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FireFerum
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Joined: 18 Oct 2004
Posts: 2
Location: Lawrenceville, GA

PostPosted: Mon Oct 18, 2004 3:29 am    Post subject: Newbie Asterisk Questions Reply with quote

Hello. I'm new to the whole concept of VOIP and was looking around at Asterisk. I see that it allows a form of telephony over the internet and that it even supports calling regular telephones. So since I like to try out a bunch of things I was wondering if maybe you can help me with a little information about this program.

First of all, what exactly does Asterisk do and how can a little guy like myself use it on a home computer running Mandrake Linux 10.1. If it runs better on another linux platform let me know about that because I will try that platform as well.

Second of all, how much is asterisk or the associated cost of running this? Basically how much would it cost me say to call from my computer to a friend in New York or Canada or another country if that person doesn't have a computer. Or let's say they don't have internet. Can this be done? And also how much would that cost or is there a way to get all this for free? Being a student I definitely like free stuff Smile

If you can answer those questions for me please let me know because I would be highly interested. It is not so much the idea of getting this for free, as what intrigues me is if I can personally do it and make a call from my own computer for free. Just knowing that I might have that capability makes me really want to try asterisk. But then again I just don't seem to have a good grasp on how this works so please explain to me as much as you can and in as simple terms as you can. Thanks a lot. Very Happy
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planetWayne
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Joined: 30 Jan 2003
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 19, 2004 7:47 pm    Post subject: Where to start! Reply with quote

Hiya! (hope you have time to read this Laughing )

Theres a few bits to start on here - so the best thing is from the top down - hopefully it will make sence!

1st off, think of Asterisk as your 'man in the middle' between your phones and your lines. It can act as a gateway (converting between different standards), can provide you with voice mail, calling menus ('press 1 for fred, 2 for george...') and loads more...

For the platform I've got it running on - its RedHad 9. It should run on other versions of linux as long as you can get the developer components loaded (compiler and libraries etc.). The PC its running on is a PIII 800 - for my system at home, it has time to spare (not stressed at all!).

Asterisk itself is open source (free) you are asked to buy official Digium hardware to help support development. So any initial costs are for the phones/ interface cards that you may need.

Now, you dont need to have Asterisk to make internet based phone calls - theres no reason why you cant get a 'soft(ware)phone' for your pc and use that to call. You would need to subscribe to FreeWorld Dialup (as an example) to get an 'internet phone number' and hay prestow you can call people - and they can call you too!. The basic setup will allow you to call all the other FWD numbers that are out there - including friends overseas - as long as they get FWD set up too!

The interesting part then starts when you also subscribe to other IP providers. These are the people that get your 'internet/FWD phone' converted back into a normal phone call (so you can dial a standard phone). These services do cost money - most go on a 'pay as you go' basis - but you can also get 'localised' phone numbers (say have a US number that calls your FWD account. If someone were to call your US number - they pay for the call - you get charged nothing - Bonus! Cool.

Now - all that is without even starting Asterisk!

Where Asterisk comes into play, as I mentioned earlier, it can be 'the middle man' of your phone system - it can also help with stability of your sytem (softphone can be a bit ropey). You could have several phone as extention off it - each with their own extention number (you can dial each extention from the other and talk to whoever picks up the call), you can add your 'internet/FWD' number to it - to accept internet calls, you could also add a card that plugs into your BT line to accept calls comming from your land line (again - menus etc!). It can then make decisions based on numbers/ menu options to make the phones on your system ring or route calls over the internet to cut down on call costs (intelligent routing).

The options go on and on...

Hopefully this is the start and I havnt lost you yet Smile There is a wee bit more to this than what we have scratched on here - but once you get into it - it will just grow Smile

If you have any more questions then drop me a line.

Wayne.
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FireFerum
planetFreshman


Joined: 18 Oct 2004
Posts: 2
Location: Lawrenceville, GA

PostPosted: Tue Oct 19, 2004 11:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

So supposed that I get the IP thing where I can convert the FWD number to a landline phone number... would it be cheaper on the caller to dial if they were in another country? Like supposed I am in the USA and I want to get a friend to call me from Europe, would it be cheaper on them to call me on this IP/FWD/Landline number? And now comes the interesting part... can Asterisk forward calls to cell phones or other landline phones?


Anyway thanks for the reply so far. This is pretty interesting stuff. I have a spare computer lying around so I run dualboot linux/windows on it, each with its own removable HD so I just switch them out when I want to boot to another OS Smile Makes things so much easier.
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planetWayne
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Joined: 30 Jan 2003
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 22, 2004 1:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hiya,
There have been quite a few sites that will give you a localised number. DrayTel is the first that springs to mind (these guys do the Vigor Routers that can handle voice calls directly (no asterisk in there at all) although you can use the service without thier kit.) Oh - and theres no reason - if your friends had pc's that they couldnt use a FWD account for themselfs! - you just need a softphone on the PC. Then all it would cost is a connection to the internet (which you can get relativly cheaply Very Happy .

Others...
CallUK FWD - links your FWD to a UK number.
Call UKs Main Page
Your main source for most things VoIP and Asterisk would be the VoIP Wiki. You can find most of the service provider pages here.

The cost of the call is dependant on who provides the last part of the link - for example, if your call is completely done over the internet - then all you are paying is your normal internet subscription charges, if you have an 'access number' in the uk - then you will you can get set up whereby the person that calls that number (from the uk) pays whats called a 'national rate' call cost - which is usually cheaper than an 'international rate' call.

And yes - there is no reason why one of your Asterisk 'extentions' could not be a mobile. BUT you will have to make sure you have some way of 'dialing out' to your mobile number (through a fixed line from your Asterisk box). In that example YOU will be picking up the cost for the part of the call that goes from your Asterisk setup to your mobile.

Having a dual boot is good. Gives you chance to 'play' before going live. I used to run RH9 on a virtual PC - got kinda interesting when you would have X-Lite soft phone running on your windows session - talking to Asterisk running on your virtual Linux session talking to the demo line over in the states! - was a bit choppy but worked!!
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