Hello.
This is my first post.
I’ve looked into asterisk in the past but, only skimmed through some documentation. I am unable to find out ( or maybe I’ve missed it ) the component to implement a simple to medium ( 10 to 25 ) server. I know I need a server with plenty of memory and a lot of speed. Where I’m confused is what type of pci card to use with Linux, preferably Debian Etch, and how to start testing. What type of phones I need among other things.
Please be patient with me since this is my first dive into VoIP. I’m really new to this technology. Please guide me to where I can read more newbie stuff to get off the ground with asterisk.
Also I need to know if there are any licenses to buy to use asterisk or any other fees associated with the use and implementation.
Thanks in advanced for all your help.
You are going to have a hard time finding someone to help until you are willing to help yourself. This includes using Google and Amazon. I can tell you for a fact that all of your questions are answered in FULL detail just using Google. If you want to start with a step-by-step guide then I would strongly suggest you buy the book:
oreilly.com/catalog/9780596510480/
This book will walk you through the beginnings of Asterisk, licensing, downloading / installing Asterisk, hardware suggestions, configuring your first phone, the dialplan and some more advanced features. This should answer all of your questions.
Feel free to post any additional questions after you’ve finished reading the book. We’ll be happy to help!
You may not even need a PCI card.
If you don’t necessarily have to be tied into the traditional phone system it is a lot easier and cheaper to connect directly to a SIP provider. This will allow you to call and receive calls entirely over the internet so you would not need any special phone hardware. www.voipvoip.com is one i tried while testing one of our systems. Seemed to be fine, but there are plenty of others.
If you do need to be tied to the traditional phone system(because perhaps you have a contract with Sprint or Qwest that gives you cheap rates, or maybe you just dont want the trouble of transfering your existing numbers over to a voip provider) then you can purchase a card from www.digium.com. Digium is the sponsor for Asterisk so i am guessing that they have decent hardware and support. You either need to get a T1 card if you plan on purchasing a T1 for your incoming/outgoing lines, or you can get an analog phone card that you can plug plain residential style phone lines into. These cards are about $1000, but you may be able to find them cheaper if you looked.
As far as getting started with Asterisk i would highly recommend Asterikast video tutorials at www.asterikast.com. Episode 4 and 5 are really all you need to get started.
Good luck. Oh yeah that o’rielly book that the other fellow mentioned is great. And im 99.9% sure its a free pdf download. If you are at work print that bastard out. Its huge but is great to have around.
Here is the free download to that O’Rielly book. asteriskdocs.org/
Thank you for replying.
I’m currently reading the O’Reilly book and so far I’ve found it very helpful.
I don’t need to be tied to a telephone line, I would prefer to make calls over the internet since this way seems to be the cheapest. I will do more reasearch on it but, if anybody has a link or any other helpful info please send it this way.
Thanks again.