At the end of Part 2, I finally have AsteriskNOW installed on my phone system hardware. Now, we have to get to the real work of configuring the system to actually do useful (and not so useful) work.

My first task was to create internal extensions and configure the phones to use those extensions. Very little trouble was had in getting my Linksys PAP2T-NA analog phone adapter to function. My Cisco 7940 is always a little trickier, just because of the provisioning capabilities. I had to adjust the FreePBX configuration to turn off NAT for that device, as my 7940 always stays here in my network. Otherwise, the configuration consisted of setting proxy information and matching secrets on the phones.

Next, I set about configuring outbound telephony service. I prefer a provider who can give service via the IAX protocol, as it was created by the Asterisk developers to compensate for some of the drawbacks of the SIP protocol. My provider, who I can’t recommend enough, is TelIAX. I configured the trunk information and it registered and came up immediately. With FreePBX, inbound and outbound routes are configured independently of trunk connectivity and each other. I set up an inbound route for my primary phone number and an outbound 10-digit dialling route.

Each of my two phones were able to make and receive calls both internally and externally. At this point, my phone system is considered usable. Finally, I can relax and take some time to enjoy the fruits of my labor. However, not everything is entirely up to my standards, a few loose ends need resolved. Stay tuned for more…