Asterisk Newbie needs some guidance

Am a web developer working on a clients project. I’ve set up a membership community site and the client wants a web based skype like app which will enable registered members to talk to each other when there online. Is this possible and how would i do it? Am good at Linux and PHP/MySQL, I’ve read the Asterisk manual and I think it may do the job, all am looking for is someone to point me to the right direction on how i can create the app. Thanks

hi,

it depends on how you would want the subscribers to talk to each other.

at a first glance, you could assign a sip account to each member when they register the community web site. members could make on-net calls to each others through sip soft-phone such as xlite. your php could maintain sip accounts in mysql if you use asterisk 1.6.x realtime.

this approach requires your web site member to have basic knowledge of sip accounts setup softphones.

regards,

Assuming my clients have no knowledge of sip what other option do I have? I want a situation where members can see who’s online…similar to how you can view the members who are online in this forum…and click a button to talk to each other. The web dev part isnt a problem, my challenge is how to initiate a call from one member to another

if free on-net call is the only accepted way of member communication, you might need to find a ‘web-based sip’ or ‘sip plugin’ and let your php initialize the sip accounts on behalf of members.

i have also came across a community web site whose members talk to each other’s pstn. when a member requests to call another member, the sip server in behind dials to their pstn and bridge the calls. the call charges are included in their membership fee.