asterisk users - Sep 2004 - IAX2 crash course wanted

Hello;

I'm curious where I can find a good document describing how to weave
together some servers in different places.  Trying to keep things as
simple as possible here, I don't understand how to get 2 way calling
going on between clients connected to separate servers.

First, I have 3 asterisk servers running.  One is my firewall here in
Buenos Aires, Argentina.  I have two others in Minnesota, USA.  What I'm
trying to do is to link the 3 together so that they all have access to
extensions on each-other.  For example, if I have SIP clients running
off of all of them, they should all be able to dial each-other without
knowing anything.  In other words, suppose I run an sip phone behind my
firewall here, place a call to 102, IAX carries the call across the net
to the asterisk server in the US, and rings 102, an SIP phone on a local
internal net there.  I would like the SIP phone at 102 to be able to
ring me back here at 103, or say a client of another server at 104. I'm
very sorry for being overly wordy here, by the way.  

So far I'm able to get machines registering with each other just fine,
but I'm running into problems with how to organize extensions.conf, when
or where to use the switch=> functionality, and how to specify, assign,
allow, and/or disallow [contexts] by IAX2 with that switch feature. 
Perhaps I shouldn't be using it at all.  I can get calls to work in one
direction only.  

So if anybody knows of a good basic bare minimum example config - or
possibly could cut and paste a sample, I'd be sincerely grateful.  I'm
using hacked up versions of the sample dialplans from "make samples,"
so
to have things working this well after going into those blind I think
I'm doing ok.  I've been attacking this software pretty hard for about a
week now and it's already saved a heck of a lot of money on
international calls for me.  (using handytone 286's in 3 locations)  

Sorry again to ramble!  Thank you very much for any assistance,


Thomas Hutton

On Sun, 12 Sep 2004 23:46:22 -0300, Thomas Hutton <pres@nicheware.com>
wrote:
> I'm curious where I can find a good document describing how to weave
> together some servers in different places.  Trying to keep things as
> simple as possible here, I don't understand how to get 2 way calling
> going on between clients connected to separate servers.
The iax configuration file /etc/asterisk/iax.conf contains a variety
of samples and comments that should give you enough information to
play with and if you have any trouble you can ask a specific question
here which is far more likely to get you going than a general "I don't
know but how can I do it?" post or a post containing a whole bunch of
questions. Please note that this is not meant as criticism, I am just
trying to be helpful and tell you the facts.

Another good source is the Asterisk Wiki at http://www.voip-info.org.
However, you will need to browse a little to find the various bits and
pieces of interest to you.
> First, I have 3 asterisk servers running.  One is my firewall here in
> Buenos Aires, Argentina.
If you are in BA, you might want to consider contacting Nicolas Gudino
and pay him something for his time to sit down with you setting up IAX
peering on your servers and teaching you in the process so you can do
it all by yourself in the future. And even if you don't have any
budget to pay somebody you might still want to hook up since local
Asterisk user groups, even tiny ones with only two or three members
can be helpful when it comes to sharing tips and tricks and exchanging
information.
> So far I'm able to get machines registering with each other just fine,
> but I'm running into problems with how to organize extensions.conf,
when
> or where to use the switch=> functionality, and how to specify, assign,
> allow, and/or disallow [contexts] by IAX2 with that switch feature.
> Perhaps I shouldn't be using it at all.  I can get calls to work in one
> direction only.
The use of the switch command is much dependent on the structure of
your dialplan. It is generally not advisable to export and import the
entire dialplan but only those contexts you really need and only into
contexts where you really need them. To give any more specific advice
would require taking a closer look at the relevant dialplans.

rgds
benjk

-- 
Sunrise Telephone Systems, 9F Shibuya Daikyo Bldg., 1-13-5 Shibuya,
Tokyo, Japan.

NB: Spam filters in place. Messages unrelated to the * mailing lists
may get trashed.