Has anyone here got any experience of setting up a VoIP server?
I have a couple of sip trunks from various places (Sipgate, Enta) which I hardly ever use but would like to start making use of. I have an account at pbxes.org which allows me to aggregate them but I'd rather run something of my own that I can learn something from.
I'm therefore thinking about setting up a server running Asterisk (or similar) and some kind of web interface.
Preference for Ubuntu server, Debian or CentOS in that order; most of the instructions I've found have been for CentOS (which I haven't yet tried), but the ones I have found for Debian/Ubuntu haven't worked one way or another. I'll try one of the CentOS how-to's next unless anyone here has some pointers?
Mark
On 25 November 2014 at 16:46, Mark Rogers mark@more-solutions.co.uk wrote:
I'm therefore thinking about setting up a server running Asterisk (or similar) and some kind of web interface.
Forgot to add what my objectives are: - I want to be able to make/receive calls via the Sipgate/Enta trunks, and route incoming calls to an appropriate extension depending on where they come from - I want to be able to have certain callers allowed through to my extension (which will be an Android phone) 24/7, with limits on other callers
On 25/11/14 16:48, Mark Rogers wrote:
On 25 November 2014 at 16:46, Mark Rogers mark@more-solutions.co.uk wrote:
I'm therefore thinking about setting up a server running Asterisk (or similar) and some kind of web interface.
Forgot to add what my objectives are:
- I want to be able to make/receive calls via the Sipgate/Enta trunks,
and route incoming calls to an appropriate extension depending on where they come from
- I want to be able to have certain callers allowed through to my
extension (which will be an Android phone) 24/7, with limits on other callers
You might like to take a look at FreePBX (http://www.freepbx.org/).
It's CentOS based, which is a pain if you hate RPM-based distros (which I do), but there are destructions kicking around for installing it in Ubuntu. I tried that about a month ago and gave up as it was a time-sink and fairly pointless. I just installed the default in a VM and it works fine with Soho66.
It's very comprehensive, so quite a learning curve!
Cheers, Laurie.
On 25 November 2014 at 17:57, Laurie Brown laurie@brownowl.com wrote:
You might like to take a look at FreePBX (http://www.freepbx.org/).
That is the way I have been leaning (and I have had a couple of unsuccessful attempts at installing on Ubuntu).
It's CentOS based, which is a pain if you hate RPM-based distros (which I do), but there are destructions kicking around for installing it in Ubuntu. I tried that about a month ago and gave up as it was a time-sink and fairly pointless. I just installed the default in a VM and it works fine with Soho66.
OK, that sounds like a plan. Except that what I really want to achieve is have it running in a hosted VM somewhere which means installing from tarball. Hopefully it'll be straightforward if I pick a CentOS VM to start from though.
It's very comprehensive, so quite a learning curve!
I don't mind learning (in fact that's part of the reason for doing it), I just don't want to mess around with the installation process!
I'd be much happier with apt-get install freepbx (or yum install freepbx) if only so that the distro has responsibility for security patching, though.
On 26/11/14 10:22, Mark Rogers wrote:
On 25 November 2014 at 17:57, Laurie Brown laurie@brownowl.com wrote:
You might like to take a look at FreePBX (http://www.freepbx.org/).
That is the way I have been leaning (and I have had a couple of unsuccessful attempts at installing on Ubuntu).
I wasted a lot of time trying. I sort of got it working, but decided to give up and try the ISO for FreePBX. The difference was amazing, with a LOT more stuff enabled via the ISO. Thereafter, it was a no-brainer.
It's CentOS based, which is a pain if you hate RPM-based distros (which I do), but there are destructions kicking around for installing it in Ubuntu. I tried that about a month ago and gave up as it was a time-sink and fairly pointless. I just installed the default in a VM and it works fine with Soho66.
OK, that sounds like a plan. Except that what I really want to achieve is have it running in a hosted VM somewhere which means installing from tarball. Hopefully it'll be straightforward if I pick a CentOS VM to start from though.
Most decent VM companies will "mount" a specific ISO for you to boot from if you ask them. For instance, they rarely offer Gentoo by default, so I ask and they sort it. I've been using these people happily for years: http://www.pcsmarthosting.com/ and they have always been happy to do that for me.
It's very comprehensive, so quite a learning curve!
I don't mind learning (in fact that's part of the reason for doing it), I just don't want to mess around with the installation process!
I'd be much happier with apt-get install freepbx (or yum install freepbx) if only so that the distro has responsibility for security patching, though.
For now, my advice is stick with the packaged CentOS distro. There isn't very much need to actually use the OS itself. I think all I did was sort out SSH access.
Cheers, Laurie.
On 26 November 2014 at 11:32, Laurie Brown laurie@brownowl.com wrote:
I wasted a lot of time trying. I sort of got it working, but decided to give up and try the ISO for FreePBX. The difference was amazing, with a LOT more stuff enabled via the ISO. Thereafter, it was a no-brainer.
Well I've had a bit of success with these instructions: http://wiki.freepbx.org/display/HTGS/Installing+FreePBX+12+on+Ubuntu+Server+...
and now have FreePBX up on Ubuntu 14.04 ready to experiment with. I just have to work out where to start now...
Most decent VM companies will "mount" a specific ISO for you to boot from if you ask them. For instance, they rarely offer Gentoo by default, so I ask and they sort it. I've been using these people happily for years: http://www.pcsmarthosting.com/ and they have always been happy to do that for me.
It seems to depend what they use for virtualisation; it seems easier with Xen than with (eg) KVM, from what I've read.
For now, my advice is stick with the packaged CentOS distro. There isn't very much need to actually use the OS itself. I think all I did was sort out SSH access.
As it seems to be working at the moment I'll hold off until I break it but I'll probably at least install to a VM locally as a reference point.
Thanks for the advice.
-
Laurie Brown -
Mark Rogers