We previously wrote a brief introduction about VoIP gateways recently, and from there we learned some basic concepts about Gateways, which handle the task of transferring voice or data traffic from a circuit-switched telephone network to an IP-based network. We also talked in passing about some of the factors you have to consider when choosing a Gateway for your business or company.

Now here’s a ten-point guide that can help you make that decision on what exactly you need.

1. Cost. The question of cost should be the first thing you should address. For one, your company might have a budget for such equipment, and you might be in the market for different brands or product sets with comparable features. Part of this would be the cost of setting up, maintenance, and even support from your vendor.

2. Hardware vs. Software. Hardware-based VoIP gateways are perceived to be more reliable and secure. Further, these run on their own processors, and hence do not drain computing resources away from existing computers. Software-based gateways, meanwhile cost less, and are easier to update, upgrade or modify as the need arises. It’s therefore a tradeoff between reliability and flexibility.

3. Chassis size. If you’re planning to install a hardware-based gateway, the chassis size is usually indicative of the gateway’s packet processing capacity. Slow processing means poor voice quality and low capacity. This will not apply if you’re opting for a software-based gateway. In that case, it’s the processing capabilities of the computer you will be using that will be important.

4. Capacity. This is in terms of number of simultaneous VoIP calls the gateway can handle without being overworked. The gateway should be able to cope with the regular traffic of your network, and should also accommodate traffic spikes and expansion (if your organization is growing, for instance).

5. Foreign exchange office (FXO) ports. The primary function of VoIP gateways is to convert signals from the public switched telephone network into IP packets. For analog PSTN lines, FXO ports are needed. Small businesses and remote offices would usually need at least four FXO ports.

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The voicemail protocol is quite a bit of fun and super easy to use. Let’s just jump right into it.

From the Voip-Info respository, here is how the command will go in your dialplan.

VoiceMail([flags]boxnumber[@context][&boxnumber2[@context]][&boxnumber3])

You will insert the VoiceMail command after the “exten =>” (as per usual)  then unleash all the excitement at the end. Now, there are so many things that you can do with this command that I won’t really get into a lot of it. There is also so much more once you get into the actual voicemail.conf, which we will touch on later.

Where it says “flags” you can place a couple of things. If you put “s” in there, it will skip the usual “Please leave your message after the tone” recording. If you use “u” it will say the user is unavailable. Then “b” is short for busy. You could come up with a script to change this realtime I’m sure.

After your flags, you will put the number of the VM box that you are looking to send a message to. If you leave this portion blank, then you will get a prompt asking for the box number. Simple stuff.

As for the context section, I’ve NEVER had to use that, so we won’t really bother with it.

What about Voicemail.conf you ask? Well that’s another whole article right there. We will touch base really quickly though. Let’s say that you are just trying to set up a basic voicemail box within your Asterierk PBX that doesn’t have outgoing call capabilities. Let’s save as much money as we can

Just for ease of use (and because I don’t need to create large networks) I keep all of my voicemail box information under the default context. You can find this under [default] just like you would in the dialplan. Here is a short example of what your box information would look like.

100 => 321,Users Name,email@address.com,pager@address.com,saycid=yes|review=yes|operator=yes

Let’s tear it apart now.

100 – First it the box number, 100. Nothing more to say here.

321 – This is the password for the email box. It can be as long or short as you feel like.

Users Name – This is for CID. What you put here will show up as the callers name.

email@address.com – This one is easy… the email address of the user.

pager@address.com -  This one will go to their cell/pager.

saycid=yes – When the user calls up and checks his VMB, then this will enable the box to read off the callers ID so if they did not leave a number on the message, they will be able to identify the caller.

review=yes -  If the user wants to review the messages again, they can.

operator=yes – This enables the option menu after the messages are reviewed.

Well guys, that’s all we are going to talk about on voicemail today, but check back soon because we will be doing another article on voicemail.conf which is going to be a very informative one. Check back!

Today we are going to discuss the basics of using Asterisk as a voicemail server. Voicemail is an extremely easy to learn and use command in Asterisk.

First of all, we need to add it to our dialplan. If you wanted to use it as only voicemail, you can set it to something like this.

exten => 33,1,Answer()
exten => 33,2,Wait(2)
exten => 33,3,Voicemail(225)

Continue reading →

So the winners are in, and have also been notified. I’m sending out the email now with the details on how to access your boxes. Have fun guys!

Ok, So it’s time to call! Call 1-866-739-3961 and leave me a message! The first ten, like I said, will recieve a free mailbox on that number! So call now!