Switching to VoIP

This is the Title of the Book, eMatter Edition

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Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

Linux as a PBX

Evaluating VoIP for enterprise or for your home phone setup means a lot of experi-

mentation, and you’ll need to build a test server with which to hone your VoIP skills.

That test server should be something you can get a lot out of without spending a

bundle or committing to a specific vendor’s commercial VoIP platform before you’ve

done your homework. Free telephony software lets you do that homework.

Free Telephony Software

If you were learning engine repair instead of VoIP, you probably wouldn’t use a Ferrari

for your experiments. You would want something more forgiving and easier to work

on, like a nice Dodge Omni. Luckily, there’s Asterisk PBX software—the very open,

roomy-under-the-hood telephony server. Like a Dodge Omni, Asterisk is easy to work

on, support is a snap to find, and experimenting is cheap. In fact, Asterisk is free

(although its development is supported by Digium, Inc., http.//www.digium.com). So is

its source code.

But like a Ferrari, Asterisk is very powerful. Asterisk supports several Voice over IP

communication protocols: H.323, SIP, IAX, and others (see Chapter 7 for more on

these). Using these protocols, it can support just about any IP telephone, as well as

traditional analog and digital telephones. Asterisk has some industrial-strength ...