Asterisk is a complete PBX in software. It runs on Linux, BSD, Windows (emulated) and OS X and provides all of the features you would expect from a PBX and more. Asterisk does voice over IP in four protocols, and can interoperate with almost all standards-based telephony equipment using relatively inexpensive hardware.

Asterisk provides Voicemail services with Directory, Call Conferencing, Interactive Voice Response, Call Queuing. It has support for three-way calling, caller ID services, ADSI, IAX, SIP, H.323 (as both client and gateway), MGCP (call manager only) and SCCP/Skinny. Check the Features section for a more complete list.

Asterisk needs no additional hardware for Voice-over-IP, although it does expect a non-standard driver that implements dummy hardware as a non-portable timing mechanism (for certain applications such as conferencing). A single (or multiple) VOIP provider(s) can be used for outgoing and/or incoming calls (outgoing and incoming calls can be handled through entirely different VOIP and/or telco providers)

For interconnection with digital and analog telephony equipment, Asterisk supports a number of hardware devices, most notably all of the hardware manufactured by Asterisk's sponsor, Digium. Digium has single and quad span T1 and E1 interfaces for interconnection to PRI lines and channel banks . In addition, single to quad port analog FXO and FXS cards are available and are popular for small installations. Other vendors' cards can be used for BRI (ISDN2) or quad- and octo- port BRI based upon CAPI compatible cards or HFC chipset cards.

For interconnection with the cellular network (GSM or CDMA), Asterisk can use the Celliax channel driver or chan_mobile that is in the trunk now and there is also a unofficial backported version.

Lastly, standalone devices are available to do a wide range of tasks including providing fxo and fxs ports that simply plug into the LAN and register to Asterisk as an available device.

The current release versions of Asterisk are 1.2.37, 1.4.36, 1.6.0.28, 1.6.1.20. 1.6.2.13, and Asterisk 1.8.0. The current beta is Asterisk 1.8 beta 5.

This Wiki covers both the stable and the development branch of Asterisk. When adding new commands, applications and options, please also add a note on *when* this was added so that users may compare with their version date.

Daily Asterisk News

• Please test Pinefrog-rtcp-1.8 (13 Mar 2013 | 5:30 pm UTC)
• DAHDI-Linux and DAHDI-Tools 2.6.2 Now Available (11 Mar 2013 | 8:57 pm UTC)
• AppKonference 2.3 (26 Feb 2013 | 3:51 pm UTC)
• Asterisk 12 Update - Bridge Work (12 Feb 2013 | 9:40 pm UTC)
• Specific SIP packets can cause ethernet controller reset (12 Feb 2013 | 7:20 pm UTC)
• VoIPGMap: Graphing active Asterisk calls on Google Maps (8 Feb 2013 | 7:44 pm UTC)
• New Asterisk Developer - Kevin Harwell (6 Feb 2013 | 9:01 pm UTC)
• Automatic queue recalls with WombatDialer and QueueMetrics (29 Jan 2013 | 2:50 pm UTC)
• 24 Jan 2013 SIP project update (24 Jan 2013 | 10:12 pm UTC)
• Somethings going on with Asterisk. And its good. Very good. (23 Jan 2013 | 6:00 pm UTC)

VoIP Today News

• Asterisk 1.8.16.0 and Asterisk 10.8.0 are now Available. (15 Sep 2012 | 5:41 am UTC)
• Powerful customer care suite solution integrated with Asterisk. (10 Sep 2012 | 8:48 am UTC)
• Call Flow Editor! (14 Aug 2012 | 8:12 am UTC)
• 7 Steps to sync Google Contacts with Asterisk! (13 Aug 2012 | 7:05 am UTC)
• Asterisk 11.0.0-beta1 Now Available! (13 Aug 2012 | 7:03 am UTC)
• First affordable PCI or PCI express voice transcoding card! (10 Aug 2012 | 10:35 am UTC)
• ContactQ v1.2.0 Released. (8 Aug 2012 | 7:32 am UTC)
• Blocking Asterisk hacking/scanning attempts with fail2ban. (4 Aug 2012 | 7:16 am UTC)
• Asterisk 10.7.0, 1.8.15.0, 10.8.0-rc1 and 1.8.16.0-rc1 are now Available. (1 Aug 2012 | 7:37 am UTC)
• Got a VoIP Skill to sell? (31 Jul 2012 | 6:34 am UTC)
• FreePBX bulk extension setup or modify. (29 Jul 2012 | 6:58 am UTC)
• VoIP Carrier billing solution based on Asterisk. (28 Jul 2012 | 7:57 am UTC)
• FreePBX, Elastix, Trixbox secure access via SSH tunnel. (27 Jul 2012 | 10:06 am UTC)
• chan_motif: a new channel driver for Asterisk! (25 Jul 2012 | 7:34 pm UTC)
• Asterisk AGI C Library. (24 Jul 2012 | 7:53 am UTC)
• Hack and change IMEI with allo GSM card! (24 Jul 2012 | 7:53 am UTC)
• An AGI script which sends faxes to email addresses. (23 Jul 2012 | 8:37 am UTC)
• Asterisk conferencing module: AppKonference 2.2 is now available! (19 Jul 2012 | 4:17 am UTC)
• A python module for creating, managing and automating Asterisk hotlines. (18 Jul 2012 | 7:23 am UTC)
• Digium vs. Sangoma: Which PCI Cards Are Better? (16 Jul 2012 | 6:15 am UTC)

Other Asterisk News

• 2013-03-15 - DMLink releases their 24 port PCI-E asterisk analog card , runs DAHDI standard driver.
• 2013-03-15 - DMLink releases their single port PCI-E PRI asterisk card , runs DAHDI standard driver.
• 2013-03-05 - Exelysis Contact Center - The new version of Exelysis Contact Center for Asterisk is now released.
• 2012-10-20 - Asterisk compatible VXML server IEC - SIP/2.0+VXML 2.1 IVR Platform SRGS MRCP Server, Cloud/MRCP ASR/TTS , Linux/Windows Free One Channel.
• 2012-10-12 - Intuitive Voice Technology launches new reseller offering get three FREE PBX licenses for signing up.
• 2012:09:11 - Version 3.2 firmware for Zycoo ZX50 Series IP-PBX released Change log
• 2012-08-30 - DMLink releases their 4 port PCI-E asterisk card , runs DAHDI standard driver.
• 2012-04-12 - WeQ4U releases iPhone app that interfaces with their asterisk based call center queueing system.
• 2012-04-11 - DMLink releases their 8 port GSM asterisk PCI card GSM800P, runs DAHDI standard driver.
• 2012-04-11 - DMLink releases their new 24 port analog asterisk PCI card, runs DAHDI standard driver.
• 2012-03-28 - DMLink releases their online shop 2.
• 2012-03-28 - DMLink releases their online shop 1.
• 2012-03-08 - DMLink releases their 16 port PCI-E analog asterisk PCI card, runs DAHDI standard driver.
• 2012-03-07 - OpenVox Delivers The Cost Effective Tapping Application
• 2012-02-24 - OpenVox Releases Chan-Extra 2.0.1 To Add More Functions To GSM Applications
• 2012-02-14 - OpenVox Released Multiform Transcoding Solutions
• 2012-01-16 - DMLink releases their new 4 port analog asterisk PCI card, it runs DAHDI standard driver.
• 2012-01-10 - WeQ4U releases asterisk based call center queueing system. WeQ4U.
• 2011-12-27 - OpenVox Launches A Complete Asterisk-Based Appliance
• 2011-12-14 - Humbug And OpenVox Partner To Prevent Telecom Fraud
• 2011-12-09 - OpenVox Distributes New Octasic® SoftEcho Supporting DAHDI Driver
• 2011-11-29 - DMLink releases their new 16 port analog asterisk PCI card, support DAHDI standard driver, no patch needed.
• 2011-11-18 - OpenVox Announces FREE 24*7 Technical Support Program For Open Source Community
• 2011-11-15 - OpenVox Announces BRI Products Price Reduction with A Lifetime Warranty Upgrade
• 2011-08-26 - OpenVox New Embedded Asterisk Motherboard Released
• 2011-08-01 - PowerAST The World first open hardware/software designed embedded PowerPC dual core 1.2G CPU IPPBX platform (Up to 16 E1/T1/J1 with hardware EC modules supported) has been released first version.
• 2011-07-29 - Intuittech-Blog Over 600 people strong, in 7 countries. The worlds largest Asterisk organization takes shape!
• 2011-07-20 - VadaXchange Buddy version 1.0 released - new user-friendly call control interface developed on top of an Asterisk PABX. About time business PABX become user friendly!
• 2011-06-27 - Atcom PRI Cards New range launched - AX-1D, AX-2D and AX-4D. Optional Hardware Echo Cancellation module available.
• 2011-05-16 - Orderly Stats version 1.8 of OrderlyStats for Asterisk Call Centers has been released
• 2011-05-11 - Positron G1000 Asterisk Appliance Released - 150 concurrent calls
• 2011-05-10 - Positron Telecom 1U Rackmount PBX is now available
• 2011-04-22 - The Alvis-4-Ext: T1/E1 External PRI Channel Bank based on RtpBridge solution is announced by Odin TeleSystems!
• 2011-04-19 - DMLink releases their new 4 port GSM asterisk PCI card.
• 2011-04-09 - Free Asterisk Technology Day in Kuala Lumpur, 28 April 2011
• 2011-03-30 - How to add a Flash softphone to your webpage, if you use Asterisk PBX
• 2011-03-17 - Microbase CTI Microbase announced the release of Microbase CTI v2.0 - The pure Asterisk Based CTI Solution.
• 2011-03-02 - OpenVox Releases Hardware Echo Canceller for ISDN BRI Cards with LIFETIME warranty.
• 2011-02-24 - Evolution PBX 4.0 released (100's of new features) by Intuitive Voice Technology
• 2011-02-24 - DMLink releases their new 16 port analog asterisk PCI card.
• 2011-02-15 - Netfors has released version 2.0.0 of the SS7 channel driver for Asterisk, chan_ss7: Download here.
• 2011-02-02 - Intuittech Sdn Bhd launches Nagmon for Asterisk the monitoring appliance in conjunction with the DIGIUM ASTERISK WORLD 2011; Press Release
• 2011-02-02 - Membantu24 the first global Asterisk support centre is launched in conjunction with the DIGIUM ASTERISK WORLD 2011; Press Release
• 2011-02-02 - Hayibo! the softphone for the Enterprise releases the free version of its softphone in conjunction with the ITEXPO EAST 2011 in Miami; Press Release
• 2011-01-07 - Asterisk Nortel Asterisk Avaya Communications Manager with SES ,Avaya IP Office R6.0 ,BroadSoft BroadWorks

Starting Out

Books

• Addison-Wesley
  • The Asterisk Book - Practical Asterisk 1.4 - GNU FDL, completely available online
  • Das Asterisk Buch (German) - Asterisk 1.2 + 1.4 - GNU FDL, completely available online
• Booksurge
  • Getting Started With Asterisk PBX (English) Free downloadable eBook - Released in June 2010
  • Learning Guide for Asterisk 1.6 (English) Asterisk 1.4 and 1.6 - Released in June 2010
  • New Configuration Guide for Asterisk PBX 2011 in Portuguese Available New
• O'Reilly Media
  • Asterisk: The Future of Telephony - Brought To You By The Asterisk Documentation Project - FREE DOWNLOAD!
  • Switching to VoIP - Ted's book is full of Asterisk know-how
  • T1: A Survival Guide - Not specifically about Asterisk, but if you want to understand T1s, this is the book
• Packt Publishing
  • Asterisk Gateway Interface 1.4 and 1.6 Programming New
  • AsteriskNOW!

• SEARCH: