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Build Your Own PBX

Posted by Zonk on Sun Mar 06, 2005 10:24 PM
from the quiet-sunday-project dept.
IT Technology
Kerbo writes "Kerry Garrison has written up a complete guide to building your own PBX with Asterisk@Home to create your own working PBX system. In the article, he shows how you can build a complete, working system for under $20 (assuming you have some old hardware laying around the house)."
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  • Next on Slashdot (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 06 2005, @10:25PM (#11862632)
    Become a Millionaire with only $20, and another $999,980 laying around.

      • And more resources (Score:5, Informative)

        by fiji (4544) * on Sunday March 06 2005, @11:11PM (#11862885)
        Make sure your connection is up for it:
        http://testyourvoip.com/ [testyourvoip.com]

        Wikipedia VoIP Article:
        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voip [wikipedia.org]

      • Re:Next on Slashdot (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Eil (82413) on Sunday March 06 2005, @11:26PM (#11862942) Homepage Journal

        Mod me up! :)...

        Um, no. I have mod points, but I'm not modding you up. Rather than modding you down, however, I'd like to point out a couple things that have been bugging me about a lot of Slashdot comments recently.

        1) You felt the need to ASK to be modded up instead of letting the content of your comment stand on its own.

        2) Your reply has sweet fuck all to do with the comment that you replied to and you did this solely to give your post higher placement in the comments. A sad tactic, and the one that I most often give out negative mod points for. Next time, start a new thread. If you feel that what you have to say is so important that it must reach the largest audience possible, take out a few banner ads. Don't further wreck the continually derailing train that is Slashdot commentry.

  • And what's neat... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Pig Hogger (10379) <pig...hogger@@@gmail...com> on Sunday March 06 2005, @10:28PM (#11862647) Homepage Journal
    And what's neat is that it's ready to go VOIP at the same time.

    Hmmmm. How about making a Linux distro that gives out a PBX/bastion host/firewall???

    • Re:And what's neat... (Score:5, Funny)

      by darnok (650458) on Sunday March 06 2005, @11:39PM (#11862996)
      I've already got a highly effective PBX firewall in place. It's called "leaving the phone off the hook", and it's very effective around dinner time to ensure we don't get snowed by phone calls to our teenage daughters.

      Even better, it comes with a highly effective content filter. Callers with truly important news will, upon finding the house phone is engaged, call one of our mobile phones. However, teenagers, with their inherent lack of cash and memories of past confrontations with parents over mobile phone call costs, will instead retry the home phone approximately every 60 seconds. I can guarantee that, from the instant I replace the phone after dinner, it's never more than 60 seconds till it starts ringing again.

  • Kerry's Blog is kinda interesting too ... (Score:5, Informative)

    by xmas2003 (739875) * on Sunday March 06 2005, @10:28PM (#11862651) Homepage
    Here is Kerry's Blog [blogspot.com] which is kinda interesting reading too.

    For those with extra hardware to run Astrerix@Home, consider running Folding@Home! ;-) [powder2glass.com]

  • Using IP Phones with this (Score:3, Informative)

    by Kerbo (835934) * on Sunday March 06 2005, @10:33PM (#11862679)
    While I ddid focus on using softphones, you can use either SIP phones or normal phones using an ATA adapter. SIP phones range in price from $69 - $500.

  • Voicemail hell (Score:5, Funny)

    by jsimon12 (207119) <slashdotNO@SPAMxemu.org> on Sunday March 06 2005, @10:34PM (#11862680) Homepage
    So now when people call me they can go through auto attendent hell just like the big companies.

  • Asterisk has good WAF... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by mutterc (828335) on Sunday March 06 2005, @10:34PM (#11862683)
    (Wife Acceptance Factor)

    Ours (done in a modern machine, so it would have PCI 2.2 for the cards to drive Plain Old Phones) has a (not hard to do once the basics are working) callpath that's a caller-ID whitelist.

    Calls from numbers "on the list" ring the phones, then go to voicemail, like "normal" calls would. Calls from one of our cellphones tell the caller how many new voicemails are waiting, then distinctive-ring the phones, then go to voicemail. Calls from unknown, private, or not-on-the-list numbers go straight to voicemail without ringing the phones.

    You'll pry it out of my wife's cold dead hands...

    • Re:Asterisk has good WAF... (Score:5, Funny)

      by phil4 (666912) on Sunday March 06 2005, @10:49PM (#11862795)
      > You'll pry it out of my wife's cold dead hands...

      Dude, that's just sick. Bury her already.

    • You are the man, here's why: (Score:5, Interesting)

      by hot_Karls_bad_cavern (759797) on Sunday March 06 2005, @11:26PM (#11862941) Journal
      Fucking THANK YOU!!

      Once my SO figured out she could have this too if, and only if, daddy gets to buy a new machine. i said it'd probably needs a good amount of horsepower and needed a lot of ram - she was still stunned by the idea of having such a phone system, she didn't even question it.

      Hot damn, new server AND a new phone system to play with - i looked at the gui screenshots of the astGUI client - holy shit, this is going to be fun.

  • For those of you that don't know what PBX is (Score:5, Informative)

    by ballsanya (596519) on Sunday March 06 2005, @10:35PM (#11862688)
    For those that don't know...Private Branch Exchange [wikipedia.org][wikipedia.org]

  • SOHO (Score:5, Insightful)

    by erick99 (743982) <homerun@gmail.com> on Sunday March 06 2005, @10:37PM (#11862709) Homepage
    It you just opened your own cottage industry style consulting business out of your home, something like this could make you look like a bigger business. I could see the advantage to that. The features of the system would be handy too for a new and very small business.

  • Could someone please explain the last mile? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Sark666 (756464) on Sunday March 06 2005, @10:37PM (#11862713)
    With all this talk of voip here and there, I've never understood how the actual conversion from ip to pots actually takes place.

    Basically I want to know how these companies do it. How do the perform this termination service? How small a scale could one do this himself?
    • In a PURE VOIP scenerio, you could get PSTN/POTS termination from a company like Vonage, Broadvoice, VoicePulse, or a number or other companies. This basically gives you Dialtone-over-internet. What you need on your side is either a single softphone, ATA adapter, or something like an Asterisk box communicate with the provider. VOIP is suitable for everything from 1 user to any number of business class users.

  • eBay (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 06 2005, @10:49PM (#11862793)
    The most recommended card is the Digium Wildcard X100P FXO card which can be purchased brand new on eBay for $6.95 each.

    Not for long...
  • So, this is a PBX. So, I can hook this hardware up to the telco and take incoming calls from clients anywhere in the world over IP and make a call for them to a telco phone number, and let them talk over my PBX, correct?

    OK, but what I do not know is what kind of connection to the telco do I need to do this? Can I do it using my standard phone connection? I would think you need multiple lines outgoing to the telco POTS (plain old telephone system), correct? So, if I have N lines to the telco, I can handle a max of N calls from clients on my IP to Telco PBX, correct?

    So, would this be cost effective as a business model? Is a certain number of lines required, etc?

    TIA

    • Way off. There's no need to have POTS lines if you want to be a telecom, you need end termination.

      Check out http://voip-info.org/ and good luck! =) It's a fun, crazy learning curve.

    • Re:Is it cost effective to become a mini-Vonage? (Score:4, Informative)

      by Kerbo (835934) * on Sunday March 06 2005, @11:09PM (#11862881)
      You can use any of the following: Regular phone lines (multiple modems or multi-line modems) ISDN Trunk lines T1 Trunk lines Internet-based carriers If you have 2 regular phone lines, you can handle 2 concurrent calls, a T1 can handle up to 23. It is a very effective cost point considering the alternative standard PBX costs.
        • And even saying PRI uses 23 channels for voice and 1 for call setup/teardown is specific to a single PRI T1.

          The spec for PRI allows that one channel for call setup/teardown to handle as many as 20 PRI spans. After the first PRI (which is shorted the control channel) each of the remaining 19 PRI T1 circuits can use all 24 channels for voice or whatever service you configure them for with your provider.

          In other words if you can afford the expenditure, you can do variable bandwidth connections across 1 x 23
  • Hi,
    I'm considering setting up Asterisk at home, however, the WAF (wife acceptance factor) is going to be very important here, so I'd like to make sure I know what I'm doing before I start. How hard is it to deploy an Asterisk@home with the following configuration:
    Two outgoing lines (one for local calls via local telecom, one for US calls via VoIP (packet8 -- using their DTA-310), and three local extensions (only one will be a "real" telephone.
    As I understand it, this means I need two FXOs, and one FXS. Can I use three separate cards for this, instead of buying a 2 or 4 port FXO, which seem to be more than 2* the cost of a single?
    • Why do you need two FXOs? The outgoing to packet8 would be via sip uplink. It would be INCREDIBLY silly to go FXO-> DTA 310 -> Ethernet again!!!

      Here is how to do it:
      http://www.voip-info.org/wiki-Packet8+DTA310 + and+A sterisk

      So now you're down to 1 FXO and 1 FXS. However, you can, if you choose, "downgrade" your now unused DTA-310's firmware to an older version that lets you set which server to log into. Set it to log into your Asterisk server, and suddenly you don't need an FXS because your DTA-

  • Thanks Asterisk! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Neo-Rio-101 (700494) on Sunday March 06 2005, @10:55PM (#11862825)
    This is great. When I get another free day off I'm going to try this out. If it makes me a lot in consulting and hence improves my CV, then all the better for me.

    Thanks Asterisk!

  • Then what? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by JPriest (547211) on Sunday March 06 2005, @11:03PM (#11862860) Homepage
    Once I have the PBX running, how do I get my phone number routed to it? Do I have to sign a lease agreement with a CLEC for them to host and forward my number? What paperwork do I fill out to get my number released from the ILEC and to whom do I send it?

    I could probably swing running the software and equipment, but I am lost with the administrative and telephony portion of having my own PBX.

    • Re:Then what? (Score:4, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 06 2005, @11:15PM (#11862905)
      You either use something like the Wildcard X100P Generic (mentioned in the article as available on eBay for $6.95) to connect your standard analog line to the Linux box.

      Or, you use a VoIP provider that does DID/Termination and will port your number. I believe Broadvoice does this. Then it's purely a VoIP line -- you use it by setting up the Asterisk box to use SIP to connect to Broadvoice. i.e. once you port into Broadvoice you'll no longer have a real landline.

      Broadvoice is $5.95/mth for DID (unlimited incoming, pay per minute outgoing) or starts at $19.95 for their unlimited package (includes North America and quite a few European locations).

      I have two Broadvoice DID's, one Broadvoice line that has the unlimited World that I use for outgoing calls, 1 Nu-Fone IAX outgoing line, 2 Unlimitel DID's (one of the only places to get Canadian numbers), 1 POTS line.

      One of my favorite side tricks after getting the basic PBX features running is to setup one of the DID lines to give me DISA (direct-inward-system-access) when I call from my Cell Phone (based on Caller ID) so I can then dial out one of the outgoing accounts to anywhere in the world and only have to pay for a local call on my cell phone. (Here in Canada long distance is rarely included on cell phones like it is in the states)

      Don't get into the things you were talking about. You only go there if you're running a business and want things like 24 flexpath lines on a T1.
    • if you currently have a single, POTS line from your local telco then you'll need one of them modem cards. And that's it. Plug the phone into the card, tell Asterisx about it, and you're done - you have a 1 line PBX. Good for call screening and voicemail.

      You don't need to tell your telco anything - this isn't the same as getting a block of DID numbers and a T1. :)

  • Just so you appreciate what you are doing, (Score:5, Interesting)

    by pair-a-noyd (594371) on Sunday March 06 2005, @11:04PM (#11862863)
    Here's a REAL PBX that is my personal property [systemrecycler.com].
    It's a Rolm CBX II 9000 that is configured to handle 10,000 lines. (Yes, it's operational) It was purchased for $3,000,000 when it was brand new. It's had additional upgrades installed, it's net value was over $5,000,000 at one point in the very recent past.

    It fills an entire building. So, compare that with this new tech and you'll all the more appreciate what you have in front of you...

        • Maintenance is the problem on older ROLM boxes. We once lost phone service for an entire day when one card in teh switch died. They had to fly the part from Toronto because there was no local supply here in Vancouver.

          There may be no shortage of ROLM parts floating around on eBay, but the know-how to install and configure these switches is what is in short supply these days.

  • NOTE: This will erase all data... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Goldenhawk (242867) on Sunday March 06 2005, @11:06PM (#11862870) Homepage
    From the article:
    • With Asterisk@Home, you simply need to download the disk image, burn it to a CD, and boot off of it.
      • * Burn Asterisk@Home iso to a blank CD
        * Boot your Asterisk PC with the CD and press enter
        NOTE: This will erase all data on the hard drive of the PC!!!
    Just a "minor technical detail", that last note. The way people don't RT*A around here, I'll bet in a day or two we'll see some late posts whining about their loss of data. (is that Darwin I hear?)

    Aw, com'on, don't tell me you've never just hit enter without REALLY reading the dialog box, right?

  • Not a commercial, but you can add regular telephones to this great PBX system by going to www.voipsupply.com [voipsupply.com] Most consumer SIP equipment is locked for Vonage, CallVantage, or Net2Phone. This shop sells non-configured versions which you can simply plug into your network, configure, and go. There are single- and dual-port analog adapters with FSX support, and fairly nice (and cheap) desktop phone sets, all SIP compatible.

  • Very clever IMO (Score:4, Informative)

    by billsf (34378) <billsf@@@cuba...calyx...nl> on Monday March 07 2005, @12:43AM (#11863232) Homepage Journal
    Those Lin/Winmodems are simply a soundcard with a telephone interface. They are of no value to most of us that have had fast Internet connections for years. Wait a minute: They have been approved to be connected to the PSTN! That is by far the greatest expence of producing this hardware.

    Might I add, with a bit of experience, and perhaps a 'trade school' education in electronics it is trivial to reverse them and make 'ATA' devices. (Actually I think they are called 'FXS' devices in telco lingo. The devices that must be approved for connection to the PSTN are 'FXO' modules.) At somewhere between zero and a couple Euros per linmodem, used, this is a great idea.

    As for the software, I'll stick to FreeBSD or Gentoo Linux and install my own Asterisk. Binaries give me the creaps. Computers a couple or three years old are likely to have more PCI slots and maybe an onboard 'Lin/Winmodem and lan card. While ee100s are a very good NIC (get them for as little as EUR 5,--) Linux and the BSDs have drivers for just about all types -- far more than Windows ever had.

  • DO NOT BOOT THE Asterisk@Home ISO !!!!!! (Score:5, Informative)

    by the3ngineer (865588) on Monday March 07 2005, @07:29AM (#11864249)
    DO NOT BOOT THE Asterisk@Home ISO !!!!!!

    IT WILLE AUTOMATICALLY FROMAT YOUR / PARTITION WITHOUT AKSING YOU A THING.

    OMG this is freekin' Unbelievable!!!

    I've downloaded the Asterisk@Home and like every other n00b around I just booted up from it (no I've not read any warning s or FULL documentation). I bet 98% of people around to the same thing. After the kernel boot and X detection phase it started formatting my / partition. NOT even a ONE question asked. Of course it screwed my system.

    The good part is that I booted from this ISO in a virtual machine (not my real box) and I just lost a default Debian installation (installed on a virtual machine).

    Is this the latest way to distribute bad things on the net? Post an article regarding an open source project that do a lot of good things after it FORMAT your / partition?

    Please if you wanna try Asterisk@Home ISO do it in a blank new virtual machine not your development/home primary box.

    Regards,
    the3ngineer

    • Re:DO NOT BOOT THE Asterisk@Home ISO !!!!!! (Score:4, Funny)

      by wagemonkey (595840) on Monday March 07 2005, @09:10AM (#11864843)
      IT WILLE(sic) AUTOMATICALLY FROMAT(sic) YOUR / PARTITION WITHOUT AKSING(sic) YOU A THING.
      And delete your spellchecker and lock your shift key too.

      So you booted from an unknown ISO without reading the documentation first and it did something you didn't expect? And you're surprised?
      You were probably luckier than you deserved to be, only losing a VM. It's nothing to do with being a n00b, lots of n00bs know to be careful before running unknown software...
      Yes, it might happen to me one day but I'd be fully prepared to accept that it would be my fault for not being more careful.

      Are all your knives labelled "Caution, may be sharp"?

    • If you don't know what a PBX is, then this probably isn't of interest to you in the first place. I have no idea what "Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman (ECDH) and Elliptic Curve Menezes-Qu-Vanstone (ECMQV) for key agreement, and Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) for signature generation/verification" means, but that didnt stop me from reading about it.

    • Re:Lousy Submissions (Score:4, Informative)

      by mustangsal66 (580843) on Sunday March 06 2005, @10:39PM (#11862729)
      PBX = Private Branch Exchange

      (Your work phone system)

      Just in case it's not clear yet

      http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/P/PBX.html
    • Standard, everyday IT geeks know what PBX systems are.

      HINT: When the article provides absolutely NO background information, it can safely be said that everyone but you knows what we're talking about.

      • Re:Lousy Submissions (Score:4, Insightful)

        by drsquare (530038) on Monday March 07 2005, @01:24AM (#11863350)
        Not just him, but a lot of other people, including me. Obviously not everyday 'geeks' know what they are, just a self-important few.

        As for saying 'well google it', it's not my job to find out something so I'm interested in an article, it's up to the article submitter to sell the story to me, if he wants me to read it. Every salesman worth his salt knows that.
        • You use this word, "geeks" in your post as if I'm supposed to know what it is. Are you all self-important that defining your words is beneath you? If you're worth your salt, you would have sold me on it so that I would consider your post worthy.

          However, for your benefit, I hope slashdot institutes an auto-acronym feature. So that next time there's a story about a new BIOS (Basic Input/Output System), SCO (Santa Cruz Operation), IBM (International Business Machines), or even 3M (Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Corporation) you'll (you will) know what those acronyms mean.
    • The parent submission is a serious troll. I mean, I started working the lowest level helpdesk in 97, and when I got my first tour of the server room, I was shown the PBX. Now, I had no idea what PBX stood for, or how it worked (and to be honest, I still don't), but I was told that its primary purpose was to handle all the phone switching.

      I mean, come on. It's almost all but impossible to work in the IT field and not at least see a PBX.

      Slashdot isn't supposed to spell out every single technology that it fe

    • The Jig is Up (Score:5, Funny)

      by mykepredko (40154) on Sunday March 06 2005, @11:34PM (#11862981) Homepage
      Hey Folks,

      We've got to be more careful - he's starting to ask questions. It's pretty important that he doesn't find out what else we've been keeping from him.

      myke

    • Re:Lousy Submissions (Score:5, Informative)

      by Alioth (221270) <no@spam> on Monday March 07 2005, @04:52AM (#11863867) Journal
      It's pretty much general knowledge what a PBX is.

      Some trivia: PBXs used to be known as PABXs, when it was new and highly advanced for a company to have a private AUTOMATIC branch exchange, rather than one where a switchboard operator would plug plugs into the right holes to manually route calls. The original PABXs were electromechanical - some large companies had Strowger private exchanges the size of a typical telco exchange unit.
    • The answer to your question is in the Step by Step Home Wiring Setup" [vonage.com] in the Vonage Faq.

      What I would like to know is if this Astrix PBX they talked about in the article can be used to replace the ATA Vonage hands out. I'm pretty sure Vonage won't let me return the ATA for any value, but Astrix looks to have more features.
      • Vonage is good for people that don't feel like dedicating a computer to this task and spending any more money than they have to. The little router they give you handles QoS well enough to keep your 0wned spyware-infested, upstream-consuming computer from ruining the quality of your voice calls. Asterisk is for those of us who want to make changes to our services, play with stuff, do it ourselves, maybe save a few bucks as well. I just finished rolling out an Asterisk install for a company and they love it a

    • Re:Student Solution (Score:5, Informative)

      by nmos (25822) on Monday March 07 2005, @12:22AM (#11863161)
      You can just use a regular phone line or a voip line if you prefer. No need to talk to the phone company. Busy signals for incoming calls are the phone companies problem, you don't have to worry about that. In a simple case you might have your Asterisk box pick up on the second ring (caller ID comes in between ring 1 & 2) and ask the caller to "press 1 for Jack, 2 for Jill etc. When the caller makes a selection you then ring the phone distinctivly (ie. different kind of ring for different people) and if noone answers the call goes to voice mail.

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