Asterisk win 32?

HI guys,

I am a newbie so i need some help here
Can some one please tell me the differenc between asterisk version 1.4 and asterisk win32 ver 0.6 (which as i know is based on asteisk ver 1.2).

AND

Is the win32 version worth trying because i really don’t like developing under linux and was really glad to find an asterisk support for windows

Thanks and hope a professional guy replies here

Regards

please someone reply

thanks

please don’t cross-post … it’s considered rude.

differences ? read the CHANGES file in the source code to see the differences since 1.2.

as for the Win32 version worth trying … does the stunning silence to your question give you a hint ? there are other options for SIP servers under Windows … i think you’re better off looking for an app that’s Windows-native instead of a port.

sorry for cross posting i am a bit in a hurry

and thanks for the help :wink:

about finding an alternative to asterisk i don’t think so since i don’t know any open source vpbx as good as asterisk.

what i am willing to do is to build an IVR system that uses asterisk from the background in windows OS of course.

as i mentioned i am new to the pbx world i even have dozens of questions which still have no answers but waiting firs for the confirmation about the reliability of asteriskwin32…

as an example to my questions:
1-can i call festival TTS from asterisk?
2-is there an API in asterisk for voice recognition or simple voice commands?

sorry again for being rude but i have loads of work on my back

Regards

I will boldly predict that you will NEVER see asterisk deployed in Win32 environments.

The community obviously is focused squarely on Linux like solutions because that is what makes the most sense IMHO.

Hi,

Firstly if you are looking at using a win32 version are you sure you are up to the job that you are embarking on?

as to questions

1-can i call festival TTS from asterisk?
Yes but look at flite as well
2-is there an API in asterisk for voice recognition or simple voice commands?
Yes Lumenvox has one.

Ian

thanks guys

btw there is already an asterisk win 32 version which is made by willvoice;
i was just wondering if this release can be used for development or still needs alot of fixes.

as i said i was planning to develop an IVR system using c# that would generate an asterisk code ready to run in the background on the asterisk win32 version

about the TTS and ASR they r main phases in my project that’s why i was asking about them and i still don’t know if these 2 can be used in the win32 version or not!!

seems that i’ll have to try for myself :frowning:

and for furthere inquires i’ll be posting here

thanks again

Regards

P.S
any comments would be helpful

i think it’s safe to say that people here generally know that a Win32 distribution exists for Asterisk … but perhaps they have no interest in using such a system.

i’m not a Windows hater, far from it (except Vista … yuk !) … but realistically, you use the right tool for the job, and the right OS for Asterisk is Linux. it would take you less time to learn the basics required for Asterisk admin on Linux than get to grips with Asterisk on Win32.

telecoms is too important to a business … it’s not worth the messing around.

I find there is very little Linux knowledge needed to get an asterisk up and running, and if you are afraid of even a little Linux admin you can install either TrixBox or AsteriskNow that have Gui and you would rarely ever have to see a linux prompt. both of these are on self install CD’s that are even easier to install than Windows…

I started on on Asterisk@home and eventually started and built my current system from scratch on CentOS… there is so much info available on line about loading and installing Asterisk and Linux that its very easy to do. I run a mix of Windows and Linux machines in my network enviroment and each has its purpose but I must say for Asterisk linux on its own machine is the only way to go.

at one time I ran the cygwin version of asterisk, and also have run AstLinux in a Virtual Machine under server 2003 but neither offered the performance and stability I get from running it on a true Linux machine.

Like was mentioned before Asterisk Native OS is Linux and its best to run it on Linux.
-Christopher

doesn’t microsoft have some kind of ’ phone system ’ comming out soon for widows? that would be different , having a pbx blue screen.
:unamused:

Hi

Not realy, Cisco callmanager ran on NT as did the Mitel SX2000NT and 3200 but these did the media work in a daugter board running VXworks so didnt blue screen that often.

It really depends on your goal. Do you need telephony interface card on the server? If yes, there might be some legitimate need to run Windows native if you must. But then, stability of native drivers could be a problem. Otherwise there are plenty of alternatives to use Linux without pain. As others mentioned, there are out-of-the-box stuff. If you simply can’t live without Windows, check out ready made Astereisk appliances under VMWare.

You probably haven’t explored Asterisk Windows port much. (Gotta admit I haven’t touched it.) I doubt there is much difference if all you want to “develop” is an IVR. You still deal with config files mostly.

I seriously doubt if you will find C# very useful for an IVR after playing with any flavour of Asterisk for a few months. Yes you can use C# in AGI to implement a full IVR, but what’s the point of having a (robust) PBX platform if you do so? IVR is one of the strong hands Asterisk plays. Writing plain config files (not to mention AEL) is 100 times easier than debugging a full-blown AGI application, whatever language you use and however proficient you are in this language.

As others pointed out, the steepest learning curve involving developing IVR on Asterisk will be Asterisk specific concepts, syntax, variables, functions and applications, not Linux. If this is of any comfort, you can ask a kid off the street to configure a Samba server (most likely installed by the Linux OS) pointing to Asterisk directories so you can “develop” config files in a Windows editor (hopefully not Word :smile: ) and drop it to Asterisk. (Well, WinSCP could do the trick as well.)

Once you realize that writing the entire IVR in AGI is not worth it, you’ll also find little advantage in C# compared with any other C-family language you can develop in your favourite Windows based IDE (say Visual Studio). Turn on ANSI flags and your application can be readily deployed on Linux. For the amount of AGI that you may need to write, you won’t be missing any non-ANSI features.

If - just in case - you are comfortable with Eclipse … What’s the difference, at all? :laughing:

mustafataher, sorry that I didn’t see your topic earlier!!
You will be glad to hear that you are not alone at all, and that I can prove the other people that have replied here wrong.
We use the AsteriskWin32 version extensively in development, and even for some small setups in production!
It works very satisfactorily and stable.

So go ahead and use it, it’s a standard Asterisk 1.2.14 (except for some hardware support), so unless you need the latest features of the 1.4 release, you’ll be fine!

Apart from at work, I also use it for our phone system at home. As a developer, my pc is turned on 24/7, so it would be stupid to install and have a second machine running just for a PBX. Even with more than 20 applications running at all times and doing heavy compiling on the same machine, AsteriskWin32 still runs and processes calls without a glitch!
So it can be an ideal solution for many people who have a Windows machine running already, and I certainly prefer it over running Asterisk/Linux in a VM! (VMs take a lot more memory away from your pc for starters…)

Regarding the development of your IVR’s: for more complex things C# is definitely a perfect choice!!!
We do all our development around Asterisk with .NET, and with libraries as Asterisk.NET (gotdotnet.com/codegallery/co … 800f4f84c3) you can very easily run your code on a Windows server through means of FastAGI.

thank u very much teleweb :wink: i was waiting for ur reply from centuries

and about all other linux users i appreciate ur help and i don’t blame u since every developer knows how important linux is and how it alot of times beats windows in lots of stuff.

but now we are talking about the case of using asterisk win32 so don’t tell me people to simply use the linux version (even it is better and i don’t think it is alot better)

back to the point

i am now simply confused between two approaches whether to write my code in the config files (which by the way was the approach my team was taking and did a good start in) or to use the AGI and FastAGI which i don’t know alot about, i even downloaded the asterisk .net 2.0 but i need a documentation or tutorials in order to know how to use it in C#

THAT’S NUMBER ONE

NUMBER TWO

FOR TELEWEB:

what TTS should i use in my IVR system knowing that i wasn’t able to run Festival on windows and i only now have the choice of using SAPI 5.1 with the garbage sound of microsoft sam

and also how can i speech recognition enable my system is there a way buit in asterisk and doesn’t need a linux support (i read on voip-info.org that there is a generic speech recogniton API for asterisk)

btw all my demands are to be open source stuff

P.S
sorry for writing all this

Regarding your first question:
it all depends on your application…
For relatively simple IVRs without access to external databases or .NET business layers, you can do it in the Asterisk dialplan (extensions.conf) itself, but for more advanced stuff it’s better to do it over FastAGI.
It’s very simple to use the FastAGI part of the Asterisk.NET library, the included sample should help getting you started.
Here you can find a list of AGI commands + short descriptions:
gundy.org/asterisk/agi.html

Concerning the TTS, there are NO free or open source solutions that really work and sound well…
That is because TTS is extremely complex to develop, and it costs a huge amount of money to record all the diphones.
You mention Festival but honestly I think it sounds like sh*t :wink:
It is fine for a hobby solution or just for fun, but I would not deploy it in a commercial IVR system.
If you need TTS for that, you will have to pay.
There are some very good products on the market.
You can try RealSpeak from Nuance or Loquendo TTS to name 2 that really sound nice and have different voices and languages available.
You can find links to these and others here:
voip-info.org/wiki/view/Aste … peechtools

hi guys
i have a small question here
can I play a .wav file in asterisk, and how?

Yes, just use the Playback cmd in the dialplan or Stream File api over AGI.

thanks a lot teleweb ur replies are truly appreciated :smiley:
but yet i have another 2 questions
does the asterisk play of .wav files has no constraint on the sampling rate (what about 22khz?)
and
what if I want some speech recognition (ASR) (I read on voip-info.org that there is a generic speech API of asterisk can I use this and if how i would be very happy :smiley: ?)

still welcoming any replies with good opinions

thanks

regards

hello, isn’t there any one here who replies except teleweb :open_mouth: and even him is not replying for my last post :wink: any way
I was also wondering if the "dnz63 Asterisk_NET 1_0_0_14 for NET 2_0 " can run on windows xp or it must run on a windows server or NT ? and again please some one reply for my questions :cry:

thanks

Regards

you could PM the user, or maybe contact the Asterisk Win32 developer directly ?