HOW TO SETUP ASTERISK@HOME

  1. Introduction
  2. Installing the Operating System with Asterisk
  3. Configuring the Operating System
  4. Configuring Asterisk
  5. Getting a Softphone Working - X-Lite
  6. Setting up External Calling using VoIP
  7. Setting up External Calling using VoIP (cont'd)
  8. Advanced Settings and Configuration (via SSH)
  9. Conclusion

Part 8: Advanced Settings and Configuration (via SSH)

We will now be using SSH to configure the PBX server. We recommend using Putty (http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html), which is freeware.

Download the Putty executable. Make sure you save it somewhere; do not Run from location, as what you are downloading is not an installation file, but the entire program itself. Open Putty by double clicking the file you downloaded. Enter your PBX server's IP address and click on SSH as per the screenshot below.


Click Open. You may be prompted about a security certificate. Ignore it and click Yes. Login with the following credentials:
username root
password <whatever you set as your *nix password earlier>

You should see a screen like this:


We will be modifying different configuration files with the VI text editor. Unfortunately, the VI text editor is not exactly easy to use. It is essential that you follow the few sets of instructions very precisely, as pressing just one wrong keystroke can muddle everything up.

If you are familiar with *nix operating systems, we have also included a ZIP file which you can get here. It contains the configuration files we used, which are more or less the same as what you'll find in the screenshots.

We'll start by editing SIP.CONF.
Type in cd/etc/asterisk then press ENTER to move to the asterisk directory.
Next, type in vi sip.conf and press ENTER to launch the VI text editor.


Once VI is open, press a (don't press enter). This readies the file for editing.
You should now be able to modify the file in much the same way as you would with any very basic text editor.


Modify the file as per this image, replacing 192.168.1.254 with your PBX server's IP address:


When you are done, press ESCAPE then type ZZ (all capitals, and don't press enter). This will save the changes and exit the VI text editor.

Now we will repeat this process for the file SIP_ADDITIONAL.CONF.
Next, type in vi sip_additional.conf and press ENTER to launch the VI text editor.
Once VI is open, press a (don't press enter). This readies the file for editing.

Modify the file as per this image. Keep in mind that if you have more extensions, or named your extensions differently (i.e. you didn't use the names John and Jane Doe) you will have to adapt the settings to your particular set-up.


When you are done, press escape, then type "ZZ" (all capitals, no quotes, and don't press enter), this will save the changes and exit the VI text editor.

Now we will repeat this process for the file VM_EMAIL.INC.
Next, type in vi vm_email.inc and press ENTER to launch the VI text editor.
Once VI is open, press a (don't press enter). This readies the file for editing.

You should see a blob of text and code. All that you have to modify is this one snippet:


Replace 192.168.1.254 with your PBX server's IP address. Again, when you are done, press escape, then type "ZZ" (all capitals, no quotes, and don't press enter), this will save the changes and exit the VI text editor.

Finally, type in asterisk -r and press ENTER to access the Asterisk console.
Next, type in restart now and press ENTER.


This will reboot the server and all changes made to the configuration files will now take effect. Remember not to use the web-based control panel to modify any settings or you will lose any changes you made manually to the configuration files.

Click here to continue to the next step!

Copyright © 2006-2012 Michael Soares & Alexander Blank