Asterisk: The Future of Telephony

I bought this book because I thought that having a small PBX-type system for my home/office would allow me to route faxes to my fax machine, provide voicemail to replace the limited answering machine, and auto attendant menus to route calls to 1 of 3 extensions that I would be able to configure. I saw a solution that would divide business and personal calls and also filter and perhaps stop once and for all those evil telemarketing calls. In reading the book and doing a little research I learned that my goals were modest indeed for what the system is capable of! While the idea is to provide a business-level PBX with inexpensive hardware, the same thing can be used as a killer phone appliance for the home or small office. Even though I am about a quarter of the way into it, I can tell you that this book is one of the best written technical guides I have ever read. It's easy to read and chock-full of practical information that considers several types of users in it's presentation. Don't expect to be a beginner and have an easy time of understanding how to install and configure an Asterisk PBX. Even for those with extensive computer experience there are a number of new terms, concepts, and technologies to learn. But if you have the interest and time to spend, you will be rewarded in taking full control of your phone system and be able to expand that control to home automation and other functions limited only by your imagination and programming skill. I think Asterisk is going to turn into a household name at some point and skills learned today could turn into a career tomorrow.

Asterisk IS the future of telephony. I have been wanting to dive into the Asterisk world for over a year now, but never had the time until now. I have very limited telephony experience, and what little I know is from working on an old AT & T definity system, in a fairly passive role i.e. watching someone else do all the really cool stuff. Unfortunately, peons like myself weren't allowed to muck around on the PBX's. Lucky for me, Asterisk doesn't care who you are, you are encouraged to muck, and this book is an excellent place to begin. Asterisk, The Future of Telephony, walks you through a brief history of telephony, and the technologies that have defined the industry since the dawn of time (more or less). The book is entirely self contained, and assumes very little previous telephony knowledge on the part of the reader. Aside from the AGI section, where some programming experience is taken for granted, anyone with basic linux admin skills should be able to read this book, and walk away with a strong Asterisk foundation to build upon. The book is divided into 11 chapters which cover the full gamut of Asterisk's basic functionality. From preparing, installing, configuring and using an Asterisk system to writing customized scripts, connecting to VoIP gateways, and blocking telemarketers. If you need to do get something done, Asterisk is the PBX for you. When working with open source tools, you get used to the phrase "that's really cool", and while working with Asterisk, that phrase comes up even more than usual. Every time I got through a chapter, I would have dozens of new ideas that I wanted to implement on my server and play with. I must have bored some of my colleagues to death with my "This is awesome..." speeches, but I don't think I was overstating matters at all. Asterisk really is awesome, and if the PBX big boys aren't worried, they probably should be. If you are looking to setup a bunch of extensions in your house, leverage the power of VoIP, add capacity to your legacy PBX at the office, or do something entirely new, then this book is an excellent starting place and resource. My inner geek is very happy with the book, and I can easily recommend it to anyone w/even a passing interest in Asterisk.

Right off the bat: this book is -not- meant to be all things to all people. If you're already well-versed in VoIP, then there's a plethora of reference material available on the web, and this book may not be something you want. If, on the other hand, you've tried to get started with Asterisk, and things just aren't clicking, and you find that the other documentation available -- including the "Yellow book" that preceded this one -- doesn't stack up, this is IT. With informative, well-documented steps, the authors lead you through the process of becoming familiar with VoIP, and Asterisk in particular. They take you through the creation of such arcane files as your extensions.conf, sip.conf, zapata.conf and zaptel.conf, explaining what goes where, and why. They don't shy away from advanced topics, either: there's a chapter on on AGI (the Asterisk Gateway Interface), lots of juicy reference stuff on commands, etc., in the appendices... this book is worth twice what it's selling for. And, no, I'm not taking kickbacks. I've tried for months to wrap my head around Asterisk -- and I come from both a telecom and Linux background, and it just wasn't clicking. A week with this book, and I now have a solid foundation on which to base going forward. [Note: there's another O'Reilly book, "Switching to VoIP", that is also very informative, and has lots of tips and tricks. It's a nice companion book to this one, but this is -the- book you need if you're having trouble getting started, or simply want a better understanding of Asterisk's goings-on.]

I found this book a great first step into the world of VoIP and Telephony with Asterisk. Following the instructions I was able to get my first Asterisk server up and running quickly and with minimal fuss. The Dialplan section had me trying a few more complicated things immediatly. It has successfully whetted my appetite. As said in Rocky Horror: "I want MORE (MORE,MORE,MORE)" I hope the authors consider doing a follow up in the vein of 'Asterisk: The Complete Reference'. Also a companion: 'Dial This: Dialplans Revealed' I have read many of the reviews of this book and am astonished at the amount of people who do not pay attention at what a book is trying to accomplish. Thank you to the authors for writing an enjoyable read and an eyeopening experience.