Trying to follow wiki and becoming more and more stuck

Asterisk Asterisk Embedded
#1

I have Asterisk installed on DD-WRT. I installed through entware, using (I think) opkg install askerisk

As I am trying to follow the wiki, I am finding things not right, or installed or whatever. The wiki seems way out of date, and when it refers to modules, it doesn’t say how to find or install them.

I am a newbie to Asterisk, and I have limited knowledge of linux.

Right now, I have set up 2 extensions. I don’t know if voice is travelling through yet.

I have seen the SayNumbers and SayPhonetic (etc) and that didn’t work, as I don’t know if I have it configured. I just had a not found.

I tried to connect through my cellphone while out and about, but had no connection.

All of these things are becoming a bit frustrating.

Right now, I am on the chapter about configuring voicemail boxes, but I am guessing that if I can’t make SayNumbers work, then I can’t get voicemail working, especially as it appears my install does not even have a voicemail.conf file.

Have I missed something during the install, that is limiting me?

Is there a reasonably up to date guide for newbies, that will take from zero knowledge to having a working system (including internal extensions, external lines, interactive menus, voicemail, SMS (would be useful)) suitable for an office environment? Are there any templated configurations anywhere that people have set up?

Is there any kind of front end somewhere that would make it easier than editting the conf files?

I don’t want to give this up (just yet).

#2

Let’s unpack this for a moment. You are looking for a office PBX with various features, while Asterisk can provide most of that it can’t provide all of it. The main thing you have to keep in mind is that Asterisk is a toolkit. There are no default configs or setups. It can be used for a variety of services/solutions and being a PBX engine is one of its prime uses.

As for the wiki, it has general sections and every version of Asterisk going back to 1.8 is documented on there. Since different versions will have different features either because older versions had something that is no longer in use or a new version has a new feature added. You were looking in those sections for how things work?

Asterisk has no concept of internal vs external, that is logic you need to put into place. There are basic samples showing how to create an IVR and what can be used to do so. There are a few ways to do it, depends on your needs and how you want to handle things.

As for templates of what people have setup, that is on them to publish it some place. There really isn’t a list of links to individual setup configs that people have done. That is going to require using a search engine and searching for examples.

There are also numerous PBX projects using Asterisk for the engine and they offer GUI interfacing. FreePBX is one of those projects.

But let’s not beat around the bush though. You want this for an office solution but are throwing it on DD-WRT which is just the wrong thing to do. Additionally, DD-WRT uses a package they made themselves of Asterisk so this project has no idea what they’ve done to Asterisk before packaging it.

1 Like
#3

Thanks for replying.

At the moment, it would be for a small office. My company is a startup and at the moment, it is just me, but at some point, I will be hiring others. I am using the router as at the moment, it is the only device I have that can support Asterisk. I am coming to Asterisk, as my current voip provider does not yet support IPv6, and when I use the softphone on my cellphone, when out of my office, it does not work because of IPv6.

I understand that the Wiki will be for all versions. Unfortunately, it does not guide you to a version that you are using. What would be useful is if it was documented that this page supports vx.x.x, then that will allow me to filter out a lot of the frustration.

I tried to follow the wiki before asking here. I prefer to educate myself, than ask questions that have probably been asked a million times before. I thought this was the right thing to do, but it seems my idea was probably not such a good one. :frowning:

“it depends on my needs”, well, yes, how I set it up does depend on what I need from it, but if I am unable to follow the basics as guided in the wiki, then I am already at a loss, and getting more lost as time goes on.

The template idea, was just perhaps if something was already in place… such as…

simple small office (10 extensions) with voicemail
simple small office (10 extensions) with IVR and voicemail

  • video conferencing
    large office (100 extensions) with IVR, Video, Voicemail, Paging, CRM Connectivity (etc. etc. etc.)

(each templated listed with versions it will work with)

and then people can attempt to get a head start.

Should I just ask here for every tiny piece of information I need, that I don’t know?

First thing then…
Is this asterisk or the router? I have my softphone set up to look at my external IP address. (A DNS entry points to my router). While on local WiFi, the softphone connects. When on cellular, the softphone cannot connect.
If it’s my router, even though Asterisk is installed on the router, do I need to forward some ports? If so, then what?
If it’s asterisk, then what do I need to change on Asterisk?

#4

sounds like freepbx

“from zero knowledge to having a working system (including internal extensions, external lines, interactive menus, voicemail, SMS (would be useful)) suitable for an office environment”

#5

That is complete BS. The menu tree literally has Asterisk 16 Documentation, Asterisk 18 Documentation. The site doesn’t know your version so you need to go to the version you are using. In the search bar if you look for something like HANGUPCAUSE it will auto supply answers such as Asterisk 19 HANGPUPCAUSE, Asterisk 18 HANGUPCAUSE for you to select.

Mobile+quick search functions are not going to get you the in-depth results you want until your search is way defined.

#6

I have only just seen that, but it is not a guide really. It is “New in…”, “Upgrading…” and “Command reference”.

I was trying to follow the wiki more like a book, from start to finish.

#7

So I take you went to Deployment → Basic PBX Functionality and read that entire section including the Auto-Attendant and IVR Menus section? That has an example IVR using Playback() and Wait() functions.

Again, Asterisk is a toolkit that is used to make a PBX. Not a PBX waiting to be configured if you just put in the right settings. Since there is no default configuration or setup the best the wiki can offer is examples on certain concepts.

The right solution for you is FreePBX but that means you need a server or to go to someplace like Vultr and setup a VM instance.

#8

Yes, I did. In an earlier section to the IVR, it says about SayNumber (and others), so I put in my extensions.conf

exten => 6593,1,SayNumber(123)

and when I dial 6593, I get “No response” on my softphone, and in the console, I get…

[Mar 18 17:58:22] WARNING[30715][C-00000009]: pbx_builtins.c:1367 pbx_builtin_saynumber: We were unable to say the number 123, is it too large?

As to being a toolkit, no problem… I want to learn it. I am a programmer by trade (Windows, Web, Apps) and I have to learn, and also use toolkits. However, I tried starting by reading the wiki, and got stuck, hence why I came here.

I will look at FreePBX, but I wanted to learn Asterisk, as it appears to be mostly the platform of choice.

#9

Actually, there is more to the say number thing… here is the console…

[Mar 18 17:58:22] WARNING[30715][C-00000009]: file.c:789 ast_openstream_full: File digits/1 does not exist in any format[Mar 18 17:58:22] WARNING[30715][C-00000009]: file.c:1262 ast_streamfile: Unable to open digits/1 (format (ulaw)): Success
[Mar 18 17:58:22] WARNING[30715][C-00000009]: file.c:789 ast_openstream_full: File digits/hundred does not exist in any format
[Mar 18 17:58:22] WARNING[30715][C-00000009]: file.c:1262 ast_streamfile: Unable to open digits/hundred (format (ulaw)): Success
[Mar 18 17:58:22] WARNING[30715][C-00000009]: file.c:789 ast_openstream_full: File digits/20 does not exist in any format
[Mar 18 17:58:22] WARNING[30715][C-00000009]: file.c:1262 ast_streamfile: Unable to open digits/20 (format (ulaw)): Success
[Mar 18 17:58:22] WARNING[30715][C-00000009]: file.c:789 ast_openstream_full: File digits/3 does not exist in any format[Mar 18 17:58:22] WARNING[30715][C-00000009]: file.c:1262 ast_streamfile: Unable to open digits/3 (format (ulaw)): Success
[Mar 18 17:58:22] WARNING[30715][C-00000009]: pbx_builtins.c:1367 pbx_builtin_saynumber: We were unable to say the number 123, is it too large?
#10

I think part of the problem is that Asterisk has been installed using a packaging/outside system. That means you’re beholden to however they’ve decided to do it. Where things are, what is installed, etc.

This could be why you’re missing sounds. In the Asterisk build process we download sounds and install them (and you can choose to download/install various codecs to reduce transcoding). How that occurs for your install, I don’t know.

#11

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