Building Telephony Systems with Asterisk (Paperback)

by David Gomillion (Author), Barrie Dempster (Author)
Key Phrases: direct inward dialing, support tier, voi cemai, United States, Comedian Mail, Feature Group (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

An easy introduction to using and configuring Asterisk to build feature-rich telephony systems for small and medium businesses.

• Install, configure, deploy, secure, and maintain Asterisk
• Build a fully-featured telephony system and create a dial plan that suits your needs
• Learn from example configurations for different requirements

In Detail

Asterisk is a powerful and flexible open source framework for building feature-rich telephony systems. As a Private Branch Exchange (PBX) which connects one or more telephones, and usually connects to one or more telephone lines, Asterisk offers very advanced features, including station-to-station calls, line trunking, call distribution, call detail rerecords, and call recording.

Asterisk can be used to provide Interactive Voice Response (IVR). The power and flexibility of a programmable phone system gives us the ability to respond to our customers in meaningful ways.

Asterisk has also a fully-functional voicemail system included. It supports voicemail contexts so that multiple organizations can be hosted from the same server. It supports different time zones so that users can track when their phone calls come in. It even provides the option to notify the recipient of new messages via email. In fact, we can even attach the message in audio!

Finally, Asterisk is a Voice Over IP (VoIP) system. The benefits of VoIP are numerous. For instance, we can have multiple users using the same Asterisk service from a variety of locations; we can have users in the local office using PSTN phones or IP phones; we can have remote VoIP users; we can even have entire Asterisk systems operated and run completely separately but with integrated routing; We can have an extension anywhere we have a reasonably fast Internet connection, which means employees can have an extension on the phone system at home if they have a broadband connection. The benefits are too many to list.

Flexibility often means complexity, and this is true in the case of Asterisk. This book is all you need to understand and use Asterisk to build the telephony system that meets your need. You will learn how to use the many features that Asterisk provides you with.

What you will learn from this book?

This book takes you from installing and configuring Asterisk to using its various advanced features�, helping you build feature-rich telephony systems. With this book, you will learn how to:

• Install, configure, and deploy Asterisk
• Create a dialplan that suits your needs
• Build a fully-featured telephony system
• Monitor, record, and log calls
• Install and use Asterisk@Home
• Backup, secure, and maintain Asterisk
• Use example configurations for different requirements

Approach

Who this book is written for?

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.

About the Author

Barrie Dempster

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.

David Gomillion

David Gomillion currently serves as Director of Information Technology for the Eye Center of North Florida. There, he orchestrates all of the technological undertakings of this four-location medical practice, including computers, software (off-the-shelf and custom development), server systems, telephony, networking, as well as specialized diagnostic and treatment systems. David received a Bachelor's of Science in Computer Science from Brigham Young University in August, 2005. There he learned the theory behind his computer experience, and became a much more efficient programmer. David has worked actively in the Information Technology sector since his freshman year at BYU. He has been a Networking Assistant, an Assistant Network Administrator, a Supervisor of a large Network and Server Operations unit, a Network Administrator, and finally a Director of Information Technology. Through his increasing responsibilities, he has learned to prioritize needs and wants, and applies this ability to his Asterisk installations.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Packt Publishing (September 30, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1904811159
• ISBN-13: 978-1904811152
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #259,545 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 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 (REAL NAME)

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 (REAL NAME)

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 (REAL NAME)

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