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Asterisk tips and tricks

This page includes references to various tidbits of information that may assist you in your configuration of the Asterisk Open Source PBX. The documents are often contributions of Asterisk users, documentation of solutions they've created in their implementation.

How to start with Asterisk:

• Asterisk installation tips
• Asterisk rollout tips: Advice on how to deploy an Asterisk production system
• Getting Gnophone to work

SIP connectivity: sip.conf

• Asterisk Configurations for connecting with VOIP providers
• Letting SIP clients connect directly without media through asterisk

ISDN BRI and modems

• Asterisk: How to connect with CAPI
• Asterisk: How to connect with ISDN4Linux
• modem.conf: The configuration file
• zaptelBRI: 4 port ISDN hardware

Dial plan solutions

• Agents without agent channel: Burn chan_agent and do it in the dialplan!
• Answer before sending sound: Don't forget to answer the line
• Asterisk Advanced Retry-Dial (Callback) funtionality: Retry call if user (channel) is busy. Call is always originated on the original caller side
• Asterisk audio-wiki: A simple Audio-wiki
• Asterisk authenticate using voicemail passwords: A way to use the voicemail password to authenticate users on various situations
• Asterisk Blacklist function Do you hate unsolicited calls? Here's how to add a easy-to-use Blacklist system on your Asterisk server
• Asterisk call forwarding: How to configure call forwarding (*21*) in the dial plan
• Asterisk calling card AGI application sample
• Asterisk DO-NOT-CALL list generator A way for telemarketers to collect Do Not Call requests from people they pester
• Asterisk DUNDi Call Routing: How to use the DUNDi peering network. (Available as of CVS 10/18/2004)
• Asterisk Dynamic conferences macro Macro implementation of dynamic MeetMe conferences as alternative for conference call mixing on a phone
• Asterisk E164 Call Routing: How to store call routing information in the DNS with the ENUM standard instead of extensions.conf
• Asterisk ENUM dialing Do ENUM lookup and dialing on your Asterisk@Home server
• Asterisk Filter application Filter incomming calls with this add-on application
• Asterisk Hunting Groups for incoming calls: Hunting groups for incoming calls
• Asterisk Inject application Inject a sound sample on an arbitrary channel while spying on it.
• Asterisk Jabber: How to receive notifcations by Jabber of Incoming calls
• Asterisk last number repeat: How to configure quick redial in the dial plan
• Asterisk Phonebook application Access your contact list by typing a name using your phone keypad
• Asterisk presence: How to setup Asterisk presence support
• Asterisk record calls: How to monitor calls made in your server
• Asterisk record remote conference: How to record a remote conference (i.e. Astricon)
• Asterisk setup research lab: Includes advice on echo cancellation
• Asterisk SIP Messaging or IM as supported by eyeBeam and some other phones
• Asterisk Telemarketer Torture: An example of really awful, frustrating menu design.
• Asterisk tips 911: How to configure 911 calls
• Asterisk tips Airport Weather PHP Prompt for Airport code and get the airport weather
• Asterisk tips autoattendant: How to turn an Auto-attendant extension on and off
• Asterisk tips Automatic Call Back on Busy/Campon, Reverse HoldIf you are on hold - put them on hold as well! :-)
• Asterisk tips C Version of openclose.agi: AGI Program that control events within dialplan
• Asterisk tips Call Back: Callback if user (channel) is busy
• Asterisk tips call last caller: A quick way to connect to the last caller
• Asterisk tips call through: A simple call through example
• Asterisk tips callback: How to create voicemail callback solutions
• Asterisk tips campon: Camp on an extension (mini-queue)
• Asterisk tips DID: How to configure your PRI or BRI direct inward dial (DID) lines (MSN:s)
• Asterisk tips fileexistance: Branching based on the existance of file(s)
• Asterisk tips findme: Dial multiple phone numbers simultaneously, connecting to the first one to confirm acceptance of the call
• Asterisk Tips follow me: Have your number follow you from phone to phone (aka. Portable Directory Numbers)
• Asterisk tips forking: Forking in the dialplan
• Asterisk tips IVR menu: How to create voice/DTMF menus
• Asterisk tips Music Player Daemon as Music on Hold: Using MPD as music-on-hold through icecast ,ogg123 and sox
• Asterisk tips MythTV integration: An example to integrate Asterisk with MythTV's on-screen caller ID display
• Asterisk tips openclose.agi: Using an AGI script to have control on events within your dialplan
• Asterisk tips openhours: Including contexts based on date and/or time of day
• Asterisk tips phrase recording menu: A simple IVR menu to record and review sound files (phrases)
• Asterisk tips Queue Member ackcall
• Asterisk tips renumber extens: A perl script to renumber extensions.conf rules
• Asterisk tips simple voicemail live: An answering machine mimic without pickup option.
• Asterisk tips simple wake-up call: Simple (no cron, no prompts) wake-up call in perl/AGI very similar to the main Swedish telco
• Asterisk tips SIP URI Dial: Allow dialing a SIP address like: user@domain.com using SRV Lookup. (incoming and outgoing)
• Asterisk tips testing number Create a number for technicians to use to test or locate an extension
• Asterisk tips voicemail live: Answering machine mimic: Listen while caller is leaving voicemail for you; with pick-up option
• Asterisk tips wake-up: User can schedule a wake-up call
• Asterisk tips wake-Up and Reminder: Complete italian WakeUp Call and Reminder. No GUI required.
• Asterisk tips Wake-Up Call Perl: Perl version of a wake-up call, one script, multiple calls, no daemon
• Asterisk tips Wake-Up Call PHP: PHP version of a wake-up call, uses standard R 1.0 prompts
• Asterisk tips Wake-Up Call PHP with Snooze/Annoy: Same as above but uses an AGI to set snooze / cancel the wake-up
• Asterisk tips Weather PHP PHP version of Pearl Weather script
• Asterisk Voicemail Dialplan: How to setup voicemail in your dialplan
• Asterisk WhoIsIt: Announce incoming caller over the computer speakers.
• Authenticate Users by Caller ID or PIN - password: no external database required
• BLF notify on Grandstream GXP-2000 Get extension status on your quickdial LEDs on your Grandstream GXP-2000 phone.
• hunt-dial macro: define a hunting group for outbound calls.
• Program Calls in the future with Asterisk: Using small code in the Dialplan and callfiles
• Pstnexten macro: Allows you to define and dial a specific pstn connection (useful for troubleshooting systems)
• Stdexten macro: Used by pretty much everyone to define local extensions easily
• Superdial macro: This macro makes it MUCH easier to try to dial multiple extensions in a sequence you define
• Voicemail status based on IM status: How to use AGI to check whether user is available or not.

Use of Asterisk's Local channel

• Use Local channel and macros to add a timer capability to Asterisk's "Music on Hold"'

Using Asterisk's Macros

• Combine Asterisk's macros and Local channel to add a timer capability to Asterisk's "Music on Hold"

Channel functions

• Asterisk tips zap transfer: Using the built-in ZAP channel call transfer function

Third party software configuration

• Asterisk festival installation: Installation guide for the Festival application (speech synthesis)
• Convert WAV audio files for use in Asterisk

Securing your Asterisk installation

• Asterisk firewall rules: Examples on how to configure a firewall for Asterisk
• Asterisk security: General thoughts on Asterisk security
• Asterisk user authentication: General thoughts on how to authenticate users

Debugging Asterisk

• Asterisk cannot find sound files: A few tips and one cause
• Asterisk cmd NoOp is useful for debugging dialplans (your extensions.conf file)
• Asterisk debugging: Tips on debugging deadlocks
• Asterisk disable frame buffer: How to disable your VGA frame buffer on the Linux text console. The frame buffer may cause jittery sound.
• Asterisk PSTN interface debugging: Solving PSTN interface problems (Echo, Dropped calls, etc)
• Asterisk Request to schedule in the past: Tips on how to resolve these log messages.
• Asterisk X11: Avoiding jittery sound by disabling the X Window System (Gnome/KDE) on your Linux server
• How to debug and troubleshoot VOIP: Overview and many good pointers

Digium Zaptel hardware

• Asterisk TE410p No Interrupts: Rebooted your box with Digium TE410 cards and now it looks DOA
• Asterisk wcte12xp: Outgoing calls not working - playing all-circuits-busy-now freePbx 2.2.3 /trixbox 2.8.x
• Asterisk x100p echotraining: Handling echo cancellation on Digium x100p cards

Various configuration tips

• Add Voice Recognition to Asterisk: How to integrate Asterisk with TellMe's VoiceXML studio for Voice Recognition in your IVR
• Asterisk and faxes: Faxing with Asterisk
• Asterisk automatic daily restart: How to automatically restart Asterisk once a day
• Asterisk CDR csv handling: How to collect CDRs from many Asterisk servers
• Asterisk CDR csv handling2: Bash script to summarize usage statistics from csv CDR records
• Asterisk click to call: Link phone numbers in your browser so you can click on them to dial
• Asterisk configuration from database
• Asterisk - dual servers: How to connect two Asterisk servers and make them work together
• Asterisk Dynamic Conferences: Tools for creating dynamic conferences that expire at a later date
• Asterisk echo cancellation: Trying to find out why you have echo problems in Asterisk
• Asterisk echo analog lines: Some information about echo problems on analog lines (FXO/FXS)
• Asterisk embedded systems: How to setup a very small Asterisk server
• Asterisk legacy integration: How to integrate Asterisk with your old PBX
• Asterisk Queue Callback: Allow your customers to hang up while holding in a queue and get called back when their turn comes
• Asterisk Queue with limited calls per IAX agent: Limit number of calls to operator with group()
• Configuring the console sound card
• display asterisk callerID on a squeezebox/ slimp3 using a slimserver
• Using Slimserver for Music on Hold: How to use a local or remote slimserver for your Music on Hold
• Configuring Asterisk Queues: A tutorial on setting up Asterisk queues.

Using the manager API

• Asterisk auto-dial out: How to make Linux applications dial out on demand
• Asterisk record calls: How to monitor and record calls in your PBX with ZAP channels
• Asterisk tips managing CID names: A simple web interface for managing CID names
• Monitor setup sample: Another example on how to monitor calls

AGI examples (contributed by imran)

• JAVA-AGI:
• MANAGERAPI-JAVA-AGI:
• Perl-recmsg-AGI;
• Perl-SIP-AGI:
• Perl-SIPCALLOUT-AGI:
• Perl-ZAPINCOMMING-AGI:
• Perl-ZAPOUTGOING-AGI:
• Perl-ZAPSIPIAX_INCOMMING_OUTGOING-AGI:

More AGI scripts

• Perl-AustralianWeather:
• Perl-EMAIL-AGI:

Utility Scripts

• Perl Add/Modify/Delete user script
• Xmail filter to Voicemail script - Written in sh with embedded python and awk.

See also

• Asterisk Appliances

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