Tag: VOIP

Categories
Knowledge Base

Installing Asterisk 11 on Centos 6.3

asteriskThis is a short video tutorial on the installation of Asterisk 11, I have included the blog and video in one place for ease of viewing

First, you will want to be sure that your server OS is up to date.

yum update -y

Disable SELinux by changing “enforcing” to “disabled” in /etc/selinux/config. Use a text editor or copy and paste this command.

sed -i s/SELINUX=enforcing/SELINUX=disabled/g /etc/selinux/config

After you update and disable SELinux, you’ll need to reboot.

reboot

Next, you will want to resolve basic dependencies. (More information on Asterisk dependencies.)

yum install -y make wget openssl-devel ncurses-devel  newt-devel libxml2-devel kernel-devel gcc gcc-c++ sqlite-devel

Change into the /usr/src/ directory to store your source code.

cd /usr/src/

Download the source tarballs. These commands will get the current release of DAHDI 2.6, libpri 1.4 and Asterisk 11.

wget http://downloads.asterisk.org/pub/telephony/dahdi-linux-complete/dahdi-linux-complete-current.tar.gz
wget http://downloads.asterisk.org/pub/telephony/libpri/libpri-1.4-current.tar.gz
wget http://downloads.asterisk.org/pub/telephony/asterisk/asterisk-11-current.tar.gz

Extract the files from the tarballs.

tar zxvf dahdi-linux-complete*
tar zxvf libpri*
tar zxvf asterisk*

For the next set of commands it is important to follow the proper order: DAHDI first, then libpri, then Asterisk.

Install DAHDI.

cd /usr/src/dahdi-linux-complete*
make && make install && make config

Install libpri.

cd /usr/src/libpri*
make && make install

Change to the Asterisk directory.

cd /usr/src/asterisk*

In the next step, running the “configure” script will vary depending on whether your system is 32-bit or 64-bit. (Watch the video for more details.) When the menuselect command runs, select your options, then choose “Save and Exit” and the install will continue.

Use this command if you are installing Asterisk on 32bit CentOS.

./configure && make menuselect && make && make install

Use this command if you are installing Asterisk on 64bit CentOS.

./configure --libdir=/usr/lib64 && make menuselect && make && make install

Optional: If you ran into errors you will want to clean the install directory before recompiling.

make clean && make distclean

Once you have an error-free install, copy the sample files from the configs subdirectory into /etc/asterisk.

make samples

Then add the Asterisk start script to the /etc/init.d/ directory

make config

Start DAHDI.

service dahdi start

Start Asterisk.

service asterisk start

Connect to the Asterisk CLI.

asterisk -rvvv

And now you have Asterisk 11 running on CentOS 6!

Original Article written by Billy Chia @ digium

Categories
Handsets

Digium Handsets

The Only Phones Built Specifically For Asterisk

  • asteriskEasy provisioning from Asterisk or AsteriskNOW
  • Integrated with Asterisk voicemail, directory, parking, call recordings, call queues and more
  • Build custom phone apps with a simple JavaScript API

Digium’s family of IP Phones are the first on the market built specifically for use with Asterisk and Asterisk-based systems. All models include HD audio and plug-and-play deployment at a price that fits any budget. With multiple line appearances, context-aware soft keys, and advanced applications that integrate directly with Asterisk features, the Digium phones offer a better user experience than any other phone on the market.

Asterisk Phone Features

Smart Software

Access to information is the key to productivity in today’s business environment. The integrated applications that come standard with all Digium phones put critical information at your fingertips. With voicemail, call log, contacts, phone status, user presence, parking, call recording and call queue interface, the Digium phones provide simple, intuitive access to a wealth of information, saving valuable time.

 Simplified Provisioning

Standards-based IP phones have a reputation for being difficult to install and configure. Most systems require changes to network configurations or additional components to facilitate deployment. Digium phones support plug-and-play provisioning. Simply plug in the phone and it will automatically discover Asterisk systems on the network. Select the user you want to assign to the phone and the proper configuration is instantly loaded. For larger deployments you can pre-assign phones by tying a MAC address to an Asterisk user. It’s that simple.

Custom Applications

Most desktop phones come with a fixed feature-set that is determined exclusively by the manufacturer. Digium phones are different. All models include the Digium app engine, an innovative feature that makes it remarkably simple to build and deploy custom apps. All of the productivity apps that ship with a Digium Phone are written with the JavaScript API that is used by the app engine. A BETA version of the phone firmware with app development tools is available at phones.digium.com, along with documentation for developing your custom apps.

Getting Started With Digium Phones

Get AsteriskDigium phones will work with any version of Asterisk. However, we’ve added some compelling features that are only available today in Asterisk 11 or in special branches of Asterisk 1.8 (seeCertified Asterisk) and Asterisk 10 (the -digiumphones branch). To take advantage of simple provisioning, integrated applications and the app engine, you will need to use one of these versions

D40 Phone £85
D50 Phone £114
D70 Phone £179

Call or email for sales enquiries 

Categories
Elastix Support Knowledge Base

Setting up extensions in Elastix

Elastix Asterisk IPPXThis is a short video on the setting up of extensions on the Elastix Asterisk based IPPX.

 

Categories
Knowledge Base

VoIP – Per Call Bandwidth

These protocol header assumptions are used for the calculations:

  • 40 bytes for IP (20 bytes) / User Datagram Protocol (UDP) (8 bytes) / Real-Time Transport Protocol (RTP) (12 bytes) headers.
  • Compressed Real-Time Protocol (cRTP) reduces the IP/UDP/RTP headers to 2or 4bytes (cRTP is not available over Ethernet).
  • 6 bytes for Multilink Point-to-Point Protocol (MP) or Frame Relay Forum (FRF).12 Layer 2 (L2) header.
  • 1 byte for the end-of-frame flag on MP and Frame Relay frames.
  • 18 bytes for Ethernet L2 headers, including 4 bytes of Frame Check Sequence (FCS) or Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC).

Note: This table only contains calculations for the default voice payload

Codec Information Bandwidth Calculations
Codec & Bit Rate (Kbps) Codec Sample Size (Bytes) Codec Sample Interval (ms) Mean Opinion Score (MOS) Voice Payload Size (Bytes) Voice Payload Size (ms) Packets Per Second (PPS) Bandwidth MP or FRF.12 (Kbps) Bandwidth w/cRTP MP or FRF.12 (Kbps) Bandwidth Ethernet (Kbps)
G.711 (64 Kbps) 80 Bytes 10 ms 4.1 160 Bytes 20 ms 50 82.8 Kbps 67.6 Kbps 87.2 Kbps
G.729 (8 Kbps) 10 Bytes 10 ms 3.92 20 Bytes 20 ms 50 26.8 Kbps 11.6 Kbps 31.2 Kbps
G.723.1 (6.3 Kbps) 24 Bytes 30 ms 3.9 24 Bytes 30 ms 33.3 18.9 Kbps 8.8 Kbps 21.9 Kbps
G.723.1 (5.3 Kbps) 20 Bytes 30 ms 3.8 20 Bytes 30 ms 33.3 17.9 Kbps 7.7 Kbps 20.8 Kbps
G.726 (32 Kbps) 20 Bytes 5 ms 3.85 80 Bytes 20 ms 50 50.8 Kbps 35.6 Kbps 55.2 Kbps
G.726 (24 Kbps) 15 Bytes 5 ms 60 Bytes 20 ms 50 42.8 Kbps 27.6 Kbps 47.2 Kbps
G.728 (16 Kbps) 10 Bytes 5 ms 3.61 60 Bytes 30 ms 33.3 28.5 Kbps 18.4 Kbps 31.5 Kbps
G722_64k(64 Kbps) 80 Bytes 10 ms 4.13 160 Bytes 20 ms 50 82.8 Kbps 67.6Kbps 87.2 Kbps
ilbc_mode_20(15.2Kbps) 38 Bytes 20 ms NA 38 Bytes 20 ms 50 34.0Kbps 18.8 Kbps 38.4Kbps
ilbc_mode_30(13.33Kbps) 50 Bytes 30 ms NA 50 Bytes 30 ms 33.3 25.867 Kbps 15.73Kbps 28.8 Kbps

Explanation of Terms

Codec Bit Rate (Kbps) Based on the codec, this is the number of bits per second that need to be transmitted to deliver a voice call. (codec bit rate = codec sample size / codec sample interval).
Codec Sample Size (Bytes) Based on the codec, this is the number of bytes captured by the Digital Signal Processor (DSP) at each codec sample interval. For example, the G.729 coder operates on sample intervals of 10 ms, corresponding to 10 bytes (80 bits) per sample at a bit rate of 8 Kbps. (codec bit rate = codec sample size / codec sample interval).
Codec Sample Interval (ms) This is the sample interval at which the codec operates. For example, the G.729 coder operates on sample intervals of 10 ms, corresponding to 10 bytes (80 bits) per sample at a bit rate of 8 Kbps. (codec bit rate = codec sample size / codec sample interval).
MOS MOS is a system of grading the voice quality of telephone connections. With MOS, a wide range of listeners judge the quality of a voice sample on a scale of one (bad) to five (excellent). The scores are averaged to provide the MOS for the codec.
Voice Payload Size (Bytes) The voice payload size represents the number of bytes (or bits) that are filled into a packet. The voice payload size must be a multiple of the codec sample size. For example, G.729 packets can use 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, or 60 bytes of voice payload size.
Voice Payload Size (ms) The voice payload size can also be represented in terms of the codec samples. For example, a G.729 voice payload size of 20 ms (two 10 ms codec samples) represents a voice payload of 20 bytes [ (20 bytes * 8) / (20 ms) = 8 Kbps ]
PPS PPS represents the number of packets that need to be transmitted every second in order to deliver the codec bit rate. For example, for a G.729 call with voice payload size per packet of 20 bytes (160 bits), 50 packets need to be transmitted every second [50 pps = (8 Kbps) / (160 bits per packet) ]

 

Bandwidth Calculation Formulas

These calculations are used:

  • Total packet size = (L2 header: MP or FRF.12 or Ethernet) + (IP/UDP/RTP header) + (voice payload size)
  • PPS = (codec bit rate) / (voice payload size)
  • Bandwidth = total packet size * PPS
Categories
Blog

Yealink T20P the new entry level IP phone

Yealink T20P is the entry level phone, of the Yealink VoIP desk phone range.

The Yealink T20P provides an entry level phone for the Yealink range of VoIP phones. The T20P boasts features beyond what you may expect from the lowest specification of the range. Ideal for use for the home or as a small office phone.

The T20P telephone offers power over ethernet (PoE), two SIP accounts, two line keys and a clear 2x 16 line LCD screen. A cost effective entry level enterprise IP phone with 2 lines.

Strong provisioning is in place for the Yealink range, making the models perfect for ITSP’s or large scale deployments.

Features

T20P-large

  • 2 SIP Accounts
  • 2 Line, 2×16 LCD Display
  • 2 Programmable Keys
  • 5 Hard Function Keys
  • Power over Ethernet (PoE)
  • 3 Way Conference Calls
  • Speakerphone
  • Call Hold, Waiting and Transfer.
  • Wall mountable
  • Compatible with a range of corded headsets:

 

RRP £69.99 +vat , (Contact us for volume and Special pricing)

Categories
Knowledge Base Support

24×7 Asterisk server monitoring with Nagios.

We offer an economical solution for end users and resellers to monitor their Asterisk and Linux servers.

Our platform monitors servers 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Hosted in a state of the art US based data centre with connections to major UK data centres and multiple connections to the internet.

We offer different levels of monitoring from simple uptime and email alerts to system load, disk space and channel usage with email and SMS notification. Web panel and firefox/Chrome plugin available to all levels to view system status.

The service is primarily aimed at Asterisk based IPPBX server but we can monitor other Linux based servers and Mitel systems as well. Our checks on Asterisk servers were customised by us to allow easy and secure deployment as we only require SSH access to make checks and this is secured by server keys. 

Nagios monitor screen

 

Service levels

Silver Level £10 setup – £2.50 per month £25.00 per year

  • Single Server, 4 services from list below & email alerts.
  • Ping test
  • SIP/IAX Peer availability
  • Asterisk channels
  • ISDN availability
  • Disk Space
  • System Load
  • Heartbeat Status
  • SIP/IAX2 registration status
  • Mitel SNMP Alarm status

Gold Level £10 setup per server – £5.00 per month £50.00 per year

  • Upto 2 Servers, 4 services per server, email and SMS alerts by subscription

In addition to the silver list:-

  • Asterisk Database status
  • Custom checks, (cost for design may be inured)

Additional options.

SMS alerts by arrangement, if using Gradwell Numbers and outbound we can integrate with the SMS API

Extra contact £5 setup

Extra server £10 setup £2.50 per month £25 per year

Extra service £5 setup £0.50 per month £5 per year

Partner options are available, Please contact us for details.  Pdf  download cymon 

Categories
Blog

The snow is coming – and don’t we all just love a snow day?

sledgingWell the school kids might, but for those of us with businesses to run, customers to service, and targets to achieve, the prospect of a heavy snowfall and not being able to reach the office can fill us with dread

The thought of a growing backlog of work can be stressful, but missed sales opportunities can spell disaster. In fact, in recent years, blizzard conditions have been said to cost the UK economy as much as £1.2 billion per day.

Fortunately help is at hand, with cyber-cottage.co.uk VoIP phone services, you can beat the weather by having extensions at home, routing calls to mobiles, using hunt groups and flexible voicemail (delivered to your mobile or email inbox).

You keep your normal business phone number, and what’s more, our business customers find that by switching to cyber-cottage.co.uk, they save their businesses money.

If you have any concerns at all about being cut off from your business during heavy weather, then I know that cyber-cottage.co.uk phone services will make your life easier, save you money, and prevent you from being cut off from your customers.

If any of the above could have an impact on your business then I would be very keen to discuss how we can help, and can reach me on 01225580025 for a no pressure chat about your options (whatever the weather).

For example over the cold snap in Jan 2013 we very quickly enabled a number that could be used by a large school so that parents could text in and the group of people receive the text content by email. This meant parents didnt have to call and wait to be answered or be able to send in an email. At school it meant that the message got to all the relevant people and not having someone huddled round one mobile phone and forwarding messages on.

Categories
FIrmware releases

Gigaset N300 IP, N300A IP, N510 IP PRO – Firmware update 12/2012 (version 075) released

New version of firmware released for N300 bases, Upgrade to this if on 072 firmware to fix instability issues

– Problem of instability, which occurred only very sporadically with version 72, and reset of base station after intensive usage solved

– Problem with call transfer of an external party to an external target behind Cisco Manager solved

– de telefoongids (Netherlands): online phonebook search is working again

– Security:

· Password is masked in VOIP Wizard, no longer visible in clear text

· PIN entry delayed if user repeatedly enters wrong PIN

– S68H handset: CLIP presentation is working again

– Blind Call Transfer problem solved with Telavox.se and Firmix.at

– URI dialling: Problem with added international/local area codes fixed

– Problem with consultation call and “Use Area Code Numbers for Calls via VoIP” setting fixed
Categories
FIrmware releases Knowledge Base

Yealink release V70 firmware for their T2X Sets

Yealink has announced the release of the latest Firmware V70 for its award winning IP phone SIP-T2X series.

The key feature of this new Firmware V70 is “M7”, also known as the “unified auto-provision template”. With Firmware V70, the configuration files and the deployment methods of T2X, T3X and VP530 have now been unified.

With the deployment of “M7”, end users now no longer need to maintain different templates of T2X, T3x or VP530. In other words, it lowers the learning curve and increases the business efficiency remarkably.

End users can easily convert their old templates of Yealink IP Phone T2X series and T3X series to “M7” through Yealink Configuration Conversion Tool (CCT). Firmware V70 is now available for download free of charge at www.yealink.com.

Download release notes here

 

Categories
Calls and Lines Connectivity

EFM Leased Lines

Highly reliable 20Mb symmetrical Internet from £350.00 per month

EFM Leased Lines (Ethernet in the First Mile) provides high speed, reliable internet connectivity for businesses who have outgrown traditional broadband, but where fibre base Ethernet services are still too expensive.EFM uses multiple copper pairs to deliver the service. These are bonded together to provide a combined service. By combining pairs you will receive a much more reliable service because if there is a fault with a single wire then the service will just slow down, rather than taking your business off line.In addition, unlike ADSL where the customer is typically responsible for reporting a fault, with EFM the service is proactively managed by the Gradwell operations centre and where a fault occurs, it is quickly spotted and resolved.Finally, if there is a copper wire fault in the BT Openreach network, EFM is provided with “Service Level 4” which aims to have an engineer resolve the fault within 6 hours.

To order EFM, you will need to contact our sales team. Orders are subject to survey and take between 25 to 90 days to be delivered. EFM is available in 1500 of the most popular UK telephone exchanges and you can be upto approximately 4km from the exchange.

To use EFM, BT Openreach will install a number of analogue copper pairs and associated wall sockets. In addition an EFM network adaptor will be installed, which provides you with an Ethernet socket. You will need to have a spare power socket available within 1M of the BT sockets.

Upgrading EFM

It is not possible to upgrade from 2 Pair EFM to 4 Pair EFM or vice versa. Should you wish to upgrade in the future, you would have to cease your line and reinstall.

We can allow some overlap of the circuits to ensure that you do not lose connectivity in these circumstances, but this may be limited to the number of pairs available as exchange capacity may have changed from the time the original order was placed to the time you wish to upgrade.

EFM Pricing

  • Gradwell EFM services are available on a 1 year or a 3 year contract
  • 3 year deal: 50% discount on installation fee
  • The first months line rental and installation fees are payable upon placing of order
Product 2 Pair EFM 4 Pair EFM
Bandwidth 2Mb to 10Mb 2Mb – 20Mb
Installation £1,200.00 – 1 year contract
50% discount – 3 year contract		 £1,650.00 – 1 year contract
50% discount – 3 year contract
Rental £240.00 per month
£2,880.00 per year		 £350.00 per month
£4,200.00 per year

Contract

All orders of EFM Leased Lines are subject to a contract, which can be downloaded here. Please return any signed contracts by either fax (01225 800 801) or by post to EFM Orders, 26 Cheltenham Street, Bath, BA2 3EX, We can handle all this for you checking teh paperwork and tracking the order.

Charges

Cancellation time Cost
 From confirmation of installation date to 5 days before installation 75% of install fee
 From 4 days to 1 day before installation 95% of install fee
From installation to RFS (Ready for Service, approx 10 days) 100% of install fee, plus 100% of year 1 fees

 

Reason Cost
Visit charge (if not covered by service contract) Various – please refer
to Openreach pricing
Time related charges during installation (if not covered by service contract) Various – please refer
to Openreach pricing
 Excess construction charge (alternate location/additional infrastructure) Various – please refer
to Openreach pricing
 Time related charges during fault repair (if not covered service contract) £80.00 per hour
Special fault investigation (e.g. customer request for an engineer when not needed) £150.00
Aborted visit (e.g. customer not able to grant engineer access) £150.00
All prices are excluding VAT.

Indicative speeds

Like ADSL, the speed an EFM circuit will run at will depend on your distance from the exchange. However, with EFM we can guarantee the minimum speed you will receive1. In our trials, we found that most customers receive a faster speed service than we can guarantee.

EFM is also a symmetrical service – meaning that both the upload and the download speed are the same. This is great if you are making Internet Telephony calls, using video, or sending / uploading large files to the internet.

Distance from local exchange EFM 2 Pair EFM 4 Pair
0m-100m   10Mb 20Mb
 200m – 500m  8Mb 16Mb
 600m – 800m  7Mb 15Mb
 900m – 1100m  7Mb 14Mb
 1200m – 2100m  6Mb 14Mb
 2200m – 2300m  6Mb 13Mb
 2400m  6Mb 12Mb
 2500m  5Mb 12Mb
 2600m – 2700m  5Mb 11Mb
 2800m – 2900m  4Mb 10Mb
 3000m – 3100m  4Mb 9Mb
 3200m  3Mb 8Mb
 3300m  –  8Mb
 3400m  –  7Mb
 3500m – 3600m  –  6Mb
 3700m  –  5Mb
 3800m  – 4Mb
 3900m  –  3Mb
 4000m+  – –
 1 If for some reason we are unable to deliver the service at the minimum guaranteed speed, you will have the option to cancel for a full refund, or continue with the slower service.