Asterisk 1.4 - the Professional's Guide (English, Colman Carpenter | David Duffett | Nik Middleton)

Implementing, Administering, and Consulting on Commercial IP Telephony SolutionsWritten by four Asterisk Professionals, this book brings their years of experience together in an easy-to-understand guide to working with Asterisk in small, medium and larger Commercial environments.Packed with hints, tips, and best practice - learn to avoid the pitfalls that can hinder an Asterisk implementation.Focused chapters provide thorough, comprehensive, and self-contained instructions on how to deploy Asterisk across different commercial scenarios.In Detail Asterisk is the leading Open Source Telephony application and PBX software solution. It represents an effective, easy-to-administer, and accessible platform for running enterprise telephony requirements. The real world, however, offers numerous hurdles when running Asterisk in the commercial environment including call routing, resilience, or integrating Asterisk with other systems. This book will show you some of the ways to overcome these problems.As the follow-up to Packt's highly successful 2005 title Building Telephony Systems with Asterisk, this book presents the collected wisdom of Asterisk Professionals in the commercial environment. Aimed at Administrators and Asterisk Consultants who are comfortable with the basics of Asterisk operation and installation, this book covers numerous hands-on topics such as Call Routing, Network Considerations, Scalability, and Resilience - all the while providing practical solutions and suggestions. It also covers more business-related areas like Billing Solutions and a Winning Sales Technique. Even if your interest or experience with Asterisk is lower level, this book will provide a deeper understanding of how Asterisk operates in the real world.Asterisk is deployed across countless enterprises globally. Running on Linux, it has constantly demonstrated its resilience, stability, and scalability and is now the advanced communication solution of choice to many organizations and consultants.With a foreword from Mark Spencer, the man behind Asterisk, this book presents the accumulated wisdom of three leading Asterisk Consultants and shows the reader how to get the most out of Asterisk in the commercial environment. Over the course of eleven chapters, this book introduces the reader to topics as diverse as Advanced Dial Plans, Network Considerations, and Call Routing, through to Localization, DAHDI, Speech Technology, and Working with a GUI. The book also covers the more nebulous aspects of being an Asterisk professional such as evaluating customer requirements and pitching for contracts.This book represents the wisdom and thoughts of front line consultants. The knowledge they impart will prove informative, thought provoking and be of lasting interest to Asterisk professionals. What you will learn from this book?Master advanced dial plans, call routing considerations, and speech technologies.Learn all about AGI, AMI, ENUM, and DUNDi.Discover how to build an enterprise-scale Asterisk-based solution for mission-critical applications.Discover the DAHDI framework, and the way it replaces Zaptel.Understand how to apply localization and customization techniques in different territories.Learn how to interface Asterisk with analog and digital telephony systems, as well as wireless technologies.Appreciate what you need to do as an Asterisk professional when assessing customer needs, Quality of Service, pitching for business, and customer support.Understand best practices through example code and detailed commentary.ApproachEmploying a comprehensive handbook-style approach, this easy-to-follow book shows the reader various means of implementing the power of Asterisk in a commercial environment. In next to no time, the reader will gain a deeper understanding of many of the issues faced by Asterisk consultants and the solutions they believe work best. Who this book is written for?Primarily aimed at Asterisk Professionals, this book provides real-world insight for Asterisk Network Administrators and System Implementers in the commercial environment. This book is not for newcomers to Asterisk. Readers are expected to be experienced with installing and administering Asterisk systems.