What is it?

• PersonalTelcoPbx is a telephone system providing user friendly voice communications that very closely resembles what you get with your standard telephone company but with more features and less (nearly zero) cost. It currently consists of a single Linux host running the Asterisk open source PBX software with some special telephony hardware inside but will hopefully expand to a network of similar servers.

How do I call it? (External Access)

• Gateways currently exist to the public switched telephone network (PSTN), Free World Dialup, IAXTel, e164.org and of course SIP on the Internet. Plans are in the works for integration with ENUM and e164.org but these have not been fully implemented yet. Here are the numbers you can use to reach the PtpPbx from these telephone networks:

  PSTN (like Qwest or Verizon)	(503) 914-6550
  Free World Dialup	274185
  IAXTel	(700) 914-6550
  SIP	sip://5039146550 @sip.personaltelco.net
  e164.org (International ENUM)	88299 000079 00

Who can I call with it? (Dialing Plans)

• Depending on your context you may have different dialing options available. Currently there are two visible contexts: incoming caller and registered user. The incoming caller context is what you get when you reach the PBX by dialing one of the numbers listed in the External Access section, the registered user context is what's available on phones (hardware or software) that are attached to a registered account on the PBX. To dial a registered PBX user enter their three digit extension any time during the opening etiquette. For example, if you're trying to reach extension 112 simply dial 112 (not 1112).

Incoming Callers

• Option	Description
  0	Directory of PTP Extensions
  1+NN	Dial PTP Extension (extensions are three digits long including the one)
  6	General Conference Room (Public)
  *	Voicemail Administration

Registered Users

• Option	Description
  0	Directory of PTP Extensions
  1+NN	Dial PTP Extension (extensions are three digits long including the one)
  3	Echo Test
  6	General Conference Room (Public)
  7+NNNNNN	Call Free World Dialup User
  88299+NNNNNN NN	Call e164 international number
  9+NNN NNN NNNN	Call a standard North American telephone number (PSTN in USA and Canada FREE!)
  *	Voicemail Administration

How do I get an account?

• I'm building an administration tool that allows web-based account management and will arrange for others more available than myself to handle account creation. I plan to have this complete by the February 2005 monthly meeting and expect to renew the ability to add accounts at that time. We'll have to figure out requirements for getting an account but likely it'll be that someone sponsors you or you're a member of the PTP nonprofit. - Nat

Wish List

1. Administration Tool - CGI scripts that allow easy maintenance of accounts, extensions and voicemail boxes. Currently this sort of stuff is modified by editing the Asterisk config files by hand and executing reload against the server.

2. Voice Messages put in a Web getable directory/page

3. Queue up outbound calls if no lines are available - If an internal user attempts to call out to PSTN and none of those lines are available it would be nice if the caller had the option to stay on the line until one is open or have the system ring them back when their call can be routed.

4. FRS <-> Conference Room Gateway - A gateway that would allow users in the general conference room to hear traffic on FRS channel 11 in Portland and possibly request a broadcast by hitting pound to start talking and pound again when finished talking.

Log of Granted Wishes and Other Changes

• CDR database in MySQL - 05/08/2004 - I've compiled in the mysql_cdr addon and now have call details logging to a mysql table. This will eventually be accessed by a web-based tool for users to show their telephone usage.

• All lines busy message - 05/07/2004 - I've recorded a greeting on the Vonage voicemail system at 503-914-6550 that states something like "all incoming telephone lines are currently busy, try back in a few minutes" that will be heard if someone calls the single incoming PSTN line when it's already in use. If an outbound call is attempted that requires a PSTN line and none are available a message is played explaining something like "all outbound public telephone network lines are currently unavailable, please try again in a few minutes."

Updates

• 02/11/2005 - Nat's getting back into the project. Updated libpri 0.3.0 and asterisk 1.0.5. Accidentally deleted the Asterisk spool files including greetings and voicemail, was not doing backups before but a nightly rsync to another server is setup now. Re-recorded public IVR files.

CategoryVoip