1  Introduction

Asterisk © is a Linux based IPBX application developed by Mark Spencer of Digium™, the company behind Asterisk.  TRIXBOX© evolved from the core Asterisk. It is made up of several major components.  These were developed under GPL supported relatively by users themselves. It consists of applications, a provisioning system, an installer, and an operating system that, together, make a complete package ready for use as an out of the box PBX.

Within this document, TRIXBOX and Asterisk will be referred to frequently and they are interchangeable as TRIXBOX is in essence a superset of the raw Asterisk.

The major components that make up TRIXBOX are

1.1  The Components

Four main components need to be set up:

I will attempt to describe the set up of each of these.  It does not matter if you are behind a firewall.  You are not required to do anything special like running the IP PBX outside the NAT or in the DMZ.  However, it is important to ensure that you have enough bandwidth (upstream and downstream) to carry voice traffic.

 

1.1.1  The IP PBX

You will need a computer to run the IP PBX.  It is recommended that you run a dedicated PC for this purpose. The PC described below will be sufficient to power the IPBX in a small office or home environment. Therefore don’t throw away that old Pentium II you have in the attic. 

Note*  If you are using Telstra Alcatel  SpeedTouch 510/530 ADSL Router, you will need to unbind port 5060. To do this, please refer to this link (or see Appendix D).

 http://www.sipgate.co.uk/faq/index.php?aktion=artikel&type=faq&rubrik=024&id=398&lang=de 

Install TRIXBOX on this “old” computer.  It will take it over – it starts by formatting the hard disk, so make sure there is nothing on the machine that you want to keep.  Detailed instructions are given in the installation section.

 

1.1.2  Phones

You can buy SIP phones from Grandstream, SNOM, Cisco etc.  Or you can buy an ATA (Analogue Telephone Adapter) produced by Linksys, Netcomm or Sipura, which enables you to use an analog phone. The Netcomm and Linksys ATAs can be bought from Harris Technology and a number of VSPs. 

Register with a VSP such as Faktortel, Oztell and several other VOIP Service Providers (VSPs) or you may buy Engin locked ATAs from Harvey Norman and Dick Smith Electronic.  The choice is yours. 

To get started, it is easiest to get a softphone and run it on another computer.  See the section on installation of Softphone later in this document.

 

1.1.3  SIP Gateway

It is likely that you want to communicate with others on the PSTN network, so you need to obtain a VOIP gateway service.  Since part of the call is being carried on the circuit switched network, it costs real money.  This means that you will have to pay for this part of the system.   

Setting up gateways will be covered in the installation later on in this document.

 

1.1.4  Home Network

The fact that you are reading this and contemplating on installing an Asterisk PBX, I assume that you have a home network, a broadband service, set up behind a Gateway Router of some sort (otherwise known as a NAT firewall). 

You will need to pick a static IP address for your IP PBX that is on your home network e.g. 192.168.0.101.  To keep it simple, please ensure that the Asterisk box is in the same network segment of your existing LAN.

 

1.1.5  VOIP Service Providers

Whirlpool VOIP forum has a list of VOIP providers in Australia at the following link: 
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=370536