asterisk users - Aug 2007 - Quick DUNDi Poll Questions, For All Asterisk Users, Please Give Feedback

Questions:

1. Is the wiki DUNDi example and the dundi.conf file too difficult to
follow for new users?

2. Does the complexity of the DUNDi setup discourage you from using it
or even attempting to configure it?

3. If there was a simple tutorial, step by step guide with easy to
setup and test examples, would this encourage more users to
investigate and use DUNDi?

I'm interested in putting together a new-user tutorial about DUNDi
configuration and setup.  There is a lot of great information, setup
guides already but the feedback I get is that the current examples are
a bit complicated to follow for new users.

Your feedback is appreciated.

Thanks.

JR
-- 
JR Richardson
Engineering for the Masses

1.  Yes
2.  Yes
3.  Yes

Nice sales pitch, sounds like one of those late night "get rich now!"
schemes.


-----Original Message-----
From: asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com [mailto:asterisk-users-bounces
at lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of JR Richardson
Sent: Friday, August 17, 2007 4:35 PM
To: asterisk-users at lists.digium.com
Subject: [asterisk-users] Quick DUNDi Poll Questions, For All Asterisk Users,
Please Give Feedback

Questions:

1. Is the wiki DUNDi example and the dundi.conf file too difficult to
follow for new users?

2. Does the complexity of the DUNDi setup discourage you from using it
or even attempting to configure it?

3. If there was a simple tutorial, step by step guide with easy to
setup and test examples, would this encourage more users to
investigate and use DUNDi?

I'm interested in putting together a new-user tutorial about DUNDi
configuration and setup.  There is a lot of great information, setup
guides already but the feedback I get is that the current examples are
a bit complicated to follow for new users.

Your feedback is appreciated.

Thanks.

JR
--
JR Richardson
Engineering for the Masses

_______________________________________________
--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

--
This message has been scanned for viruses and
dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
believed to be clean.


This e-mail, facsimile, or letter and any files or attachments transmitted with
it contains information that is confidential and privileged. This information is
intended only for the use of the individual(s) and entity(ies) to whom it is
addressed. If you are the intended recipient, further disclosures are prohibited
without proper authorization. If you are not the intended recipient, any
disclosure, copying, printing, or use of this information is strictly prohibited
and possibly a violation of federal or state law and regulations. If you have
received this information in error, please notify Texas Health Management Group
immediately at 1-817-310-4999. Texas Health Management Group, its subsidiaries,
and affiliates hereby claim all applicable privileges related to this
information.

-- 
This message has been scanned for viruses and
dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
believed to be clean.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com [mailto:asterisk-users-
> bounces at lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of JR Richardson
> Sent: Friday, August 17, 2007 4:35 PM
> To: asterisk-users at lists.digium.com
> Subject: [asterisk-users] Quick DUNDi Poll Questions, For All Asterisk
> Users,Please Give Feedback
> 
> Questions:
> 
> 1. Is the wiki DUNDi example and the dundi.conf file too difficult to
> follow for new users?
> 
> 2. Does the complexity of the DUNDi setup discourage you from using it
> or even attempting to configure it?
> 
> 3. If there was a simple tutorial, step by step guide with easy to
> setup and test examples, would this encourage more users to
> investigate and use DUNDi?
> 
> I'm interested in putting together a new-user tutorial about DUNDi
> configuration and setup.  There is a lot of great information, setup
> guides already but the feedback I get is that the current examples are
> a bit complicated to follow for new users.
> 
> Your feedback is appreciated.
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> JR
> --
> JR Richardson
> Engineering for the Masses
> 
JR,

I'd love to see some tutorials on how to setup DUNDi that are aimed at
people who have little experience with DUNDi (that's me).

Bobby

JR Richardson wrote:
> Questions:
>
> 1. Is the wiki DUNDi example and the dundi.conf file too difficult to
> follow for new users?
>
> 2. Does the complexity of the DUNDi setup discourage you from using it
> or even attempting to configure it?
>
> 3. If there was a simple tutorial, step by step guide with easy to
> setup and test examples, would this encourage more users to
> investigate and use DUNDi?
>
> I'm interested in putting together a new-user tutorial about DUNDi
> configuration and setup.  There is a lot of great information, setup
> guides already but the feedback I get is that the current examples are
> a bit complicated to follow for new users.
>
> Your feedback is appreciated.
>
> Thanks.
>
> JR
>   
JR

I just got DUNDi up and going it the past couple of weeks. Your 
whitepaper on DUNDi and realtime clustering was the only way I would 
have gotten it up. Everything else on the wiki is simply too complicated 
and not well explained. And it still wasn't a piece of cake, even with 
you document. So yes, additional "cookbook" type documents that 
thoroughly explain things should greatly help adoption.

Mike Clark

On Friday 17 August 2007 04:34:33 pm JR Richardson
wrote:
> Questions:
>
> 1. Is the wiki DUNDi example and the dundi.conf file too difficult to
> follow for new users?
it's a bit complicated, though it seems to make sense for large-scale ops.
> 2. Does the complexity of the DUNDi setup discourage you from using it
> or even attempting to configure it?
what would also encourage me is if dundi.com would be updated, etc.
when setting up dundi, i feel as if i'm entering an underground secret
society
where no one really wants to share much.  this leads me to feel as though 
it's not something that's actively developed/used in the usa, outside of
(intra)corporations.

i see lots of e164 dundi activity in europe, but not here, why?
> 3. If there was a simple tutorial, step by step guide with easy to
> setup and test examples, would this encourage more users to
> investigate and use DUNDi?
>
this would help a lot.  also, since dundi is peer based, it would be nice if 
dundi.com or some central place could get new users introduced to finding 
peers, etc.

even people on the dundi.com list of tier 1 peers don't respond to emails, 
etc.

i heard your talk today!  thanks again for your help.
-- 
Anthony -  http://messinet.com - http://messinet.com/~amessina/gallery
8F89 5E72 8DF0 BCF0 10BE 9967 92DC 35DC B001 4A4E
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: This is a digitally signed message part.
Url :
http://lists.digium.com/pipermail/asterisk-users/attachments/20070817/9b7f9bc5/attachment.pgp

On Fri, Aug 17, 2007 at 04:34:33PM -0500, JR Richardson
wrote:
> Questions:
> 
> 1. Is the wiki DUNDi example and the dundi.conf file too difficult to
> follow for new users?
You imply that both need fixing
> 
> 2. Does the complexity of the DUNDi setup discourage you from using it
> or even attempting to configure it?
> 
> 3. If there was a simple tutorial, step by step guide with easy to
> setup and test examples, would this encourage more users to
> investigate and use DUNDi?
And then suggest to fix the problem elsewhere. 

If there was such a tutorial, it would be half-frustrated before I would
have even heard of it.

Which brings another set of questions:

1. Is it difficult to add documentation to the wiki?

2. Is it difficult to add documentation to the Asterisk source?

-- 
               Tzafrir Cohen       
icq#16849755                    jabber:tzafrir at jabber.org
+972-50-7952406           mailto:tzafrir.cohen at xorcom.com       
http://www.xorcom.com  iax:guest at local.xorcom.com/tzafrir

On Aug 17, 2007, at 3:34 PM, JR Richardson wrote:
> Questions:
>
> 1. Is the wiki DUNDi example and the dundi.conf file too difficult to
> follow for new users?
>
difficult enough to impede "playing" with it,
to many things to do during a regular day,
meaning, I won't go thru it unless I am desperate to use it,

> 2. Does the complexity of the DUNDi setup discourage you from using it
> or even attempting to configure it?
ditto,
>
> 3. If there was a simple tutorial, step by step guide with easy to
> setup and test examples, would this encourage more users to
> investigate and use DUNDi?
>
a cookbook, step by step to make all average Joes DUNDI with
another friend's * box
> I'm interested in putting together a new-user tutorial about DUNDi
> configuration and setup.  There is a lot of great information, setup
> guides already but the feedback I get is that the current examples are
> a bit complicated to follow for new users.
>
yep, please disclose the secret handshake to get a hold of clear  
documentation,
that's just humor, everybody appreciates open source free software at  
whatever level,

> Your feedback is appreciated.
>
> Thanks.
>
> JR
> -- 
> JR Richardson
> Engineering for the Masses
>
> _______________________________________________
> --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
Andres Paglayan

--"Harmony is more important than being right"
Bapak

On 8/17/07, JR Richardson <jmr.richardson at gmail.com>
wrote:
> Questions:
>
> 1. Is the wiki DUNDi example and the dundi.conf file too difficult to
> follow for new users?
>
> 2. Does the complexity of the DUNDi setup discourage you from using it
> or even attempting to configure it?
>
> 3. If there was a simple tutorial, step by step guide with easy to
> setup and test examples, would this encourage more users to
> investigate and use DUNDi?
Hi JR,

It was great to have you on the conference, thanks again for
participating. Those who missed can hear your talk at

 http://asteriskusersconference.org/latest.htm

I would very much welcome your efforts to make a tutorial on the
subject and I'm sure the community would be happy to see it happen as
well.

/r

JR Richardson wrote:
> Questions:
> 
> 1. Is the wiki DUNDi example and the dundi.conf file too difficult to
> follow for new users?
> 
> 2. Does the complexity of the DUNDi setup discourage you from using it
> or even attempting to configure it?
> 
> 3. If there was a simple tutorial, step by step guide with easy to
> setup and test examples, would this encourage more users to
> investigate and use DUNDi?
> 
> I'm interested in putting together a new-user tutorial about DUNDi
> configuration and setup.  There is a lot of great information, setup
> guides already but the feedback I get is that the current examples are
> a bit complicated to follow for new users.
> 
> Your feedback is appreciated.
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> JR
I just happened to spend some time this weekend messing with DUNDi after 
hearing the discussion on the asterisk users conference. I would say 
there is definitely room for improvement in the documentation. I did 
manage to get it working but there were a few things that would have 
helped me get moving more quickly:

* I took me quite a while (and I'm still not sure I get it all) to 
understand what exactly a dundi context is. What are best-practices in 
naming them? Where else does this name get used? Something that showed 
the relationships between dundi context in the mappings section, the 
peers section and how it's used (and I mean more than just "use a 
switch=>" statement) in the dialplan would be helpful.

* Stating more clearly that the [mappings] section of dundi.conf 
determines how OTHER systems map dundi searches in a specific dundi 
context to extentions.conf contexts and how to connect to them on THIS 
system.

* I had to guess a little bit about how to use dynamic peers. dundi.conf 
has a register=yes option but it doesn't specify how you told asterisk 
that it had a dynamic address. Knowing how it's done in IAX and SIP I 
just copied that syntax and it seemed to work. Also, an example with a 
dynamic peer would be helpful. I haven't gotten this far in testing, but 
if a site has a dynamic address how do you set up the IAX channel so the 
static side can contact the dynamic via IAX?


As for your #2 and #3 questions:
Once you have a basic understanding of what the components of DUNDi are 
and how they work I think it's only slightly more complex than setting 
up an IAX trunk between two systems. Which is all you're really doing 
anyway with some added features.

I think simple examples showing you how to setup a DUNDi cloud with two 
systems that explained what each part of the config file accomplished 
would be very helpful to new users. A HOWTO that gives me a cookie 
cutter config file and says "put host A address here, put host B address 
here..." may get me a working setup but I still don't have any idea how
to expand it without understanding it.

My 2 cents anyway.

-Dave