Asterisk
See also Otter
Overview
Bellman is a Via C7 Mini-ITX system running Ubuntu Linux that acts as my firewall / router.
Aug 08 I just upgraded from using Otter, a Toshiba Magnia SG20 server
Goal: the bottom line
Replace a $30 / month Packet8 phone with a more flexible system that allows me to use cheaper services.
It is working now!
We use on average 2-3 hours of outbound call services a month. The $30 service had unlimited outbound calling. I reduced this to $20/month by changing to a 400 minute / month plan. ($15 + taxes)
Grandcentral.com + Gizmo.com = no charge for incoming calls = $0.00 Les.net = 1.5 cents per minute for outgoing * 180 minutes max = $2.70
So that means we now are saving at least $17.30 per month. This makes the exorbitant $50 Comcast Broadband bill more bearable.
Incoming calls
Grand Central provides me with a free local phone number (DID) for incoming calls. They route the calls to a Gizmo Project SIP account.
I used to have a [Freeworld Dialup] account but no one ever used it so when they went to a subscription service I let it expire.
Outgoing calls
I currently use Les.net for outgoing calls. I use their pay-by-minute with no monthly fee. Rates are about $.015 / minute.
Another good provider is voipjet.com. I use them for my employer's business phone system.
Hardware available
1 Grandstream Budgetone phone
1 Sipura SPA2000 ATA (Can't find it. Geez my life is full of boxes of gadgets!)
1 Desktop running Ubuntu on the LAN with Ekiga softphone installed
1 Laptop running Windows XP on WiFi
1 Packet8 DTA-310, reflashed to be a Leadtek BVA8051. See http://www.voip-info.org/wiki-Packet8+DTA310+and+Asterisk and http://www.stromcarlson.com/projects/dta-310/
Softphone
Using Ekiga on the same system that has Asterisk installed on it meant I had to run gconf-editor (apps->Ekiga->Protocols) to change the SIP listen port from 5060 to 5061 since Asterisk was already using 5060.
Ekiga is the softphone installed by default with Ubuntu 8.10 Hardy Heron. I've seen softphones I like more but it works for testing and I use hard phones most of the time.
Implementation
I am using the generic asterisk package that is pulled from the Ubuntu repository. To this I make the following configuration changes.
As much as possible I keep general changes out of main config files by using include files. This makes updates much simpler. In sip.conf add this line: #include sip-wildsong.conf and in extensions.conf add this: #include extensions-wildsong.conf The voicemail.conf file warns agains this approach so I edit it directly.
For each of the extensions, I then add entries in sip-wildsong.conf and extensions-wildsong.conf and voicemail.conf.
I edit the web settings for the hard phones and the configuration settings for the Ekiga softphones.
That's about it.
Les.net connection
I used the well-written instructions with the les.net account to set up iax.conf and extensions.conf files.
Gizmo connection
Getting Gizmo to work was probably the hardest part. It has to be set to forward calls to my Asterisk system.
