[lug] What would you like to know about Asterisk?

[Sean Reifschneider]

Next month I'm going to be talking at BLUG about Asterisk.  In order to
tune the talk to the audience, I'd like to hear what kinds of things the
list members would like to hear about.

Asterisk is a full service PBX phone system which runs on Linux and other
OSes.  A PBX is kind of the telephone equivalent of a network router or NAT
gateway, in that it allows different servers to communicate amongst
themselves and the outside world, and get access to services.

For example, I helped a friend set up an Asterisk system at his home which
has a whitelist of phone numbers that will ring right through to his
internal extensions, but other numbers get a message saying "If you are a
telemarketer, please put this number on your do not call list and hang up,
otherwise press 1 to complete the call", and if he's not at home the call
goes into an answering machine that in addition to having an call-in
interface will also e-mail voice messages...  This system connects to his
external phone line and also to internal phones, acting kind of like a
NAT with DMZ and iptables, to make an imperfect analogy.  :-)

A previous presentation on Asterisk I gave is at the following URL if you
would like to see what I previously talked about on this topic:

   http://www.tummy.com/Community/Presentations/asterisk-20070213/asterisk.html

More information on what Asterisk is is at:

   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asterisk_(PBX)

and general information on a PBX is at:

   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_branch_exchange

So, what can I tell you about Asterisk?

Thanks,
Sean
-- 
 Today's robots are very primitive, capable of understanding only a few simple
 instructions such as 'go left', 'go right', and 'build car'.  -- John Sladek
Sean Reifschneider, Member of Technical Staff <jafo at tummy.com>
tummy.com, ltd. - Linux Consulting since 1995: Ask me about High Availability