What this book covers

Chapter 1:Introduction to Asterisk introduces you to Asterisk and goes over certain basics such as its capabilities and features, requirements, scalability, and cost of deployment. In addition, it covers the trade-offs of Asterisk, its benefits, and how to determine whether it can fit your needs.

Chapter 2: Making a Plan for Deployment goes over the planning of equipment needed such as phones and adapters, the phone service you will use to power your Asterisk server such as PSTN lines or a SIP service from a VSP. Other planning such as hardware requirements and conducting a sound quality analysis are covered as well.

Chapter 3: Installing Asterisk shows you how to install Asterisk using the source files. A step-by-step tutorial will take you through the entire process.

Chapter 4: Configuring Asterisk shows you how to connect your Asterisk server with either your phone service (through PSTN or SIP, among others) as well as how to deploy some basic PBX features such as queues, voicemail, and music on hold. Other advanced features such as faxing, video conferencing, and using conference rooms are also covered in this chapter.

Chapter 5: Creating a Dialplan focuses on creating your dialplan that determines how your calls are routed through the Asterisk server. You will learn how to create extensions, distribute calls in an orderly manner using queues, and present callers with a greeting using automated attendants (IVR).

Chapter 6: Quality Assurance tells us everything regarding monitoring calls, recording calls, and capturing detailed call logs. Here you learn how to install and use these features.

Chapter 7: Making Asterisk Easy to Manage shows you how to integrate third-party applications that make Asterisk easily manageable all through a web-based interface. The chapter will show you how to install FreePBX as well as give you an overview of its capabilities.

Chapter 8: What is asterCRM? tells us about a useful business application a customer relationship management system (CRM) called asterCRM. Given its open source nature, Asterisk is compatible with many other business open-source applications. This chapter goes over installing and using this application, which can help streamline your business operations.

Chapter 9: Case Studies discusses several case studies to give you real-world examples of how one would deploy Asterisk. The examples will give a summary of the deployment as well as the asterisk configuration code used to carry it out.

Chapter 10: Maintenance and Security is an important chapter as it focuses on keeping your Asterisk system running smoothly as well as keeping it secure. The chapter covers security precautions, network deployment recommendations, as well as maintenance tips such as backups and preparing disaster recovery plans.