Free Online Asterisk Training Classes

Difference between Asterisk trixbox Elastix AsteriskNow PBX in Flash freepbx

As a Asterisk professional I came across several people asking for the difference between asterisk, trixbox, Elastix, AsteriskNow, PBX in Flash or even FreePBX.

So the answer is there is no difference at all. Each one of these above mentioned software are running the Asterisk as core telephony engine and front end as FreePBX  moreover trixbox and Elastix has modified the look and feel of free open source available freePBX. (http://www.freepbx.org) and has created their own version of front end tool. 

now the question which one is best to use, so the best and trouble free is plain asterisk that you download from asterisk.org and compiled it  as its exactly contains what you need and you don't get unnecessary software packages and binaries like in case of trixbox ce and elastix where you get many un-used packages that you don't even requires in some cases for example MySQL, Apache, extra Sound files and there are many more. 

Moreover my experience with trixbox is, its mainly run several AGI (Asterisk Gateway Interface) scripts that are developed in PERL language and if overloaded it crashes frequently and on main dashboard it also show you wrong indicator of CPU usage and you keep on restarting your server (in case if you are newbie) where actually there is no such issue with CPU load.

To have a survival skills to run asterisk base system you need to be average computer programmer because when you design your dialplan (heart of asterisk). It has its own scripting like language and have computer programming like language constructs (variables, expressions, if -if then else statement, sub-routine) etc.

other then this you also need to be good Linux administrator that can perform basic task as well.

Asterisk is daemon service that run on Linux so to run the service you need to be able to perform operating system maintenance task. 

If you are working for a call center/customer contact center, you must have also RDBMS skills as well to maintain the CDR (Call Detail Report). 

Regards!

Numan Khan

Expert-Voice    

  

Install g729 codec free

Hello,

The g729 codecs are the most popular codes for VoIP particularly when using a VoIP trunk for a distance calling and you don't have enough bandwidth to make a crystal clear and high definition audio call. 

I will be showing you for the simple way to install the g729 code as free for you Asterisk box but before we proceed please take a note for the following. 

The free g729 codes are only supported in Asterisk for the multiple channels as 'Pass through mode' .

What does it mean ? 

The 'Pass through mode' means that your call originating device & call termination devices must have support for g729. Otherwise it will show you Error codecs translation and you can't play IVR using g729 sound files format and also can not do the call recordings with g729 as recorded file format. If you want to have calling recording or IVR then you must purchase the license for g729 and its per port means per channel more information can be found on Digium website as follow. 

http://www.digium.com/en/products/g729codec.php

Since we don't need call recording or IVR to be played using g729 codecs format. and we require only to use this for making calls and less consume our bandwidth. 

Following are the steps 

1. Find the processors type of your machine by using the command

 uname -a

and 
cat /proc/cpuinfo

in my case its i386 and CPU is Pentium 4 and then further find your Asterisk version by using Asterisk  -V

and again my version of  asterisk is  1.6.0.26 its fonality compiled means its Trixbox 2.8.

now we have Processor type as i386 and family of Pentium 4 with Asterisk 1.6.0.26 with these information we are going to download the g729 codes for our asterisk box. 

go to the link http://asterisk.hosting.lv/

as you can see in the above screen I have selected asterisk 1.6.0 branch and if you further scroll down you will find the following. 

codec_g729-ast16-icc-glibc-pentium4.so

This is what we need right click on it and select the 'copy link address' (Firefox & Chrome) users 

and now go to your CLI terminal and navigate to the following directory. 

using cd command. 

cd /usr/lib/asterisk/modules

and type

wget http://asterisk.hosting.lv/bin160/codec_g729-ast16-icc-glibc-pentium4.so

and hit enter it will start downloading the codecs. 

after it successfully download issue the command

ls -ltr | grep g729

you will see the files with .so as extension 

check if you have any old version of g729 codes just delete it by using

rm -rf codecs_g729.so 

Please be care full here there is file name 'format_g729.so' (DON'T DELETE THIS ONE)

and now just renamed the downloaded codes as follow

mv codec_g729-ast16-icc-glibc-pentium4.so codec_g729.so

and check again 

ls -ltr | grep g729

you will have 

-rwxrwxrwx 1 root      root      397024 Sep 17  2008 codec_g729.so

-rwxr-xr-x    1 root      root        7124 Jun  8  2010 format_g729.so

its better to allow permission rights on this codec so I am giving full right permission 

chmod 777 codec_g729.so

and its time to restart the asterisk

/etc/init.d/asterisk restart

Note: If asterisk keep restarting with some strange behavior. Its better to reboot this machine and after rebooting connect to Asterisk CLI using 

Asterisk -r and type core show translation

you will see the g729 codes along with others code as I highlighted in red. If this column and rows shows numeric values means you have install it successfully otherwise repeat all the steps and try again. 

Next use allow g729 codes in your sip.conf and enjoy free this great quality codes for free. Make some calls and you will notice the difference the calls are more clear and audio able then before if you are using g729 for the first time. 

Thanks for reading

Numan Khan

Expert Voice 

http://www.expert-voice.com 

Connect Asterisk with Nokia E63

Hello,
I have been figuring out to connect my cell phone Nokia E63 to my asterisk box  over a wifi network and finally I got it actually its not as hard just follow the steps below
If you have Nokia E63

go to the Tool>>Setting>>Connection>>Sip Settings

Chose New SIP Profile.
Profile Name =  name it anything as you wish
Service Profile = IETF
Default Access point = choose your wifi connection
Public User name = asterisk sip extension, in my case it is 200
Use Compression = No
Registration = Always on
Use Security = No
Proxy Server:
Proxy Server Address: Your Asterisk Machine IP address
Realm=asterisk
username= your sip extension in asterisk
Password= your sip extension password
Allow loose routing = Yes
Transport Type = Auto
Port = 5060
Register Server
Register Server address = your asterisk machine IP

Realm=asterisk
username= your sip extension in asterisk
Password= your sip extension password
Transport Type = Auto
Once you finished all these setting press back and on SIP setting menu you'd see the status as
Registered (Wifi Network only)

now to make a call you need to do little things more,

go to Tools>>Settings>Connections>>Internet tel.

and create a new profile and select this SIP Profile and press back

The great thing about Nokia E63 is it can automatically switch between voice GSM mode and Internet mode. This feature may also be there in others Nokia model but I only know about E63.
Now to get this go to the
Tools>>Settings>Phone>>Call
Default call type=Internet call

and in the Network option select dual mode
Now if I am in office my cell phone act as my local extensions and I send receive calls using landline and If I am at home I am connected to my SIP server and can make a cheap/almost free calls internationally.

Asterisk Professional Services

If you are looking for professional asterisk services then please take a look at
http://www.expert-voice.com

Intel, Samsung to lead new Linux platform

(Reuters)

28 September 2011

Two Linux groups said on Wednesday they would combine their technologies to create a new operating software platform for a range of mobile devices led by Intel and Samsung Electronics . LiMo Foundation and the Linux Foundation said the new Tizen platform is an open-source, standards-based software platform that supports multiple devices including smartphones, tablets, smart TVs, netbooks and in-vehicle ‘infotainment’ systems. The initial release of Tizen is planned for the first quarter of 2012, enabling the first devices using the platform to come to market in mid-2012, the two groups said. The world’s largest semiconductor firm Intel, which also has its own MeeGo Linux version, and Samsung Electronics, the second biggest maker of cell phones and one of the key contributors to LiMo, will head the technical steering committee of the new platform. Linux-based operating systems have already gained traction in mobile devices with Google Inc’s Android rising to the top spot in global smartphone rankings, but the market share for other Linux variants has been marginal. Samsung is the leading manufacturer using Google’s Android platform, but a spokesman for the company said the move was in line with the company’s strategy. ‘We’ve been a core Linux partner ... and this is in line with our strategy of supporting many platforms,’ a Samsung spokesman in Seoul said. Linux is the most popular type of free or so-called open source computer operating system, which is available to the public to be used, revised and shared. Linux suppliers earn money selling improvements and technical services.  Sources: Khaleej Times UAE

Asterisk CDR Tool

I have recently developed the CDR (Call Detail Report) for asterisk. It has several features.

• Total Call Summary Report
• Total Minutes usage from each provider
• Caller ID Search with Date range 
• Agents Performance & Call Details for 24 hours cycle.