variety of practical functions to improve its commercial application capabilities. Like a standard PBX system, you can process a call queue waiting to be detached, or transfer them. System users can also access the voice mailbox through the web, and modify, manage, and listen to the information left by parameters. If you are not on the computer and are happy with it, AAH can even send you the information in the voicemail via e_mail. Of course, you can also access the voicemail system by phone. There is also a "Digital operator" that allows you to instruct users through pre-recorded information.

The simple configuration process of AAH makes it the most suitable for small or medium-sized companies. All they need is that it can work well without too much detailed settings. If you want more complex systems, the standard version of Asterisk may be more suitable for you through professional optimization design. Asterisk @ Home is the most suitable for families and small enterprises. They want to have all functions and flexible PBX systems, however, it is cheaper, easier to configure, and is a vendor-managed product.

With the decrease in the cost of using VoIP, family and individual users are receiving more and more requests for using Vonage (or other similar products). As VoIP Communication continues to grow in the area of home calls, in addition, open source code projects are becoming more and more powerful. Based on this background and environment, Asterisk is a new product that can replace traditional PBX and is suitable for small and medium-sized companies.

This idea is to use a Linux PC, add some hardware devices to connect to several traditional analog phones, connect the PC to the Internet through broadband, and run some software on it. Through the VoIP method and open source code, you have a low cost option in terms of handling incoming and outgoing call telephone switches. This requires only a small cost and a low cost, after you connect, you can hear beautiful music. Just like using the best commercial telephone switch, you can have the call transfer function and your personal voice mailbox (the cost is very low ).

TIPS: PBX (Private Branch eXchange) is an on-site number or analog phone eXchange station used by companies/organizations to connect dedicated and public telephone networks.

What is Asterisk?

Asterisk is an open-source PBX system for VoIP. It has two different versions: Core Asterisk software and user interface-friendly Asterisk @ Home (AAH ), the latter has a GUI-based WEB interface. Asterisk @ Home allows users to manage all VoIP active connections from a control panel, which is visible on every computer in the connected network, AAH is installed on a dedicated computer to act as a PBX in the network. Users can manage the system through a web browser, or even over the Internet.

Asterisk @ Home: Why is this name used? It is mainly used to simplify operations on the Asterisk product for Home users. Although this software has been relatively simplified in design, most of the major functions of Asterisk are still reserved. If the servers used are strong enough, the AAH can manage hundreds of lines, and dozens of connections can be processed on a machine around 2 GHz, AAH is a good choice for small businesses and domestic users who need cheap VoIP devices to handle multiple incoming calls.

Asterisk @ Home vs. Asterisk

I have been searching for the two keywords Asterisk and Asterisk @ Home for a long time. The real difference between the two is that I have no clear and clear answer, however, from the information I have collected and mastered, the functions of AAH are exactly the same as those of Asterisk. The biggest difference between them is that the control and configuration methods are different. AAH can be configured and controlled through a Web page, but all Asterisk operations can only be done through the command line and configuration file.

In fact, AAH only places a more friendly user interface between the standard Asterisk configuration file and the command line and the user, however, skilled advanced AAH users can still use their underlying interfaces to change their settings, but these settings may be overwritten on the web configuration page.

Asterisk is an open-source software VoIP PBX system initiated by Digium. Digium is a company that also produces hardware VoIP products. Asterisk @ Home is a third-party release version, including Asterisk,

AAH has two different application methods: one is to use it as a package in an installed Linux system, and the other is to use the CD image file (ISO format) in this image file.

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