Hi, I am a retired telephone tech/manager who recently had a bad experience with a local company offering digital phone service (VoIP). I have spent the last thirty years in the PSTN network, switching, PBX and key system field and am interested in learning more about VoIP. My background also includes programming, mostly specialized applications to interact with the PSTN network. Most of my experience in this field have been with Borland products, specifically Delphi. I also have been involved with database programming, same platform as the communications. My computer experience started with the operating system CPM (I'm not really that old, only 56). The best platform now seems to be Linux so now since I am retired now, it seems a good time to learn something new. I also have been looking at Asterisk which most companies seem to be using for a PBX platform. I found out by accident that the local company I had the problem with uses this PBX software. Could someone steer me in the right direction as to where to start? I spent most of my career in the telephone industry in a 'bush' area of Alaska so pretty much had to teach myself what I needed to know about computers but I can learn almost anything from a book and by asking questions when I get stuck. Most of my experience was before the Internet so I plan on using this avenue to advance my knowledge. I understand what a broad scope I am asking about so would appreciate any tips to help me get started. Since there are many 'brands' of Linux what is the best one to start with? Which Linux will be better when I get to the point of working with Asterisk? Any tips or ideas on books, online tutors, discussions or anything of this nature would be much appreciated. I hope to add to this group if I can be any assistance from the 'other side', the PSTN network. Thank You, Gary H. Thompson -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.digium.com/pipermail/asterisk-users/attachments/20070218/e82f3416/attachment.htm
Go to your book store and get the Fedora/Linux reference. Get yourself a PC with 20GB drives, a CD burner, and decent ram. The PC should have either an i386 or x86_64 processor. If you'll be purchasing a PC, go to the computer store, purchase the piece parts, and assemble it yourself (I like Athlon CPUs). Since you have a PC and were able to post a message, go to http://fedora.redhat.com and follow the links to Documentation and then to Download. Follow the link for your PC's architecture (i386 or x86_64) and then download the six ISO images. Burn each image to a CD. Install Linux. Take all the defaults. Load all packages. When it's running, login as root and open the browser. Go to http://asterisk.org . Take the download tab and download the five Asterisk 1.2 tar files into directory /usr/src. 'cd' to /usr/src. Use 'tar xzf <file>' on each of the downloaded files. Enter the zaptel directory and execute 'make', check for errors, and then 'make install' and 'make config'. Enter the libpri directory and execute 'make;make install'. Enter the asterisk directory and execute 'make', 'make install', and 'make samples'. Enter the asterisk-addons directory and execute 'make' and then 'make install' Enter the asterisk-sounds directory and execute 'make install'. Execute 'service zaptel start'--this will load the zap drivers. These will also load on reboot. Execute 'asterisk -vvvvc'. This will start Asterisk. N.B. People spend years between step #1 and a running Asterisk system. For help with asterisk, google on 'site:lists.digium.com <search words>'. For the wiki, google on 'site:voip-info.org <search words>'. The wiki is most helpful. Keep a blog of your experience and let other newbies learn from you. :=) Cheers, Gary H. Thompson wrote:> Hi, > > I am a retired telephone tech/manager who recently had a bad experience > with a local company offering digital phone service (VoIP). I have spent > the last thirty years in the PSTN network, switching, PBX and key system > field and am interested in learning more about VoIP. My background also > includes programming, mostly specialized applications to interact with > the PSTN network. Most of my experience in this field have been with > Borland products, specifically Delphi. I also have been involved with > database programming, same platform as the communications. > > My computer experience started with the operating system CPM (I?m not > really that old, only 56). The best platform now seems to be ? so > now since I am retired now, it seems a good time to learn something new. > I also have been looking at Asterisk which most companies seem to be > using for a PBX platform. I found out by accident that the local company > I had the problem with uses this PBX software. > > Could someone steer me in the right direction as to where to start? I > spent most of my career in the telephone industry in a ?bush? area of > Alaska so pretty much had to teach myself what I needed to know about > computers but I can learn almost anything from a book and by asking > questions when I get stuck. Most of my experience was before the > Internet so I plan on using this avenue to advance my knowledge. > > I understand what a broad scope I am asking about so would appreciate > any tips to help me get started. Since there are many ?brands? of Linux > what is the best one to start with? Which Linux will be better when I > get to the point of working with Asterisk? Any tips or ideas on book s, > online tutors, discussions or anything of this nature would be much > appreciated. > > I hope to add to this group if I can be any assistance from the ?other > side?, the PSTN network. > > Thank You, > > Gary H. Thompson > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > --Bandwidth and Colocation provided by Easynews.com -- > > asterisk-users mailing list > To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: > http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Gary H. Thompson wrote:> Hi, > > Most of my experience in this field have been with > Borland products, specifically Delphi. I also have been involved with > database programming, same platform as the communications.I can't tell you anything more helpful than Michael has. I purchased a tomb called "Fedora 5 and Red Hat Enterprise Bible" form Wiley press, which has been very helpful. Also I would suggest purchasing or downloading "Asterisk The Future of Telephony". See the Asterisk Doc project: http://www.asteriskdocs.org I personally like a paper book to have around. I am a Delphi man myself. As you become more familiar with and comfortable with Asterisk, you'll inevitably want to customize Asterisk's behavior through one of the interfaces available. One of the most common is the AGI interface which allows Asterisk to communicate with external programs through standard input and standard output (ie: Writeln(), Readln()). You can call these external programs directly from the dialplan and most people seem to prefer PHP, bash or other integrated scripting. Being a Delphi programmer as well, I wanted to let you know that I have had great success in using open source FreePascal and Lazarus IDE for developing linux based executables for the AGI interface which are basically just console type programs. I personally prefer using binaries because I think they execute faster than interpreted languages. I wrote a Cepstral Text to Speech wrapper using those tools not too long ago. Info and source is available on the wiki: http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/view/DTSwift+Cepstral+AGI+Wrapper When you're at the point where you want to start writing AGI and you if you decide to try freepascal/lazarus, that may help you get an idea of writing an AGI using FP/Laz. Welcome to the community. -- Warm Regards, Lee
hi, hi, i did wrote (assembler) programs for cp/m! if your experience is more on telephony', i think you will find trixbox easier. in one cd you will have a ready system. if your hardware is fully recognized, great ! do not use a too old machine nor a too new one. mind that the install will erase your hd. so buy a new cd if you would want to go back to windows. a 'normal' distribution will allow for dual-boot (not trixbox). mandrake, suse, fedora, red-hat & centeos are good candidate. (k)ubuntu, debian, ... are also nice one but then you would have to download, compile, setup all. this could be harder to learn. but you learn a deeper way maybe go to a linux group in your neighborhood most people there are happy to welcome a newbie. buy some books about linux and stick with one distribution (you can change later) my 2c from a young chap of nearly 48 t. jacobson ---------- Initial header ----------->From : asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.comTo : asterisk-users@lists.digium.com CC : Date : Sun, 18 Feb 2007 14:05:15 -0500 Subject : [asterisk-users] Looking for starting point?> Hi, > > I am a retired telephone tech/manager who recently had a bad experience witha local company offering digital phone service (VoIP). I have spent the last thirty years in the PSTN network, switching, PBX and key system field and am interested in learning more about VoIP. My background also includes programming, mostly specialized applications to interact with the PSTN network. Most of my experience in this field have been with Borland products, specifically Delphi. I also have been involved with database programming, same platform as the communications.> > My computer experience started with the operating system CPM (I'm not reallythat old, only 56). The best platform now seems to be Linux so now since I am retired now, it seems a good time to learn something new. I also have been looking at Asterisk which most companies seem to be using for a PBX platform. I found out by accident that the local company I had the problem with uses this PBX software.> > Could someone steer me in the right direction as to where to start? I spentmost of my career in the telephone industry in a 'bush' area of Alaska so pretty much had to teach myself what I needed to know about computers but I can learn almost anything from a book and by asking questions when I get stuck. Most of my experience was before the Internet so I plan on using this avenue to advance my knowledge.> > I understand what a broad scope I am asking about so would appreciate anytips to help me get started. Since there are many 'brands' of Linux what is the best one to start with? Which Linux will be better when I get to the point of working with Asterisk? Any tips or ideas on books, online tutors, discussions or anything of this nature would be much appreciated.> > I hope to add to this group if I can be any assistance from the 'otherside', the PSTN network.> > Thank You, > > Gary H. Thompson > >--- Scarlet One Unlimited Free national calls, surf up to 6 Mbit/s, 50 GB download volume For only EUR 49,95 per month. No Belgacom subscription needed. All in! http://www.scarlet.be
On Sun, 2007-02-18 at 14:05 -0500, Gary H. Thompson wrote:> Hi,[snip]> I understand what a broad scope I am asking about so would appreciate > any tips to help me get started. Since there are many ?brands? of > Linux what is the best one to start with? Which Linux will be better > when I get to the point of working with Asterisk? Any tips or ideas on > books, online tutors, discussions or anything of this nature would be > much appreciated.[snip] Welcome Gary. A few suggestions. Get the Asterisk book. You can either order it online (support the cause) or download it for free at http://www.asteriskdocs.org If you don't have prior experience with Linux than you should probably download a Linux distribution that is relatively easy to start with. Two of such distributions that come to mind are Fedora Core 6 and Ubuntu. The advantage of Fedora Core is that there are ready made Asterisk packages available from atrpms.net and laimbock.com/asterisk/ I don't know if that is also the case with Ubuntu. Prepare for a bit of a steep learning curve. If you need help, read the Asterisk book, read pretty much every article on voip-info.org, ask on irc (server freennode.net channel #asterisk) and browse the asterisk mailing list archives. Good luck! Regards, Patrick
As a starting point for Linux installs I would recommend Ubuntu Linux.
Easy to setup, you don't need a Linux Administer degree to get started.
I stopped using Fedora after the 4th hard disk failure for no reason on
EXT 3.
PS
I too am an older developer. Let me know if you need help
programming. I could use some advice on telephone circuits.
Race Vanderdecken
Code Tyrant, Inc.
Somewhere near Asheville, NC.
-----Original Message-----
From: asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com
[mailto:asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Gary H.
Thompson
Sent: Sunday, February 18, 2007 2:05 PM
To: asterisk-users@lists.digium.com
Subject: [asterisk-users] Looking for starting point?
Hi,
I am a retired telephone tech/manager who recently had a bad experience
with a local company offering digital phone service (VoIP). I have spent
the last thirty years in the PSTN network, switching, PBX and key system
field and am interested in learning more about VoIP. My background also
includes programming, mostly specialized applications to interact with
the PSTN network. Most of my experience in this field have been with
Borland products, specifically Delphi. I also have been involved with
database programming, same platform as the communications.
My computer experience started with the operating system CPM (I'm not
really that old, only 56). The best platform now seems to be Linux so
now since I am retired now, it seems a good time to learn something new.
I also have been looking at Asterisk which most companies seem to be
using for a PBX platform. I found out by accident that the local company
I had the problem with uses this PBX software.
Could someone steer me in the right direction as to where to start? I
spent most of my career in the telephone industry in a 'bush' area of
Alaska so pretty much had to teach myself what I needed to know about
computers but I can learn almost anything from a book and by asking
questions when I get stuck. Most of my experience was before the
Internet so I plan on using this avenue to advance my knowledge.
I understand what a broad scope I am asking about so would appreciate
any tips to help me get started. Since there are many 'brands' of Linux
what is the best one to start with? Which Linux will be better when I
get to the point of working with Asterisk? Any tips or ideas on books,
online tutors, discussions or anything of this nature would be much
appreciated.
I hope to add to this group if I can be any assistance from the 'other
side', the PSTN network.
Thank You,
Gary H. Thompson
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