About the Authors

David Merel is the founder and CEO of Thinkbright LLC a local/long distance telephone company as well as a cutting-edge Voice over IP carrier, providing businesses of all sizes with sophisticated and low cost VoIP solutions.

David started Thinkbright (www.thinkbright.net) in 2005 and continues to manage the company and its employees, all of whom are dedicated IT professionals. David acts as the company's chief architect, continually designing new technologies that have added significant revenues to the company's operations. During his many years at Thinkbright, David has worked with the latest Voice over IP technology, including all VoIP equipment from major manufacturers such as Cisco, Polycom, Grandstream, and Aastra. He also works with customers ranging from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies, and interacts with system integrators and IT consultants who call Thinkbright on a daily basis for assistance with all the VoIP solutions that Thinkbright offers. Thinkbright manages its own PBX system, providing customers with PBX features such as Auto Attendants, Waiting Rooms, and Ring Groups, or assists customers in managing their own PBX network while providing these customers with the service for incoming and outgoing calls.

David has many years of experience with Trixbox and Asterisk, and has installed countless custom configurations and deployments using those solutions. He also reviewed Trixbox 2.6, which is an excellent complimentary book to Asterisk 1.6.

David earned a Bachelor of Arts triple majoring in Philosophy, Politics, and Law from SUNY Binghamton. David holds a CCNA (a Cisco Certified Network Associate) certificate and is proficient in over 10 programming languages and databases, various operating systems, VoIP and related protocols, and other business applications.

Barrie Dempster is currently employed as a Senior Security Consultant for NGS Software Ltd, a world-renowned security consultancy well known for its focus in enterprise-level application vulnerability research and database security. He has a background in Infrastructure and Information Security in a number of specialized environments such as financial services institutions, telecommunication companies, call centers, and other organizations across multiple continents. Barrie has experience in the integration of network infrastructure and telecommunication systems requiring high-caliber secure design, testing, and management. He has been involved in a variety of projects from the design and implementation of Internet banking systems to large-scale conferencing and telephony infrastructure, as well as penetration testing and other security assessments of business-critical infrastructure.

David Gomillion currently serves as Director of Information Technology for the Eye Center of North Florida. There he orchestrates all of the technological undertakings of this four-location medical practice, including computers, software (off-the-shelf and custom development), server systems, telephony, networking, as well as specialized diagnostic and treatment systems. David received a Bachelor's of Science in Computer Science from Brigham Young University in August, 2005. There he learned the theory behind his computer experience, and became a much more efficient programmer. David has worked actively in the Information Technology sector since his freshman year at BYU. He has been a Networking Assistant, an Assistant Network Administrator, a Supervisor of a large Network and Server Operations unit, a Network Administrator, and finally a Director of Information Technology. Through his increasing responsibilities, he has learned to prioritize needs and wants, and applies this ability to his Asterisk installations.