Asterisk

[alext5]

I heard some people talk about asterisk which I think relates to voIP, but I havn't found clear info on what it does. Is it possible to configure without too much trouble, if anyone has a website or information on using it in an home network i'd be glad to hear it.

 

[Blitzrommel]

Think of it as a free PBX system -- I found asterisk's website to be pretty helpful in a more detailed explanation.

http://www.asterisk.org

 

[XOR != OR]

Google for "asterisk wiki", you'll be glad you did.

Asterisk isn't for the faint of heart. The learning curve is a bit steep, especially for those of us that don't have a background in telephony.

That said, it's hardly on the same level of sendmail ( which I'm told requires blood sacrifices ). And once you get the basics, it's pretty easy to configure.

I'm using it at home and I have a small office setup on it. The office wanted a call center type of enviroment ( call queues with stats, voicemail boxes, ect... ). Avaya wanted about 35k for the equipment+install, and that was a low rough estimate. With asterisk, I did it in about 7k, with redunancy out the yin-yang.