AsteriskNOW

Table of Contents                                                                                                                             

• Preface

• Chapter 1: An Introduction to Telephony and Asterisk
  • The Basics of Traditional Telephony
    • Circuit Switching
    • A Circuit-Switched Network
      • Signalling System # 7 (SS7)
      • Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN)
  • The Basics of Voice over IP (VoIP) Technology
    • Session Initiation Protocol—SIP
    • Inter-Asterisk eXchange Protocol—IAX
      • NAT/PAT: IAX2 versus SIP and H.323
    • CODECS—Voice Coder Decoder
  • Asterisk—The Open-Source PBX
    • Asterisk is Dually Licensed—What Does it Mean?
    • Enter the Asterisk—the Future is Here
  • AsteriskNOW—The Asterisk Software Appliance
  • Summary

• Chapter 2: Building a PBX
  • Objective—Building an Office PBX
    • Physical Connectivity
    • Installation Procedure Outline
      • Downloading AsteriskNOW
      • AsteriskNOW Hardware Requirements
      • The Installation Process
      • Anatomy of the AsteriskNOW Configuration GUI
      • Introduction to the rPath Appliance GUI
  • Summary

• Chapter 3: Extensions, Phones, and Others
  • An IP Phone is a Simplified Computer
  • AsteriskNOW Extension Management GUI
    • The User Extensions Configuration Options
    • The "User Extension" Configuration Flags
  • The LinkSys 941
  • CounterPath X-Lite—The Worlds Most Popular Soft Phone
  • Summary

• Chapter 4: Service Providers—Your Connection to the World
  • VoIP Carriers
    • Direct Inward Dialing (DID/DDI) Carriers
    • IP Call Termination Carriers
      • Refilers and Grey Routes
  • PSTN Carriers—Traditional Telephony Providers
  • Configuring an IP Termination Service Provider
    • VoIP Service Providers in AsteriskNOW
    • VoIP Service Providers—Few Examples
      • Inbound DID/DDI Service Providers
      • Termination and Residential Service Providers
    • Connecting to a Custom VoIP Termination Provider
  • Summary

• Chapter 5: Tentacles of the PBX—The Calling Rules Tables
  • Managing Routing Rules with AsteriskNOW
  • Manually Editing Dial-Plan Logic
  • Summary

• Chapter 6: "Let me in!"—Inbound Call Routing
  • Inbound DID Routing versus Analog Physical Routing
  • Inbound Routing via DID Numbers
  • Inbound Routing via Physical Ports
    • Routing Type Comparison Table

• Inbound Call Routing with AsteriskNOW
  • Example 1: Routing in a Single DID Number
  • Example 2: Routing in a Range of DID Numbers

• Inbound Call Routing in extensions.conf
• Summary

• Chapter 7: "For Annoyance, Press 1"—Voice Menus and IVR
  • Four Rules of IVR
  • Voice Menus—AsteriskNOW's IVR Generator
    • Voice Menu Steps—The Voice Menu Flow
      • DISA—Direct Inward System Access
      • Recordings—Menus and System Playbacks
      • Time Based Rules
      • Ring Groups
      • Enough Theory, Back to Voice Menus
  • Summary

• Chapter 8: Voicemail, Conferencing, and Parking—Advanced PBX Services
  • Comedian Mail—The Asterisk Voicemail System
    • Voicemail General Options
    • Voicemail Message Options
    • Voicemail Playback Options
  • MeetMe Conferencing
    • Conference User and Administrator Key Presses
    • Defining a New Conference Room
      • General Conference Options
      • Conference Password Settings
      • Conference Room Options
  • Call Parking
  • Summary

• Chapter 9: "Please hold, we'll be with you shortly"—Simple Call Queues
  • Queue General Options
  • Queue Options
  • Utilizing Call Queues
  • Summary

• Chapter 10: General AsteriskNOW Management—Monitoring, Backups, and More
  • AsteriskNOW General Options
    • Local Extension Settings
    • Agent Login Settings
    • Extension Options
  • AsteriskNOW Backup
  • Asterisk Logs
  • AsteriskNOW System Info
  • AsteriskNOW Active Channels
  • AsteriskNOW Graphs
  • Summary

• Chapter 11: Hard Core AsteriskNOW
  • AsteriskNOW Advanced Options
    • Music on Hold
      • Why Do You Need Multiple Music On Hold Classes?
    • VM Email Settings
    • Global SIP Settings
      • General SIP Settings
      • Type of Service Settings
      • NAT Support Settings
    • Global IAX Settings
      • General IAX Settings
      • Jitter Buffer Settings
      • IAX Registration Options
      • Codecs Settings
    • Change Password
    • Setup Wizard
  • Gaining Root Access to Your AsteriskNOW via SSH
  • The Asterisk Command-Line Interface (CLI)
  • The Asterisk Dial-Plan Language (extensions.conf)
    • Configuration File Structure
      • Extension Pattern Matching
      • Special Extensions in extensions.conf
  • The Asterisk Configuration Directory
  • Summary

• Chapter 12: Where to from Here?
  • Beyond the Dial Plan—Asterisk Gateway Interface (AGI)
    • AGI Execution Environment
    • AGI Example in PHP
    • AGI Programming API Functions
    • AGI Programming Libraries
  • Asterisk Manager Interface (AMI)
  • Asynchronous JavaScript Asterisk Manager (AJAM)
  • Ideas and Mesh-ups
    • Voice-Enabled Network Monitoring
    • Voice-Enabled Intrusion Detection
    • Voice-Enabled Attendance Clock and Proximity
  • DUNDi—Distributed Universal Number Discovery
  • Summary

• Appendix A: Jargon Buster

• Appendix B: Free World Dialup (FWD)

• Appendix C: AsteriskNOW for Service Providers

• Index

Nir Simionovich

This book is a must-read for people trying to understand VOIP, telephony in general and AsteriskNow in particular. Read More

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