This will be a simple step by step tutorial to help beginners catch up with ASTERISK – an open source tool for voice communication. It is a software installation of PBX connecting even the PSTN and VOIP networks.
Originally developed for Linux, Asterisk now runs on a variety of operating systems including Solaris, Windows and MacOS.
Environment setup
Asterisk server is configured on a HP dx5150 AMD Athlon, 512 MB RAM, 40 GB machine running CentOS.
Softphones used in the tutorial: Zoiper is used for IAX2 communication and X-Lite for SIP. Both the softphones are configured on Windows XP.
Asterisk: Step by Step
1) Download the asterisk software from asterisk.org. We will be going with the base build and not use other softwares like AsteriskNow or PBXinaFlash for the moment.
2) Setup asterisk repo to ease future upgrades to asterisk
$ cd /etc
$ touch asterisk.repo
$ vi asterisk.repo
[asterisk-tested]
name=CentOS-$releasever – Asterisk – Tested
baseurl=http://packages.asterisk.org/centos/$releasever/tested/$basearch/
enabled=0
gpgcheck=0
#gpgkey=http://packages.asterisk.org/RPM-GPG-KEY-Digium
[asterisk-current]
name=CentOS-$releasever – Asterisk – Current
baseurl=http://packages.asterisk.org/centos/$releasever/current/$basearch/
enabled=1
gpgcheck=0
#gpgkey=http://packages.asterisk.org/RPM-GPG-KEY-Digium
3) Install asterisk on CentOS and start up asterisk
$ yum install asterisk16 asterisk16-configs asterisk16-voicemail libpri
[Source: Check asterisk.org]
To enable auto start of asterisk
$ chkconfig asterisk on
Start/stop/restart asterisk using the commands
$ service asterisk start
$ /etc/init.d/asterisk restart
$ service asterisk stop
To test asterisk service type
$ asterisk -r
4) Register with a VOIP Service provider
To search for the VOIP provider you can use
voip-info.org which has an extensive list of service proivders categorized by region based on different
market segmentation.
Once you have registered with a VOIP Service provider, they will give you
IAX2/SIP Account (your phone number) : NNNNNNNNNN
Account password : PPPPPPPP
IAX2/SIP Server name : myiax.voipprovider.org
So far, we have detailed the environment, setup asterisk on a CentOS server and have registered for an account with a VOIP provider. In the next tutorial, we will see how to configure asterisk settings and to setup an IAX extension for a softphone (soft client) running on windows XP.
Best resources on the internet
asterisk.org http://www.asterisk.org/node
voip-info.org http://www.voip-info.org
asteriskguru.com http://www.asteriskguru.com/
