I'm a network admin that maintains 3 commercial Asterisk servers for my employer. I am wanting to move away from the "pre-packaged" commercial PBXs to a more "pure" asterisk setup. The systems I have utilize a nice web GUI to make changes, but it really limits what I can do beyond what they have programmed into their GUI. Would I be better off starting with: a) Plain old asterisk from asterisk.org? (tutorial suggestions?) b) AsteriskNow c) Trixbox (not Pro) d) other suggestions. Thanks Bill
A. B&C are pre-packaged and are useful for some things, but if you deviate too much, they aren't very helpful. As a matter of fact, if you modify a text file in AsteriskNow in one of the sections that it uses, it causes the gui to freak out and it won't parse right. Plain old asterisk is a good way to learn how it really works. Bill Andersen wrote:> I'm a network admin that maintains 3 commercial Asterisk > servers for my employer. > > I am wanting to move away from the "pre-packaged" commercial PBXs > to a more "pure" asterisk setup. The systems I have utilize a nice > web GUI to make changes, but it really limits what I can do beyond > what they have programmed into their GUI. > > Would I be better off starting with: > > a) Plain old asterisk from asterisk.org? > (tutorial suggestions?) > > b) AsteriskNow > > c) Trixbox (not Pro) > > d) other suggestions. > > Thanks > > Bill > > _______________________________________________ > --Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com-- > > asterisk-users mailing list > To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: > http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users > >
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Bill Andersen wrote: [snip]> Would I be better off starting with: > > a) Plain old asterisk from asterisk.org? > (tutorial suggestions?) > > b) AsteriskNow > > c) Trixbox (not Pro) > > d) other suggestions. >Hi Bill. My first deployment was TrixBox. The two I am currently working on are "Plain Old Asterisk". Keep in mind that I'm an old Linux jock, and a 30-year veteran of programming, so the only thing I had to learn was Asterisk. If you pick that route, you'll need to learn Linux (or BSD, or whatever you're going to us as an OS) as well as Asterisk. As far as tutorials, just pick up a copy of "Asterisk: The Future of Telephony." Most of the "howto" for compilation is there, albeit somewhat dated until the newer version of the book hits the press. I will say that I don't ever intend on using a GUI again. I'm so used to text files for configuration of everything else I use Linux for that the manual configuration seems so much more natural. That's my two cents. Barry -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.6 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFGxJ4CCFu3bIiwtTARAvMzAJ4xIgA+PAzcS2Jrx5EUzyKo6JFqswCgmith tr93sIPre5AjI1EMacaLtas=mW67 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
On Thu, 16 Aug 2007, Bill Andersen wrote:> I'm a network admin that maintains 3 commercial Asterisk > servers for my employer. > > I am wanting to move away from the "pre-packaged" commercial PBXs > to a more "pure" asterisk setup. The systems I have utilize a nice > web GUI to make changes, but it really limits what I can do beyond > what they have programmed into their GUI. > > Would I be better off starting with: > > a) Plain old asterisk from asterisk.org? > (tutorial suggestions?) > > b) AsteriskNow > > c) Trixbox (not Pro) > > d) other suggestions.I started with (a). But since you have a dial-plan that does most of what you want, why not extract the dialplan (extensions.conf, etc.) and start with that? And if the GUI doesn't let you get access to the box in the 'raw' then you can always take the disk out... Gordon
I found asterisk built from source with freePBX added was the best solution for us. I would have stayed with pure asterisk, but I have a staff of people that do not know the ins and outs of the config files. freePBX gives them a very easy way to add new phones and extensions and the use of the "custom" config files allows me to add my own configs. -- -- Steven http://www.glimasoutheast.org "Bill Andersen" <andersen at mwdental.com> wrote in message news:NEBBLMPLNKHMEHJGNPIHOENDIIAA.andersen at mwdental.com...> I'm a network admin that maintains 3 commercial Asterisk > servers for my employer. > > I am wanting to move away from the "pre-packaged" commercial PBXs > to a more "pure" asterisk setup. The systems I have utilize a nice > web GUI to make changes, but it really limits what I can do beyond > what they have programmed into their GUI. > > Would I be better off starting with: > > a) Plain old asterisk from asterisk.org? > (tutorial suggestions?) > > b) AsteriskNow > > c) Trixbox (not Pro) > > d) other suggestions. > > Thanks > > Bill > > _______________________________________________ > --Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com-- > > asterisk-users mailing list > To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: > http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users >
Bill Andersen wrote:> I'm a network admin that maintains 3 commercial Asterisk > servers for my employer. > > I am wanting to move away from the "pre-packaged" commercial PBXs > to a more "pure" asterisk setup. The systems I have utilize a nice > web GUI to make changes, but it really limits what I can do beyond > what they have programmed into their GUI. > > Would I be better off starting with: > > a) Plain old asterisk from asterisk.org? > (tutorial suggestions?) > > b) AsteriskNow > > c) Trixbox (not Pro) > > d) other suggestions. > > Thanks > > Bill > >And the answer is, A. B & C will give you pretty much the same scenario you have now. The big benefit of learning "plain old" Asterisk is definitely the ability to do whatever you want or need. You will find that once you know Asterisk well, you can use a pre-packaged solution for what it does well, and usually be able to do custom dialplan work in conjunction and get the best of both worlds. Mike Clark
Bill, Please take a look at Thirdlane PBX Manager. It gives you both management and end-user GUI, and stores data in text configuration files. You can also extend it using what we call Scripts (basically GUI integrated self-documented Asterisk Macros), this way you can still use your Asterisk dialplan coding skills when required and hardly ever need the "RAW" mode. Best regards, Alex Alex Epshteyn Third Lane Technologies, LLC http://www.thirdlane.com> -----Original Message----- > From: asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com [mailto:asterisk-users- > bounces at lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Bill Andersen > Sent: Thursday, August 16, 2007 11:38 AM > To: asterisk-users at lists.digium.com > Subject: [asterisk-users] RAW asterisk! > > I'm a network admin that maintains 3 commercial Asterisk > servers for my employer. > > I am wanting to move away from the "pre-packaged" commercial PBXs > to a more "pure" asterisk setup. The systems I have utilize a nice > web GUI to make changes, but it really limits what I can do beyond > what they have programmed into their GUI. > > Would I be better off starting with: > > a) Plain old asterisk from asterisk.org? > (tutorial suggestions?) > > b) AsteriskNow > > c) Trixbox (not Pro) > > d) other suggestions. > > Thanks > > Bill > > _______________________________________________ > --Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com-- > > asterisk-users mailing list > To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: > http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Bill Andersen wrote:> I'm a network admin that maintains 3 commercial Asterisk > servers for my employer. > > I am wanting to move away from the "pre-packaged" commercial PBXs > to a more "pure" asterisk setup. The systems I have utilize a nice > web GUI to make changes, but it really limits what I can do beyond > what they have programmed into their GUI. >Bill, If you like working from Windows, you can also check out DialplanPro. I've been using it for our few (so far) clients and our personal phone system. http://www.datatrakpos.com/pos/datatalk/Default.aspx I wrote it to be more of a swiss army knife for Asterisk. I like to use the GUI "widgets" and visual menu builder to build the basic dialplan menus then use the editor (basic syntax highlighting, parameter suggestions, etc) to write custom scripts using either traditional flat asterisk script or AEL2 and INCLUDE them in the final project scripts which can be automatically uploaded to the server. I also use it to parse my AEL2 scripts remotely from my windows computer using a hook into the aelparse executable written by murph. Its still beta, but mostly because it doesn't yet have all the features I want to eventually include in it. Also, its commercial software or will be someday. -- Warm Regards, Lee