Customer Reviews

Asterisk For Dummies

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This is the first book in the "for Dummies" series that I have bought. I do not consider myself a "dummy", an idiot or a moron, but there are few books on Asterisk basics and this book is rather new, so I thought I would give it a chance. My mistake...

I am using two Linksys/Sipura ATA, one SPA3102 and one PAP2T, this book only covers TDM-cards and Zapata drivers. There is nothing useful on dialplans/extensions, and not much useful on other subjects either. I do not know who the intended audience for this book would be, and I find it hard to believe that a "dummy" or anyone else would be able to do anything useful with Asterisk using this book as guide or reference.

Buy some other book, or just google for the information you need. The latter will be much quicker, more productive and less frustrating. (If anyone wants a slightly used specimen of this book, you can pick it up for free in Stockholm, Sweden.)

Revised March 30, 2008:
I have used a bunch of different books on Asterisk, and information from the web, since I wrote this review. I have realized that I was a bit too harsh when I first wrote this. There are better books on Asterisk, but I must admit that I have found some useful information in this book on some occasions.

If you are going to buy one or two books on the subject, I would probably recommend starting with Asterisk: The Future of Telephony and Building Telephony Systems with Asterisk, in this order.

I am also looking forward to the printed edition of the English translation of Practical Asterisk 1.4: From Beginner to Expert (the translation in progress is available at [...] with a link to the German original). I have found the alpha version of the translation very useful on several subjects.

If you are thinking about using this as a guide for trixbox installation (formerly asterisk@home) think again. Not very helpful. :-(

This book I purchased with great expectation. But this books' many examples are not very clear. I had to refer another book to understand this book well.