Building Telephony Systems with Asterisk [Paperback]

David Gomillion (Author), Barrie Dempster (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 30, 2005

This book shows how to build a telephony system for your home or business using the free and open source application, Asterisk. 'Building a Telephony System with Asterisk' takes you step-by-step through the process of installing and configuring Asterisk. It shows you how to make a deployment plan, and how to create a dial plan. The book also presents example configurations for using Asterisk in three different scenarios: for small and home offices, small businesses, and Hosted PBX. With an engaging style and excellent way of presenting information, this book makes a complicated subject very easy to understand. This book is aimed at anyone who is interested in building a powerful telephony system using the free and open source application, Asterisk, without spending many thousands of dollars buying a commercial and often less flexible system. This book is suitable for the novice and those new to Asterisk and telephony. Telephony or Linux experience will be helpful, but not required.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Barrie Dempster is currently employed as a Senior Security Consultant for NGS Software Ltd a world-renowned security consultancy well known for their focus in enterprise-level application vulnerability research and database security. He has a background in Infrastructure and Information Security in a number of specialised environments such as financial services institutions, telecommunications companies, call centres, and other organisations across multiple continents. Barrie has experience in the integration of network infrastructure and telecommunications systems requiring high calibre secure design, testing and management. He has been involved in a variety of projects from the design and implementation of Internet banking systems to large-scale conferencing and telephony infrastructure, as well as penetration testing and other security assessments of business critical infrastructure.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Packt Publishing (September 30, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1904811159
• ISBN-13: 978-1904811152
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #628,961 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #87 in Books > Computers & Technology > Networking > Telephony

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great, Practical Guide to Setting Up and Running Asterisk, October 15, 2005

By 

Darin Rand (Stayton, OR USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Building Telephony Systems with Asterisk (Paperback)

I have very little knowledge of Asterisk, but I am a Telecom Manager and Asterisk is one of the up and coming technologies that has the potential to change how voice communications are handled. This is a great guide for those how might not know that much about telecom but are interested in either setting up an Asterisk server for your business or home. After reading it I now have a much higher comfort level about the application, how to configure it and its general capabilities.

Asterisk is open source software that runs on Linux that provides all of the features and functionality of a Private Branch Exchange (PBX)which is basically a telephone switch that businesses use to provide their telephone service. Asterisk is a free download with tremendous potential, it can allow you to build an Interactive Voice Response application which can interact with databases and provide responses based on keypad input (nearly everyone has used one of these when calling your bank or changing an airline reservation). You could also use it in your home and configure voice mail boxes for various family memebers and have other functionality which has only previously been available in a business setting.

This book was written towards people how do not necessarily have either telecom or Linux experience. It provides a brief overview of the software and general telephony and then leads into the steps which are necessary to actually set the software up on a PC, it runs through all the steps which are necessary to get Asterisk up and running and the commands which are necessary to configure the various applications such as voice mail, which reside in Asterisk.

The book also talks about Asterisk@Home which is a more user friendly installation and also gives the instructions necessary to configure Asterisk@Home for a home or small business. I would fully recommend this book to anyone looking at actually setting up an Asterisk server or anyone just interested in the capabilities of the application.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Asterisk made understandable., November 28, 2005

By 

Andre Kruger "muHaarib" (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Building Telephony Systems with Asterisk (Paperback)

When I first got this book I thought I had been ripped off ... $30 for a thin 160 pages ... Then I read it ... I was able to install an asterisk system build a dial plan ... connect with a remote service provider via PSTN and had a worldwide corporate phone system installed in 1 week.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great guide to getting started, October 18, 2005

By 

Kerry C. Garrison "Kerry Garrison" (Irvine, Ca) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Building Telephony Systems with Asterisk (Paperback)

If you are looking for a guide to getting your first Asterisk PBX up and running quickly, this is the book for you. It does assume some modest Linux skills but it will guide you from start to finish getting a working phone system up and running.

For a more complete review, please visit:
http://voipspeak.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=27