Linux Networking Cookbook

5.5. Adding Phone Extensions to Asterisk and Making Calls

Problem

Playing around on the Asterisk server is fun, but you're ready to set up some user accounts and make real phone calls. How do you set this up?

Solution

First, we'll set up some local user accounts including voicemail, and test them on the server. (In Recipe 5.6, we'll set up some softphones for some real calling.) You'll be editing these files on the Asterisk server:

• /etc/asterisk/sip.conf

• /etc/asterisk/extensions.conf

• /etc/asterisk/voicemail.conf

The default files are huge and full of helpful comments, but rather a chore to edit, so let's move them out of the way:

	# mv sip.conf sip.conf.old
	# mv extensions.conf extensions.conf.old
	# mv voicemail.conf voicemail.conf.old

We'll create three users: Ellen Ripley, Sarah Connor, and Dutch Schaeffer. Create a new sip.conf with these entries. Note that semicolons are used to comment out lines, not hash marks:

	;;/etc/asterisk/sip.conf;;
	[general]
	context=default
	port=5060
	bindaddr=0.0.0.0
	disallow=all
	allow=gsm
	allow=ulaw
	allow=alaw

	[ellenr]
	;Ellen Ripley
	type=friend
	username=ellenr
	secret=4545
	host=dynamic
	context=local-users

	[sarahc]
	;Sarah Connor
	type=friend
	username=sarahc
	secret=5656
	host=dynamic
	context=local-users

	[dutchs]
	;Dutch Schaeffer
	type=friend
	username=dutchs
	secret=6767
	host=dynamic
	context=local-users

Then, create a new extensions.conf with these entries:

	;;/etc/asterisk/extensions.conf;; [general] autofallthrough=yes clearglobalvars=yes [globals] CONSOLE=Console/dsp ...