Archive for October, 2007

Asterisk - Understanding Codecs

What are Codecs? In lame man’s term, they are the different levels of compression for the audio between the phone and Asterisk box, and between the Asterisk box and your carrier. What’s the differences and which ones are best? Read more »

Asterisk - Things You Need to Know

So you have Asterisk installed to your CentOS hardware. Now what? Let’s open up the hood and see what Asterisk can do… Before we do that, let’s examine some things that you need to know about Asterisk to setup and manage your Asterisk box… Read more »

Vyatta - My Basic Setup Guide

So if you haven’t already been introduced to Vyatta… Vyatta meet reader, reader meet Vyatta.
Vyatta is a fairly new Opensource, Debian based router that’s taking geeks by storm. And I can tell you from personal experience with Vyatta that it’s a powerful system.

So as I mentioned in a previous article, I would put together a quick start guide on getting Vyatta working “out of the box.” Here it is…

***Please note, at the time of this writing, the latest version was Vyatta Community Edition 2.0 - these commands might not work on the newest release.

Read more »

Vyatta - A Rival of Cisco?

Recently in the office, we began having problems with out internet connection and IM disconnecting regularly. Yes, we should have known better than using a residential grade Linksys router in the office. Normally it won’t be a big problem, but we need our internet connection to remain online 24/7 for the IP Phones and for communicating with our other offices during nighttime hours, etc.
So we set out on a search for a inexpensive business grade router, preferably from Linksys/Cisco. Interestingly enough we ran into the Vyatta team at HostingCon2007, and picked up a CD. Read more »

Asterisk - My Quick Installation Guide

There’s a dozen other quick installation guides for Asterisk. So why write another?
Well, unless you a Unix/Linux Guru you might find yourself confused when getting your Asterisk setup off the ground. Even if you are an experienced Linux user, you might find yourself running in circles trying to get that “special feature” working just so in Asterisk. So here it is, a straight forward beginners guide to Asterisk. Read more »

O’Reilly Asterisk: The Future of Telephony, Second Edition

So in August 2007, O’Reilly releases the second edition to the best selling book by the guys at AsteriskDocs.org. It’s an excellent addition to anyone’s book shelf that needs to the howto’s on Asterisk. I hunted for it at the local Barnes and Noble, and started reading it there in the coffee shop. I was looking for a few details on Asterisk Realtime (which unfortunately the book didn’t contain much on), but I did find some other interesting chapters. I would’ve brought it home with me, but the $49.99 pricetag, steered me away. Thanks to the power of the internet, and the guys at AsteriskDocs.org opening the book up as “opensource” … I found a PDF of the book for download. Read more »