I am very new to Asterisk, it was a weekend project of mine that I jumped into this weekend. I have it up and working on a box at home, and I am nearly half way through the book I purchased friday "Asterisk: The Future of Telephony 2nd Edition". Anyway, I started this out so I could help a friend who wanted a VoIP PBX solution for his small business. I have been working with Cisco Callmanager for about 6 years now, and prior to that did help manage other PBXs as well as work on various Motorola VoFR projects as well. My friend came to me and well everything I deal with is really for larger businesses, and since I had heard about Asterisk in the past I thought it would be a good reason to finally jump into it. And what a jump it has been. Only scratching the surface with this thing and well I am very impressed with what I have seen so far. The main point for me writting others is to find out how others are using Asterisk for the home? Bit of over kill for most I am sure, and to be honest we (Wife, kid and I) don't even have a home phone anymore. After playing with this though, shesh I could have fun with it at home. :-) Thinking about getting a SIP line or trunk or something to tie into this for home usage. One of the next projects for me personally is to get a SIP client for my Cingular/AT&T 8525, it has wifi and hsdpa running Windows Mobile 6 and I am certain I have run across SIP clients before for these things. Be fun to play with and get working. So yes I am asking because I am unimaginative and need ideas on selling this to the wife. :-) That and I am just curious about what others feel are useful uses for it within the home, and what others get excited about regarding it all.
Michiel van Baak
2007-Oct-09 07:55 UTC
[asterisk-users] How are you using Asterisk at Home ?
On 17:54, Mon 08 Oct 07, D4rk F1ber wrote:> So yes I am asking because I am unimaginative and need ideas on > selling this to the wife. :-) That and I am just curious about what > others feel are useful uses for it within the home, and what others > get excited about regarding it all.What did the trick for me is integrating it with MythTV. When the phone rings my tv pauses, and starts recording on the harddisk. Once the call is over my wife has 15 seconds to go back to her seat before the tv resumes. -- Michiel van Baak michiel at vanbaak.eu http://michiel.vanbaak.eu GnuPG key: http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x71C946BD "Why is it drug addicts and computer afficionados are both called users?"
D4rk F1ber wrote: <snip />> One of the next projects for me personally is to get a SIP client for > my Cingular/AT&T 8525, it has wifi and hsdpa running Windows Mobile 6 > and I am certain I have run across SIP clients before for these > things. Be fun to play with and get working. > > So yes I am asking because I am unimaginative and need ideas on > selling this to the wife. :-) That and I am just curious about what > others feel are useful uses for it within the home, and what others > get excited about regarding it all.I run a small Open Source consulting/training company here in the Uk and am starting to build an * server so that myself and my business partner (who both work from our respective homes) are communicating properly. I have an analogue line coming into my home-office which connects to an x100p clone. Our plan is to be able to use that number for several of our business ventures (we have a couple of others between us :) and calls can be routed to our local handsets or voicemail or perhaps, to our mobiles or WiFi phones in the future... It's an interesting project, which serves two purposes for me. 1, We get an advanced, networked PBX system for a 2 man company :-) 2, We get to learn about using/deploying asterisk so we can advocate it in our business discussions. There's no better way to learn about something than by using it :-) My plan for the unit at my house, being a low power device, is to install something called Untangle (a fairly recently Open Sourced security platform), alongside Asterisk and Samba for a 24/7 home server and web filter/cache/firewall etc. (Possibly I'll add a UPnP backend if I have any grunt left in the machine). I'm blogging about it as I go if anyone is interested. Here's the first part of the story: http://www.theopensourcerer.com/2007/09/08/untangle-asterisk-pbx-and-file-server-all-in-one/ Cheers Alan -- The way out is open! http://www.theopensourcerer.com
On 10/9/07, D4rk F1ber <d4rkf1br at gmail.com> wrote:> > So yes I am asking because I am unimaginative and need ideas on > selling this to the wife. :-) That and I am just curious about what > others feel are useful uses for it within the home, and what others > get excited about regarding it all.I have a very simple setup for my Asterisk PBX at home. It comes with a Digium Dev Kit with 1 FXO and 1 FXS. It is also peered to SIPphone and FWD. All the extension numbers comes with a voicemail where the voicemail messages are sent to the individual e-mail accounts rather than storing them on the local hard disk drive of the server. Lastly, meetme is enabled so that if there will be at least 3 of us who are going to chat at the same time, at least we can do it easily. By the way, my Asterisk PBX server is also my wireless access point, web server, file server, music server, VPN server, database server, firewall and router. GNUbie -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.digium.com/pipermail/asterisk-users/attachments/20071009/3632b32d/attachment.htm
Michiel van Baak wrote: <snip />> What did the trick for me is integrating it with MythTV. > When the phone rings my tv pauses, and starts recording on > the harddisk. Once the call is over my wife has 15 seconds > to go back to her seat before the tv resumes. >Way cool :-) -- The way out is open! http://www.theopensourcerer.com
D4rk F1ber wrote:> So yes I am asking because I am unimaginative and need ideas on > selling this to the wife. :-) That and I am just curious about what > others feel are useful uses for it within the home, and what others > get excited about regarding it all.I do trunks/terminations so its easy for me to set all sorts of fun things up. Anyhow, here is a method for pitching it to your wife. If you have family dispersed throughout the United States, get yourself an 800 number and let Asterisk manage the way your family connects to each other at a cheap rate: E.g. Example: Mom 12125551000 (New York) Dan 13015551001 (DC) Tom 19085552001 (Jersey) Create a dialplan so your family can call your 800 number then re-route them to the family member of choice for example: Press 1 for Mom, Press 2 for Dan and so on... [transfer] exten => 1,1,Dial(SIP/12125551000 at provider) ; Call Mom exten => 2,1,Dial(SIP/13015551001 at provider) ; Call Dan exten => 3,1,Dial(SIP/19085552001 at provider) ; Call Tom Since you stated something about a child, this would also help them in the unfortunate event of them either not having a cellular nor money. They can call you toll free... You can create a find me follow me context and have a context ring multiple numbers... Send telemarketers to telemarketer hell on transfer (http://www.voip-info.org/wiki-Asterisk+Telemarketer+Torture) There is a lot of nifty stuff you can do. If you're willing to get some ATA's dirt cheap and you have family abroad, you can save your entire family money. There are many things you could do with it on a personal level. ===================================================J. Oquendo "Excusatio non petita, accusatio manifesta" http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0xF684C42E sil . infiltrated @ net http://www.infiltrated.net -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: smime.p7s Type: application/x-pkcs7-signature Size: 5533 bytes Desc: S/MIME Cryptographic Signature Url : http://lists.digium.com/pipermail/asterisk-users/attachments/20071009/58a5f55b/attachment.bin
I setup Trixbox on an Dell Precision 360. I ported my old POTS line over to a pay-as-you-go through Teliax because we weren't using more than 500 minutes a month on the home line. When a caller rings in, I screen the call with time-of-day routing. In general, if the call comes before 7:30 AM or after 10:30 PM, it isn't going to ring through (we had 'problems' with my father-in-law calling us at 7:00 on Saturday to see what we were doing). Instead, they get a voice menu with me politely telling the caller we're not accepting calls at that time. But, I added a code of '111' to that menu and gave it to the family. If they are calling with an emergency, they enter that code and it rings all the extensions in the house plus both of our cell phones. The first one to pickup grabs the call. If calls aren't restricted by TOD, they have to get past privacy manager and blacklist before they will ring some of the extensions (did this with a ring group). If nobody picks up, they are dropped into a voice menu that allows them to leave either of us messages or transfer to our cell phones. This way we can just give everyone a single number and not worry about letting out our cell phone numbers. Of course, calls to the cell phones are confirmed so when one comes in, we have to hit 1 on the cell if we want to accept the call... otherwise its back into VM for the caller. Of course, voicemails are sent via e-mail to my wife and I and I also setup an Aastra 57i on my desk at work that connects to the company server on line 1 and to the home box on line 2. I even got a second line from Teliax in August and set it up to only ring the phone at work. I used this line while I was setting up the wife's surprise 30th birthday party. It was brilliant because guests could call me and there was no trace of the call on my cell phone where she might see it and it didn't ring the home phones. I'm not doing anything really cool like pausing the TV but the setup has worked very well and has given us control over the phone. Instead of us being slaves to when people call, they get through at our pleasure now. It has been a big improvement. (plus it has impressed some of my friends!) Jason -----Original Message----- From: asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com [mailto:asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of D4rk F1ber Sent: Monday, October 08, 2007 6:54 PM To: asterisk-users at lists.digium.com Subject: [asterisk-users] How are you using Asterisk at Home ? I am very new to Asterisk, it was a weekend project of mine that I jumped into this weekend. I have it up and working on a box at home, and I am nearly half way through the book I purchased friday "Asterisk: The Future of Telephony 2nd Edition". Anyway, I started this out so I could help a friend who wanted a VoIP PBX solution for his small business. I have been working with Cisco Callmanager for about 6 years now, and prior to that did help manage other PBXs as well as work on various Motorola VoFR projects as well. My friend came to me and well everything I deal with is really for larger businesses, and since I had heard about Asterisk in the past I thought it would be a good reason to finally jump into it. And what a jump it has been. Only scratching the surface with this thing and well I am very impressed with what I have seen so far. The main point for me writting others is to find out how others are using Asterisk for the home? Bit of over kill for most I am sure, and to be honest we (Wife, kid and I) don't even have a home phone anymore. After playing with this though, shesh I could have fun with it at home. :-) Thinking about getting a SIP line or trunk or something to tie into this for home usage. One of the next projects for me personally is to get a SIP client for my Cingular/AT&T 8525, it has wifi and hsdpa running Windows Mobile 6 and I am certain I have run across SIP clients before for these things. Be fun to play with and get working. So yes I am asking because I am unimaginative and need ideas on selling this to the wife. :-) That and I am just curious about what others feel are useful uses for it within the home, and what others get excited about regarding it all. _______________________________________________ --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
> GNUbie wrote: > >> By the way, my Asterisk PBX server is also my wireless access point, >> web server, file server, music server, VPN server, database server, >> firewall and router. >>Repeat after me - NEVER NEVER NEVER run other servers on your router/firewall machine!!! That machine needs to be a maximum security low vulnerability box and running all sorts of stuff on it conflicts with that. Your web server is probably your weakest link in security, so I wouldn't put your file server, music server, or database server on that same box because if someone hacks through some webapp you've installed (it's happened to me with both the TWiki and awstats packages) then if they've got root on your web server box you don't want them messing with the other stuff. I know it sounds like overkill, but I see three boxes here: 1 - firewall/router 2 - web server and other public facing services (sendmail for example) 3 - internal facing services - database, asterisk, file/music server Some day when box #2 gets rooted (and it will eventually) you'll thank me... Steve
Totally agree *IF* the SIP elements behind your "router/firewall" have real IP addresses and you are not using NAT in your router. With NAT scenarios, I prefer to have a copy of Asterisk running on "firewall/NAT router" so it at least has one public IP address to make various SIP games a little easier. iptables can really protect asterisk from uninvited (npi) SIP / RTP packets if you are really paranoid also the asterisk running on your "firewall/NAT router" can be dedicated to just gateway functions and have your important and private asterisk pbx behind the NAT/firewall using the gateway as needed On 10/10/07, Steve Prior <sprior at geekster.com> wrote:> > > > Repeat after me - NEVER NEVER NEVER run other servers on your > router/firewall machine!!! >-------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.digium.com/pipermail/asterisk-users/attachments/20071011/20ad4193/attachment.htm