Book Image

Building Telephony Systems With Asterisk

By : Barrie Dempster, David Gomillion
Book Image

Building Telephony Systems With Asterisk

By: Barrie Dempster, David Gomillion

Overview of this book

<p>Asterisk is a powerful and flexible open source framework for building feature-rich telephony systems. As a Private Branch Exchange (PBX) which connects one or more telephones, and usually connects to one or more telephone lines, Asterisk offers very advanced features, including station-to-station calls, line trunking, call distribution, call detail rerecords, and call recording.<br /> <br /> Asterisk can be used to provide Interactive Voice Response (IVR). The power and flexibility of a programmable phone system gives us the ability to respond to our customers in meaningful ways. <br /> <br /> Asterisk has also a fully-functional voicemail system included. It supports voicemail contexts so that multiple organizations can be hosted from the same server.&nbsp; It supports different time zones so that users can track when their phone calls come in.&nbsp; It even provides the option to notify the recipient of new messages via email.&nbsp; In fact, we can even attach the message in audio!<br /> <br /> Finally, Asterisk is a Voice Over IP (VoIP) system. The benefits of VoIP are numerous. For instance, we can have multiple users using the same Asterisk service from a variety of locations; we can have users in the local office using PSTN phones or IP phones; we can have remote VoIP users; we can even have entire Asterisk systems operated and run completely separately but with integrated routing; We can have an extension anywhere we have a reasonably fast Internet connection, which means employees can have an extension on the phone system at home if they have a broadband connection. The benefits are too many to list.<br /> <br /> Flexibility often means complexity, and this is true in the case of Asterisk. This book is all you need to understand and use Asterisk to build the telephony system that meets your need. You will learn how to use the many features that Asterisk provides you with.</p>
Table of Contents (14 chapters)
Copyright
Credits
About the Reviewers
About the Authors
Introduction

About the Authors

Barrie Dempster was a Network Administrator/IT Manager for a growing call center when he saw the convergence and dependence of telephony and IT-related fields on each other. He focused on integration of telephony with IT infrastructure, and took on security as a career. The increase of voice-over-IP communications has now led to high demand for these skills, which he now utilizes in his current position as a Scotland-based Infrastructure and Security consultant for a variety of clients primarily within the financial sector.

He has been involved in varied projects, from building and deploying web and database servers to creating custom communication and conferencing systems, most of which are secured highly in order to survive public networks. He has deployed and used a variety of PBX systems and, as a strong supporter and user of free and open-source software, has a serious interest in Asterisk as it combines all of these interests into one extremely powerful package.

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.