Asterisk: The Future of Telephony

Handy Asterisk Features

Now that we’ve gone over some more of the basics, let’s look at a few popular functions that have been incorporated into Asterisk.

Zapateller()

Zapateller() is a simple Asterisk application that plays a special information tone at the beginning of a call, which causes auto-dialers (usually used by telemarketers) to think the line has been disconnected. Not only will they hang up, but their systems will flag your number as out of service, which could help you avoid all kinds of telemarketing calls. To use this functionality within your dialplan, simply call the Zapateller() application.

We’ll also use the optional nocallerid option so that the tone will be played only when there is no Caller ID information on the incoming call. For example, you might use Zapateller() in the s extension of your [incoming] context, like this:

    [incomimg]
    exten => s,1,Zapateller(nocallerid)
    exten => s,2,Playback(enter-ext-of-person)

Call Parking

Another handy feature is called “call parking .” Call parking allows you to place a call on hold in a “parking lot,” so it can be taken off hold from another extension. Parameters for call parking (such as the extensions to use, the number of spaces, and so on) are all controlled within the features.conf configuration file. The [general] section of the features.conf file contains four settings related to call parking :

parkext

This is the parking lot extension. Transfer a call to this extension, and the system will tell you which parking position ...