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So in my previous post, I wrote about how useful ODBC is to Asterisk and I showed how to install it. Now we will explore how we can use it within Asterisk.

First we’ll quickly talk about cdr_odbc. This allows us to store our CDR data directly to a database. Most people are probably going to be using MySQL. And you probably thought that you had to install the Asterisk-Addons to be able to use MySQL (Due to licensing concerns.) Well, not anymore. Not with ODBC. Continue reading

This is my updated installation guide. This approach will be alot different than my previous installation guide.  What’s different? For one, I’m using the latest and greatest Asterisk version: 1.6.2.7. This will be the leanest, meanest install yet.

I’ll be exploring the different applications and functions available within Asterisk, and my favoriate approach to using Asterisk.

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I love driving Asterisk with a database. It makes configuring Asterisk on the fly so much easier, and makes for easier development that interfaces with Asterisk in some form.

What is ODBC? ODBC is an Open Database Connector. When talking about ODBC, I’m talking about UnixODBC – obviously.   In lame men’s terms, ODBC is a connector that allows me to connect to many different database interfaces. It can be MYSQL, PostgreSQL, MSSQL, and so on.  I configure my database types in one file, and configure the databases (with logins) in another file. Then I can much more easily connect to my database from my application. Continue reading

The subject doesn’t really describe the problem good enough. So here it is… basically you have agents (whether you are using AgentCallBackLogin, or a setup like my alternative.)  The problem was that if the Agent transferred the call to another agent, Asterisk qould still show the agent has ‘busy.’ If you listed channels, it would even show the first Agent involved in the call. Keep in mind, which seemed to know be a problem if it was an attended transfer. (Or for us of us, we like to use the ‘xfer’ botton on our IP Phones… it was a problem then too.)  Well, it’s no longer a problem. You can find the solution below… Continue reading

You have two offices, each with their own Asterisk Server. And you want to be able to call between the two. How do you do this? How do you set this up with SIP? A few people have requested this article. Well, here it is. Continue reading

In a previous post, I mentioned that I came up with a solution for the disadvantages to the LookupBlackList Application. This could also be viewed as an alternative solution, seeing how the LookupBlackList has been depreciated, and set to be removed for a future release of Asterisk. Let’s not waste any time. Let’s get right into it.
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At times we get those annoying callers. They usually end up being a waste of our time and resources. So what can you do? You can block them from calling in. Asterisk has an application in place to make this an easy task. It’s called: LookupBlackList()
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In a previous article, I showed an alternative method of AgentCallBackLogin. In that example, the agents were authenticated via voicemail.conf. I made a comment that I would create a dialplan with it authenticating against a MySQL database.

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In my previous article, I made mention of using the CDR Database to generate reports. Unless you have the time, resources, and skills to develop some killer apps, you might begin looking at 3rd party applications to make your reports “pretty” and presentation worthy.

OrderlyQ has put together some rather great software. Continue reading

So in my previous article, I said I would provide some sample scripts to view information from our CDR database. My script is written in PHP, and we’re just going to do a quick query of the database for answered calls. Continue reading