[quote=“ElecMoHwk”]Looking to put together an Asterisk based “lab” to play around in, let others learn how to manage/config it, and also further my own knowledge of the system.
I am interested to know what you guys would suggest for a good model system to learn the basics, to mid level features at least, of the Asterisk software and it’s abilities.
Looking for 2 servers, and a smattering of things here and there to get enough of the system learnable, to be confident… yet not too much to overwhelm someone who may come into it, a blank slate to PBX/Telcom stuff.
Just looking for your suggestions, or “dream labs” in a parts list, or maybe even suggested setups. I also have the possibility of using 3 servers, in 3 different states to play with some VoIP features.
Ponder and reply at your convenience…[/quote]
Nice attitude, i like - learning by doing, thats the way man !
Well, i would go the “hard” way…no sorry, i WENT the hard way 
Means:
No help, get a plain Linux like debian.
Learn about kernels, compiling, modules etc etc etc.
Then get asterisk, setup a fresh debian (or what you like, but no SUSE plz: There are kernel side ISDN packages already…ouch mixmax) slam in a little HFC ISDN card (or FX…whatever) and play a bit with the baby.
You will face echoproblems and their optimaziation (sp?), trickey diaplan tasks and so on.
Sit in front of your running box and tell yourself:
“I want to be able to do: If a call comes in and the extension is busy, i want to be able to “pushtransfer” the call - which means:
I kick the call off from my phone to asterisk and asterisk takes care of the call by holding it and transfering it to the inital wanted extension as soon as the extension is free. But the extension should get the call signalled with its ORIGINATING number, not with mine…where the calltransfer comes from initially”.
And solve it !
Post it here, and we go through it (i did this function here and named it “push transfer”…which i LOVE 
).
Continue like this, give yourself constantly new tasks.
Remember, everything what makes lazy peoples life easier, is what they WILL ask you to realize sooner or later, so train it
Next week:
How to realize a “callback on busy” if your telco doesnt support this feature… ? 
is a sense of what hardware types are really being put to use with
this system, out in the production environments.
mainly: Fast and TIMINGSTEADY !
Rest is CPU and RAM power…like always
Have it’ already up and moving on a small little box here just to play with. Now what I want to do is get a low to mid level cross section of hardware to play with. Me and a few others would like to just put together a LAB setup of sorts for our own education. What we’re really hoping to get, is a sense of what hardware types are really being put to use with this system, out in the production environments.