I need to make some business decisions very soon but I am lacking the information to make the decisions. I also do not have the technical skill to assess the situation.
My question is this: Is it possible for Asterisk to spoof Caller ID names? I have seen several services that spoof numbers, and some seem to be relying on Asterisk to do so. I am not concerned with spoofing numbers, but only with names. Having the same number would be fine. I managed to find one service that spoofs names, but I tried it on several phones and it did not work. Unfortunately, it was the only service that I saw that offered this name spoofing feature.
I am mainly interested in knowing if spoofing names is possible. The technical aspects I will delve into, or hire someone to delve into, at a later date. If spoofing names is not possible in Asterisk specifically, I would appreciate any alternative suggestions.
Thanks for any and all help in this matter.
Hi
This is possible , BUT the problem will lie with teh service provider and their connection to the PSTN and if the spoofed “names” are passed.
Where are you based?
Ian
I am in the US, New England area.
Can you explain a bit more about the PSTN (not sure what that is) and why it would depend on the provider?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pstn
Asterisk supports spoofing CallerID Number and CallerID Name. The key is your provider providing your phone lines needs to support Asterisk sending those details.
For example, to do this with Level3 you may send them a SIP Header of P-Asserted-Identity.
Thank you both for your replies. Very helpful!
By level3, are you referring to level3.com? Could you name any other providers that would allow this?
And Asterisk would allow me to send the SIP Header with the P-Asserted Identity, correct?
The PSTN is the public switched telephone network. It’s what we once used to call The Bell System. It is the USA’s national telephone network.
In the PSTN, the calling number is passed from the originating central office to the terminating central office. The terminating office looks up the calling number in a database, retrieves the associated name, and sends that name to the called party’s Caller*ID display. On calls destined for a phone served by the PSTN, Asterisk can send an arbitrary calling number, but the name associated with the chosen number is what will be displayed with it, in the PSTN. Also, the SIP termination provider (the carrier who accepts the VoIP call from Asterisk and gateways it to the PSTN) may impose restrictions on the calling number that may be passed.
In the wonderful world of VoIP, the calling number and name may be passed from the originating switch to the terminating switch in the SIP message that originates an Internet voice call. In this case, it may be possible to send an arbitrary name unrelated to the calling number.
Thanks everyone.
Dave, can you explain this a bit more?
[quote]In the wonderful world of VoIP, the calling number and name may be passed from the originating switch to the terminating switch in the SIP message that originates an Internet voice call. In this case, it may be possible to send an arbitrary name unrelated to the calling number.
Is it or is it not possible to change one’s name with VoIP? You state that it may be, and that gives me hope, but unfortunately I really need a more concrete answer. Are you referring to the possibility of existing, easy to access (and legal) tech that can change caller ID names over VoIP or are you making a conjecture? Can asterisk do this with the right VoIP provider? And if so, which providers might you recommend?
Thanks again.[/quote]
You can change the caller name that you send downstream, if the technology you are using allows you to specify a caller name at all.
If calling a PSTN number, the technology will not accept a caller name.
If you are calling a VoIP number, but not as a direct IP connection to that number, the intervening service provider might choose to restrict what you can do, to prevent misrepresentation.
Pure VoIP networks work like email, which, in principle, always passes the caller name, although some email clients are rather lax about providing it, and even more lax about providing the callee name. Most users of Asterisk do not operate pure VoIP networks.