Asterisk

Overview

For about a year, I used a system based on a Via C7 motherboard to run an Asterisk system at home. I still use Asterisk to run the phone system for my employer but I have gone to a simpler system at home based on a Sipura SPA2000 ATA, Gizmo5, and Google Voice. For more information see VOIP.

The goal in moving to Asterisk was to eliminate a monthly bill with Packet8 service. Packet8 is a fine service provider but I was easily able to replace the $30 bill with a pay-as-you-go bill of less than $5 per month with essentially no change in service level.

We use at most 2 to 3 hours of outbound call services a month. The standard Packet8 service for $30 included unlimited outbound calling which was a waste for us. I reduced this to $20/month by changing to a 400 minute / month plan. ($15 + taxes) but that's still more than we needed.

Then I changed over to use a Grandcentral (now Google Voice) number for incoming calls (free), which forwards to a Gizmo5 number (free) and a Les.net per-minute service for outbound calls. That translates to a whopping $2.70 per month if we talk for 3 hours outbound.

We now are saving at least $17.30 per month. This makes the exorbitant $50 Comcast Broadband bill more bearable.

The audio quality on Les.net continued to go down hill, so now I have eliminated the Asterisk server and use Gizmo5 and Google Voice for outgoing calls.

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.

I also had a Stanaphone number in New York but don't have forwarding on it right now. I had an IPKall number in Seattle but it has expired.

Outgoing calls

Updated 24-Nov-2008

For several months now I have been using Les.net for outgoing calls, but we have been experiencing audio drop outs in the outbound calls; the person at the other end hears dead air for 1 or 2 seconds at a time. This is very irritating, so I am going to try using the Gizmo Project CallOut service. They've been providing me a free incoming number, I figured why not try their outbound service as well.

When I signed on with Les.Net I put $25 in credit. I use their pay-by-minute with no monthly fee. I still have $21 left after several months. Rates are about $.015 / minute.

A better provider is voipjet.com. I use them for my employer's business phone system.

Outdated notes on home Asterisk system

Hardware

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.

Update 24-Nov-2008: I can't find any docs, well written or otherwise, on the Les.Net site.

Gizmo connection

Getting Gizmo to work was probably the hardest part. It has to be set to forward calls to my Asterisk system.

Set up Asterisk to use Gizmo for incoming calls

See the Asterisk FAQs for information on termination set up.