can someone shed a light on using Asterisks at home?

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katit

Member
Mar 18, 2015
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I run Asterisk (plain) on CentOS. Learned Linux AND Asterisk together, was fun. At the end, just follow "Asterisk. The definite guide" and you will be fine. There is only handful of config files you will need to touch to add line or tweak dial plan. I did check wrappers (like FreePBX) and didn't want it.

I'm software developer, writing dial plans is kind of fun, not so with GUI wrappers.

Security: I did try to expose Asterisk to WWW and immediately got scanners. Then I got Fail2Ban configured, but because of some bug (not remember exactly what) it still allowed some to come through and logs were filled with login attempts. So, I just closed it up.

Now I buy $20 Mikrotik router and set it up as VPN client for my home router. Then any VOIP phone connects to this router anywhere in a world and it works. I did try Yealink phone with built-in OpenVPN but just can't make it work with my Mikrotik router.

I picked CISCO SPA504G as a phone and just buy those. Enough features for what we need, cheap. And I got TFTP service up on same CentOS which works for provisioning. Now all my phones provisioned automatically, all configs on same CentOS VM and whole thing just runs under Hyper-V. I can move my setup to any hardware, just 3Gb image.
 

NashBrydges

Member
Apr 30, 2015
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I've been using FreePBX at home for a few years now. Also use voip.ms for SIP. And contrary to other mentions, locking it down is super simple. I created mine hosted on Vultr. With the FreePBX firewall turned on, no login attempts registered and fail2ban is doing its job. I'm never going back.
 

manxam

Active Member
Jul 25, 2015
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I keep looking at 3cx or freepbx but have never found an answer to a question that I have:
My current voip provider allows me to dial out on my Android cell phone, it then rings me back using cellular to complete the call. I, almost exclusively, use my cell phone to make calls but do not want to waste the data (We pay a lot for a little in Canada) nor want my cell phone number provided to customers.

Does anyone know if this is possible using one of the above?
 

manxam

Active Member
Jul 25, 2015
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It's 100% possible with Asterisk. But I'm sure possible with others as well
Hi Katit, I have setup a basic FreePBX config but cannot find out where one would configure this or how it would work. I've been by another group of folks that I'd have to dial into the PBX then dial out to have this work. That sounds like a total PITA.

If you have any suggestions for Asterisk/FreePBX, please let me know.

Thanks!
 

katit

Member
Mar 18, 2015
372
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Hi Katit, I have setup a basic FreePBX config but cannot find out where one would configure this or how it would work. I've been by another group of folks that I'd have to dial into the PBX then dial out to have this work. That sounds like a total PITA.

If you have any suggestions for Asterisk/FreePBX, please let me know.

Thanks!
Ok, I'm not sure what does it mean "dial into PBX and then dial out". It's essentially what it is, I don't know how it worked with your VOIP provider?

With Asterisk (and I'm not guru by any means) the way I understand this would work is:
1. You dial into Asterisk (your public #)
2. Asterisk allows you to dial in number you want to call
3. Asterisk creates channel between your cell no (calls into your cell) and into other number.

So, I can see how you can automate this with Asterisk and dial plans:
1. Create dial plan which will recognize YOU calling in (by number). It will automatically prompt you for number to call.
2. Once you dial number in - it will call those numbers, you will get call from Asterisk and accept it.

So, it should work like this: You dial Asterisk and it immediately asks you for number to call. You dial number and thats it!
Or, you can even put those numbers in your contact book on a phone like that so it takes 1 click to call.

I know it's possible, maybe conference feature need to be used. Sign up for asterisk mail list - there is a lot of people who can help. FreePBX - I don't know..
 

Blinky 42

Active Member
Aug 6, 2015
615
232
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PA, USA
My current voip provider allows me to dial out on my Android cell phone, it then rings me back using cellular to complete the call. I, almost exclusively, use my cell phone to make calls but do not want to waste the data (We pay a lot for a little in Canada) nor want my cell phone number provided to customers.

Does anyone know if this is possible using one of the above?
If you are just tying to make all calls appear if they are from a # attached to your asterisk box there are several ways to do it - if you have the ability to have 2 calls (2 pots lines, a SIP Trunk with >= 2 Channels etc) . How do you invoke the call with the current voip provider or what is your ideal scenario?
Wide variety of options:
- You could do a DISA setup to call into the system then dial out like you were using an internal extension. You must be sure to lock it down (use a password in addition to lock it to your cell phones incoming caller ID) to prevent scanners abusing it.
- MeetMe / Conference Bridge setup that you dial into and then add one (or more) parties to the conference call by dialing a code then their number and it calls out and adds them to the bridge
- Build up a simple web app that you log into and put the target phone number then it calls your cell first the and the target # and bridges it (I suspect this is what you have with your current provider?)
- Text your target number to somewhere and then it does the same as the web app, call your cell and the target number.

A lot of the voip providers can do this directly as well or with a little scripting / configuration in their platform. ex: Masked Phone Numbers | Anonymous Texting & Calling

Whatever you do be sure it is secure - just checking by caller id to match your cell isn't enough because they can spoof that easy.
 

manxam

Active Member
Jul 25, 2015
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Thank you guys! I setup a DISA with PIN and an incoming route matching our cell phone numbers to go direct to DISA and this works very well!
 

marcoi

Well-Known Member
Apr 6, 2013
1,532
288
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Gotha Florida
I ended up running WAZO as a VM at home. I use Google voice for VOIP provider since calls in US are free.
I followed this guide to get it installed: It’s Soup: The Definitive Quick Start Guide to Wazo 17.10 – nerd vittles

I also run zoiper app on my android cell phone and use that with headphones as my office phone. When I'm out of the office I can run my vpn client on my cell phone to connect me back to home network and connect zoiper to my server. I can do the same with laptop using vpn and zoiper desktop app.

Works fairly well. I been using this setup as my office line for a few months now.