Setting Up Asterisk@Home 0.8

The Asterisk@Home team has released version 0.8 of their Asterisk PBX install kit. This new version has introduced some signifigant changes to the management tools thus confusing a lot of people and outdating all existing documentation. The Geek Gazette to the rescue with the first article on Setting Up Asterisk@Home 0.8. Now everyone can get a PBX up and running in about an hour.

The Geek Gazette - Updates

We have all of the RSS feeds working now, we have added a new forum section, and Christopher Bolton has given us his latest version of his Asterisk@Home Step By Step Guide to publish. I really appreciate all of the positive feedback and encouragement I have got from everyone.

Configuring Asterisk@Home For BroadVoice

As a followup to the very popular article on Building Your Own PBX, we have added a new article to GG on setting up your Asterisk PBX system to work with a BroadVoice VOIP service account.

The Geek Gazette - Configuring Asterisk@Home For BroadVoice

The Caddy She Is No More

The poor Caddy just couldn't take it and succumbed to nature, age, and a lead foot. The Caddy is being donated to a good cause and I am driving this nice set of wheels now. The new ride is a very nice 2002 Ford Taurus. So no more mocking me about my ugly ride.

Building your own PBX - Update

I have updated my Building your own PBX article with some additional information and a simple network layout of my system.

A little irony - 15 minutes of fame

20 years ago I pieced together an Apple //e, AppleCat modem, and a tape recorder to build a computer controlled answering machine. It had some basic speech synthesis and DTMF decoding (to leave a message, press 1). This got me some notoriety at the time and I hooked up with a lot of the southern California hacker community. Names like The Gonif, The Anarchist, Dead Banshee, The Freeze, The Jerk, and others turned into a first name basis.

Twenty years later, my recent PBX project gained me another "15 minutes" by making the headlines at Slashdot. Ironically (to use the term loosely), one of the same people I had known 20 years ago contacted me to ask if I was the same guy from back then.

The fact that it was originally an answering machine and now a PBX is quite interesting I think. In 20 years will I be posting about a build it yourself holographic receiver that you can build from those spare emitters you stored away out in the garage?

Anyway, for those of you who are wondering but didn't ask, yes, I am the same Kerry that went to Anaheim High School, graduated in 83 and went by "Mordo". So if you knew me then, drop me a line.

Kerry Garrison - Building your own PBX

What would it mean to you to have your own full-featured PBX system at your home or small office? What would it mean to you if you could build an entire PBX system (minus the phones) on hardware you probably have laying around, AND that it can probably also save you money on your phone bill? Sounds too hard to believe doesn't it, but using old hardware and some open source software, you really can build a commercial quality phone system that would normally cost thousands of dollars.

For the complete article, go here

FCC strikes against VoIP blocking | The Register

FCC strikes against VoIP blocking | The Register: "Federal Communications Commission chairman Michael Powell backed enforcement action to protect VoIP traffic as the agency yesterday announced a settlement with a carrier that blocked internet users' voice calls.
Local telco Madison River LLC has pledged to refrain from blocking VoIP calls over its network and ensure that such blocking "will not recur". It will also pay $15,000 to the US treasury as part of the settlement."