Skip to main content

Configuring Asterisk® Software

Asterisk® is an open-source telephony solution which provides a wide variety of call management functionality. As a primarily Unix-based product, Asterisk® is best installed on a server separate from your Phone Password Manager server.

When using Asterisk® software, Phone Password Manager can be installed on a hardware machine or a virtual machine, and does not require a Dialogic® card or HMP software.

The Asterisk® module is included by default, and installs support for receiving calls from an Asterisk® server.

Phone Password Manager supports:

AsteriskNow

AsteriskNow is a complete Linux distribution with Asterisk, the DAHDI driver framework, and optionally, the FreePBX administrative GUI.

Download the AsteriskNow ISO from www.asterisk.org/downloads/asterisknow and install the operating system on either a new virtual machine or a hardware box.

Next:

Configure the Asterisk® server .

Asterisk package on a Linux environment

You can install the Asterisk® server in a Linux environment, either on a hardware machine or a virtual machine.

To install, use the system’s package manager to select the following packages, and apply the change:

  • asterisk

  • asterisk-core-sounds-en-gsm

  • asterisk-config

  • sox

    The sox package is required by Phone Password Manager to convert audio files.

    When using a source package to install Asterisk® , ensure that the make commands are run after all the libraries listed here have been installed and configured.

You may also need to allow access to the Asterisk audio file path, so that the "asterisk" user can create a new directory there; for example:

sudo chown asterisk:asterisk /usr/share/asterisk

The destination may vary between Asterisk versions and Linux environments; it can be found in the Phone Password Manager log, where it indicates that the directory creation failed due to permission issues.

Next:

Configure the Asterisk® server .

Asterisk package on a Windows environment

It is also possible to install the Asterisk® server in a Windows environment. Please note that Asterisk® for Windows is a 32-bit binary which is only supported on Windows 2000, XP, or 2003. You will need to install Cygwin on this server, in order to run the SoX binary required by Phone Password Manager.

Download the executable from www.asteriskwin32.com and install Asterisk in the default location.

The site requires the Adobe® Flash plugin.

Install the sox package from Cygwin. Cygwin is a Linux-like environment for Windows. The SoX package will allow Phone Password Manager to convert the ".wav" audio files to ".ulaw" audio files, which can be played back to end users. You can download and install Cygwin tools from:

http://www.cygwin.com/setup.exe

Using the Cygwin setup binary, search for the sox package and install it on the Asterisk installed directory (default c:\cygroot), or ensure the installation directory is in the system path.

Next:

Configure the Asterisk® server .

Configuring the Asterisk® server

{INTERNAL NOTE:

sudo asterisk -vvvvvvvvvvc

The asterisk starting command uses "-v" to produce more verbose output. More -v’s mean more verbose. When we need more detailed output to debug, normally we use more "v" there. It is not necessary to just start the asterisk service however.}

Once installation is complete, configure the Asterisk® server:

  1. Start the Asterisk service by running the following command:

    sudo asterisk -vc
or, on Windows:
asterisk -vc

  2. If you are using a Linux system, connect to the Asterisk console:

    sudo asterisk -r

  3. Navigate to the /etc/asterisk directory on Linux, or C:\cygroot\asterisk\etc on a Windows system.

  4. Open sip.conf for editing.

  5. Modify the configuration file by adding one or more of the following tags to the end of the file:

    [777]
type=friend
username=777
secret=777
host=dynamic
disallow=all
allow=ulaw

    Write your changes and close the file.

  6. Run the sip reload command from the Asterisk console to reload the new SIP configuration.

  7. Open extensions.conf for editing.

  8. Add one or more of the following tags at the end of the configuration file:

    [HiTPM]
exten => 777,1,Ringing
exten => 777,n,AGI(agi://10.0.42.103)
exten => 777,n,Hangup

    Where:

    • 777 is the newly-added extension

    • Ringing will ring first when calling this extension

    • 10.0.42.103 is the IP address where the Phone Password Manager instance is installed

    • Hangup will hang up after connection to the instance is finished

  9. To include the newly-added tag (HiTPM), add include => HiTPM to the [default] tag section below include => demo . You may also need to add this tag to the [From-Local] section as well.

  10. Write your changes and close the file.

  11. If the Asterisk server has not already started, run asterisk start.

  12. Run the dialplan reload command from the Asterisk console to load the new configuration.

Next:

Configure a software phone .

In this section: