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Happy Fourth: Our Gift to You — 17+ Years of Nerd Vittles


Originally published: Monday, July 4, 2022



Need help with Asterisk? Visit the VoIP-info Forum.


 

Special Thanks to Our Generous Sponsors


FULL DISCLOSURE: ClearlyIP, Skyetel, Vitelity, DigitalOcean, Vultr, VoIP.ms, 3CX, Sangoma, TelecomsXchange and VitalPBX have provided financial support to Nerd Vittles and our open source projects through advertising, referral revenue, and/or merchandise. As an Amazon Associate and Best Buy Affiliate, we also earn from qualifying purchases. We’ve chosen these providers not the other way around. Our decisions are based upon their corporate reputation and the quality of their offerings and pricing. Our recommendations regarding technology are reached without regard to financial compensation except in situations in which comparable products at comparable pricing are available from multiple sources. In this limited case, we support our sponsors because our sponsors support us.

BOGO Bonaza: Enjoy state-of-the-art VoIP service with a $10 credit and half-price SIP service on up to $500 of Skyetel trunking with free number porting when you fund your Skyetel account. No limits on number of simultaneous calls. Quadruple data center redundancy. $25 monthly minimum spend required. Tutorial and sign up details are here.

The lynchpin of Incredible PBX 2020 and beyond is ClearlyIP components which bring management of FreePBX modules and SIP phone integration to a level never before available with any other Asterisk distribution. And now you can configure and reconfigure your new Incredible PBX phones from the convenience of the Incredible PBX GUI.

VitalPBX is perhaps the fastest-growing PBX offering based upon Asterisk with an installed presence in more than 100 countries worldwide. VitalPBX has generously provided a customized White Label version of Incredible PBX tailored for use with all Incredible PBX and VitalPBX custom applications. Follow this link for a free test drive!
 

Special Thanks to Vitelity. Vitelity is now Voyant Communications and has halted new registrations for the time being. Our special thanks to Vitelity for their unwavering financial support over many years and to the many Nerd Vittles readers who continue to enjoy the benefits of their service offerings. We will keep everyone posted on further developments.
 



$300 Chromebook Faceoff: ARM vs. x86? Which Is Better?



We’ve written about the Chromebook before, but today presents an interesting dilemma. Should you choose an ARM-based Chromebook for a bit better performance or an x86-based Chromebook for application flexibility? This becomes even more interesting when one recalls that Apple is poised to dump Intel processors and move exclusively to the ARM platform for all of its next generation machines. The short answer is it depends upon your use case. Cell phones and tablets traditionally have relied upon ARM processors while desktop computers are almost exclusively based upon either Intel or AMD processors. The Chromebooks fall somewhere in the middle because they can perform traditional web browsing and also run dedicated applications traditionally reserved for desktop computing platforms. So we decided to put two of the least expensive Chromebooks to the test. We managed to grab both the ARM64-based Chromebook (pictured above) and the AMD-based Chromebook (pictured below) for equivalent discounted prices of about $300. The HP Chromebook included a rechargeable pen, detachable keyboard and stand, 11″ touchscreen display, and power adapter while the Acer Chromebook included a mouse, backlit keyboard, convertible 14″ touchscreen display, case, and power adapter. Both weigh about 4 pounds with 8GB RAM and 64GB disk.


We decided to test these Chromebooks by determining how well each could perform as a sales demonstration unit for those in the VoIP business. Suffice it to say, there’s nothing quite like a LIVE showing for a potential customer demonstrating how their future Unified Communications platform would work. And the fact that you can pull this is off with what looks very much like a computer tablet is icing on the cake. Both Chromebooks passed the test with ease although we massaged the Incredible PBX installer a bit to accommodate the ARM64 platform. If you decide to try this out for yourself, we’ve documented the process on the VoIP-Info.org Forum.

Because the Acer Chromebook was AMD-based, the installation process for Incredible PBX was much easier simply because the traditional Incredible PBX installer for Debian 10 runs without a hitch. Begin by opening the Chrome browser to chrome://flags. Enable Chrome extensions. Set Upgrade Crostini to Bullseye to Disabled. Set Debian Version to Buster. And set Allow Resizing Crostini Disks to Enabled. Restart the Chromebook to continue. Then navigate to Settings -> Advanced -> Developers -> Linux Development Environment. Set the Disk Size to 15GB. Then Enable Linux Development Environment. Once your Chromebook is restarted, run Terminal app. PIN it to task bar with Alt-Click.

Issue the following commands to install Incredible PBX for Debian 10:

sudo passwd root
# set a very secure root password
su root
cd ~
apt update
apt upgrade
apt install cron nano -y
wget http://incrediblepbx.com/IncrediblePBX2021.sh
chmod +x IncrediblePBX2021.sh
nano -w /etc/profile

Edit /etc/profile to look like this at the top. Save the file and restart your Chromebook.



Log back into your Chromebook’s Terminal app as root, and issue the following commands:

su root
cd ~
apt update
./IncrediblePBX2021.sh

Here are the remaining steps to configure Incredible PBX:

  • chmod 775 /
  • touch /var/log/auth.log
  • chown asterisk:asterisk /var/log/asterisk/*
  • Add OpenVPN client credentials as /etc/incrediblepbx.ovpn
  • Add gTTS following steps at this link
  • Run /root/enable-gmail-smarthost-for-sendmail using your Gmail app password
  • Remove ssh-block file from /ssh
  • Uncomment port with a port number above 1000 in sshd_config
  • Restart SSH: systemctl restart sshd
  • Remove UCP daemon: fwconsole setting NODEJSENABLED 0
  • fwconsole ma upgradeall
  • fwconsole reload
  • Clear errors, if any, from reload (several times) by doing what the prompts say
  • Run /root/sig-fix twice

So there you have it. A desktop demo machine in a tablet form-factor. Not to come across as an x86 snob, but there still are things we like to do on the Intel and AMD platforms that you simply cannot pull off using an ARM-based computer, at least not yet. At the top of that list is running VirtualBox. Many have tried, but VirtualBox is not an emulator. It’s a virtualization platform which means it runs other x86 applications using the existing x86 platform on which it was installed. Oracle has shown little interest in porting it to ARM processors and, even if it did so, you would only be able to run other ARM applications. As you also probably noticed, unless you find a really good sale, ARM-based Chromebooks are about $100 more expensive than their x86 competitors. So our tip of the hat goes to Acer Chromebook this time around.

If you’d like to put your name in the hat for one of our Chromebook test units, post a meaningful comment to this article and include your email address which won’t be published. The comment must be posted before the last day of July, 2022. We’ll publish the winner when we randomly make a selection in August, 2022. The winner will also be notified by email using the address included with your comment. Here’s the not-so-fine print:

NO PURCHASE IS NECESSARY IN ORDER TO WIN, AND YOU MAY ONLY SUBMIT A SINGLE COMMENT PER HOUSEHOLD. YOU MUST BE 18 YEARS OF AGE OR OLDER ON THE DATE OF ENTRY, AND YOU MUST BE A LEGAL RESIDENT OF ONE OF THE 50 STATES OF THE UNITED STATES OR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. THE CONTEST IS SUBJECT TO ALL FEDERAL, STATE, AND LOCAL LAWS AND REGULATIONS. IF YOUR JURISDICTION BANS PARTICIPATION IN FREE CONTESTS, YOU ARE DISQUALIFIED AND MAY NOT ENTER THE CONTEST. BY PARTICIPATING IN THIS CONTEST, YOU AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THE CONTEST RULES AND AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THE DECISIONS OF NERD VITTLES, THE SPONSOR, WHICH ARE FINAL. THE WINNER MUST PROVE COMPLIANCE WITH THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS BEFORE THE PRIZE IS DISTRIBUTED, AND THE WINNER MUST PROVIDE A PHOTOCOPY OF A VALID U.S. DRIVER'S LICENSE OR OFFICIAL STATE PHOTO ID WITH YOUR ACTUAL MAILING ADDRESS. WINNER WILL BE DISQUALIFIED IF PROOF OF COMPLIANCE IS NOT RECEIVED WITHIN 10 DAYS OF EMAIL TRANSMISSION ANNOUNCING THE WINNER. IN SUCH CASE, AN ALTERNATE WINNER WILL BE RANDOMLY SELECTED UNDER THE SAME TERMS AND CONDITIONS. IF THE ALTERNATE WINNER IS SUBSEQUENTLY DISQUALIFIED, THE PRIZE WILL REMAIN UN-AWARDED. IN THE EVENT THE CONTEST IS IMPAIRED IN ANY WAY FOR ANY REASON AS DETERMINED BY THE SPONSOR IN ITS SOLE DISCRETION, THE SPONSOR MAY TERMINATE CONTEST WITHOUT AWARDING THE PRIZE. 

BY PARTICIPATING IN THE CONTEST, YOU AGREE TO RELEASE AND HOLD HARMLESS NERD VITTLES, WARD MUNDY & ASSOCIATES LLC, AND WARD MUNDY FROM ANY AND ALL CLAIMS AND CAUSES OF ACTION ARISING OUT OF PARTICIPATION IN THE CONTEST OR AWARD TO THE WINNER. ANY CLAIM MUST BE FILED INDIVIDUALLY WITH A WAIVER OF CLASS ACTION STATUS IN THE U.S. DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA. CLAIMANT FURTHER AGREES TO COVER ALL LEGAL AND COURT COSTS OF THE DEFENDANT IN ADDITION TO CLAIMANT'S OWN LEGAL EXPENSES. ALL QUESTIONS OF LAW SHALL BE RESOLVED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAWS OF THE STATE OF FLORIDA. IN THE EVENT CLAIMANT PREVAILS AT TRIAL AND AS A CONDITION FOR ENTRY INTO THE CONTEST, PLAINTIFF AGREES TO ACCEPT NO MORE THAN $1 AS THE ACTUAL AND PUNITIVE DAMAGE AWARD.

Originally published: Monday, June 27, 2022



Need help with Asterisk? Visit the VoIP-info Forum.


 

Special Thanks to Our Generous Sponsors


FULL DISCLOSURE: ClearlyIP, Skyetel, Vitelity, DigitalOcean, Vultr, VoIP.ms, 3CX, Sangoma, TelecomsXchange and VitalPBX have provided financial support to Nerd Vittles and our open source projects through advertising, referral revenue, and/or merchandise. As an Amazon Associate and Best Buy Affiliate, we also earn from qualifying purchases. We’ve chosen these providers not the other way around. Our decisions are based upon their corporate reputation and the quality of their offerings and pricing. Our recommendations regarding technology are reached without regard to financial compensation except in situations in which comparable products at comparable pricing are available from multiple sources. In this limited case, we support our sponsors because our sponsors support us.

BOGO Bonaza: Enjoy state-of-the-art VoIP service with a $10 credit and half-price SIP service on up to $500 of Skyetel trunking with free number porting when you fund your Skyetel account. No limits on number of simultaneous calls. Quadruple data center redundancy. $25 monthly minimum spend required. Tutorial and sign up details are here.

The lynchpin of Incredible PBX 2020 and beyond is ClearlyIP components which bring management of FreePBX modules and SIP phone integration to a level never before available with any other Asterisk distribution. And now you can configure and reconfigure your new Incredible PBX phones from the convenience of the Incredible PBX GUI.

VitalPBX is perhaps the fastest-growing PBX offering based upon Asterisk with an installed presence in more than 100 countries worldwide. VitalPBX has generously provided a customized White Label version of Incredible PBX tailored for use with all Incredible PBX and VitalPBX custom applications. Follow this link for a free test drive!
 

Special Thanks to Vitelity. Vitelity is now Voyant Communications and has halted new registrations for the time being. Our special thanks to Vitelity for their unwavering financial support over many years and to the many Nerd Vittles readers who continue to enjoy the benefits of their service offerings. We will keep everyone posted on further developments.
 



Oracle Cloud: Grab a Free Incredible PBX Cloud Server for Life

It’s not every day that you get an opportunity to deploy an Incredible PBX® server on a cloud platform as robust as the one offered by Oracle®. And the fact that it won’t cost you a dime EVER makes this all the more appealing. This isn’t some bargain basement, crippled cloud platform with barely enough horsepower to get your server booted. Quite the contrary. This is an ARM-based Ubuntu 20.04 platform with 6GB of RAM, 45+ GB of storage, and a 1GB network pipe. The CPU capacity is equivalent to multiple physical cores of an Intel Xeon processor with hyper threading enabled. The word you’re looking for is WOW! Our further testing suggests that, by deploying 1 OCPU instances, you can actually create 4 separate servers in your free allocation from Oracle. So let’s jump right in and get your new server up and running.

Getting Started with Oracle Cloud

For openers, you’ll need to set yourself up with a free Oracle Cloud account here. You can read all about Oracle’s Free Tier, and today we’ll be setting up an Always Free Ampere A1 Compute Resource which never expires. It provides 3,000 OCPU hours and 18,000 GB hours per month for free for VM instances using the VM.Standard.A1.Flex shape. For Always Free tenancies, this is equivalent to 4 OCPUs and 24 GB of memory. Translation: You can build an Asterisk® server to handle thousands of users with this platform. In fact, you can now build FOUR of them.

Once you’ve set up your account and accessed the Oracle Cloud Dashboard, click on the 3-bar Options Menu in the upper left column. You’ll be using two key options in the menus: Compute -> Instances and Networking -> Virtual Cloud Networks. We recommend you click the PIN icon on both of these so that they become available on your Home dashboard.


To begin, navigate to Identity -> Compartments and create a new incrediblepbx compartment. Then navigate to Compute -> Instances and click the Create Instance button. Accept the default Name and choose incrediblepbx as your Compartment. In the Image and shape section, click Edit. In the Image and Shape dialog, click the Change Image button and choose the Canonical Ubuntu 20.04 option. CAUTION: 22.04 is now the default so make sure you change it to 20.04 Image with the latest 20.04 Build Date! Next, click the Change Shape button and choose Virtual Machine, Ampere, check VM.Standard.A1.Flex) and select 1 OCPU with 6GB of RAM. In the Networking section, click Edit. Choose Public Subnet, Use network security groups to control traffic: No, Assign a public IPv4 address: Yes, and DNS record: Yes. Finally, in the Add SSH Keys section, leave the Generate a key pair for me option selected, and click Save Private Key then Save Public Key to download both keys to your desktop. Click Upload public key files (.pub) button and upload the Public Key you just downloaded into your instance. Finally, click the Create button to create your new instance. Once your instance is up and running, click on Public Subnet under Primary VNIC. In the Default Security List option, add Ingress and Egress Rules with an entry for Stateless=No, Source=0.0.0.0/0, IP Protocol=ALL, Source & Destination Port Range=ALL. In addition, add Ingress rules for UDP 5060:5069 and UDP 10000:20000. While appearing to be redundant, the UDP rules reportedly have been necessary to make and receive calls successfully.


Now copy the public IP address of your server which, together with your private key, you’ll need to login. From a Terminal window on your desktop PC, login to your server using the following commands where ssh-key-2022-05-24.key is the filename of your private key and 159.201.201.173 is the public IP address of your instance:

chmod 0600 ssh-key-2022-05-24.key
ssh -i ssh-key-2022-05-24.key ubuntu@159.201.201.173

Once you’re logged in, let’s configure the root account which you will need to install Incredible PBX. Begin by setting up a very secure password for root.

sudo passwd root
su root
cd ~
wget http://incrediblepbx.com/IncrediblePBX2021-Oracle.sh
chmod +x IncrediblePBX2021-Oracle.sh
./IncrediblePBX2021-Oracle.sh

We think you will find the performance is second to none. Here are our 1-OCPU results which far exceed the performance specs you’ll find at Vultr, Digital Ocean, or OVH on their 1-2 GB RAM platforms.


This is not a trivial install procedure so go have a long cup of coffee and return in about 40 minutes to press the ENTER key to kick off the Automatic Update Utility. Once that begins, you’ll need to press ENTER again in about 5 minutes when the updates are completed. Then your install will continue for a couple minutes when you will be prompted to press ENTER to reboot. Do so and you’re all set.

Managing Incredible PBX in the Oracle Cloud

All of the usual Incredible PBX features are available in the Oracle Cloud release. After rebooting, you now can login to your server as root using your root password. Be sure to login periodically so that the Automatic Update Utility is run to keep your server secure.

ssh -i ssh-key-2022-xx-xx.key ubuntu@public-IP-address
su root
cd ~
./update-IncrediblePBX



It’s also good practice to keep the FreePBX GPL modules up to date. Here’s how after logging in:

rm -f /tmp/*
fwconsole ma upgradeall
fwconsole reload
fwconsole restart
./sig-fix
./sig-fix

And don’t forget to…

Set your admin password for FreePBX GUI access: ./admin-pw-change

Set your admin password for Apache app access: ./apache-pw-change

Set your proper timezone: ./timezone-setup

Configure SendMail relay host: ./enable-gmail-smarthost-for-sendmail

Whitelist your IP addresses for access: ./add-ip and ./add-fqdn

Make a Backup and copy it off-site: ./incrediblebackup2021

Using Text-to-Speech Apps in the Oracle Cloud

Because the Oracle platform is ARM-based and most of the text-to-speech (TTS) apps are not, finding a TTS solution that actually worked was a challenge. But thanks to a tip from Dick Ollett, we’ve found a reliable alternative to PicoTTS. gTTS was easy to deploy with our existing applications and has restored the functionality of the Weather by ZIP Code (947) and News Headlines (951) applications using Incredible PBX on the Oracle Cloud platform.

Activating IBM Text-to-Speech for Oracle Cloud

IBM’s TTS offering still works reliably and, if you sign up for their LITE Pricing Plan, the first 10,000 characters per month are free. To get started, follow along in our previous IBM tutorial to sign up for service and the LITE TTS Pricing Plan which you will find by clicking on the Catalog tab in the toolbar, then choosing AI/Machine Learning, and then Text to Speech. Choose the Lite plan and make note of your API Key and access URL for the region you selected.

Next, log into your server as root and issue the following commands:

cd /var/lib/asterisk/agi-bin
wget http://incrediblepbx.com/ibmtts.tar.gz
tar zxvf ibmtts.tar.gz
rm -f ibmtts.tar.gz
./install-ibmtts-dialplan.sh

Finally, edit /var/lib/asterisk/agi-bin/ibmtts.php and insert your API Key and URL in the spaces provided. Then save the file.

Activating Amazon’s Polly TTS for Oracle Cloud

If you’d prefer to use Amazon’s Polly TTS, its pricing is incredibly reasonable, and the quality is second to none. For your first year of service, 5 million TTS characters a month are free. After that, the standard TTS cost is $4 per million characters per month prorated to actual usage. For example, with 300 TTS requests a month of 500 characters each, the monthly cost would be 60¢. We’ve previously documented the Polly TTS setup for Incredible PBX 2021 so you can follow that tutorial to deploy Polly TTS with Incredible PBX in the Oracle Cloud.

Using either service, you now should be able to obtain Weather Reports by ZIP Code by dialing 947 from any extension registered to your PBX. Get the latest News Headlines by dialing 951.

Deploying PicoTTS in the Oracle Cloud

Because Oracle Cloud runs on the ARM64 architecture, you’ll need the ARM64 version of PicoTTS:

cd /root
rm -f libttspico*
wget http://incrediblepbx.com/picotts-arm64.tar.gz
tar zxvf picotts-arm64.tar.gz
rm -f picotts-arm64.tar.gz
dpkg -i libttspico*

Activating OpenVPN Virtual Private Network

The OpenVPN Client software comes preinstalled with Incredible PBX. In order to activate OpenVPN, you simply need to copy your OpenVPN credentials to the server as /etc/incrediblepbx2021.ovpn. Then reboot. Your OpenVPN IP address will be shown in pbxstatus. For an overview of the OpenVPN setup procedure, read our original OpenVPN article. Then follow the simple steps on the Incredible PBX Wiki for OpenVPN Server and OpenVPN Client installs.

NOTE: Because of Oracle’s security zone policies, connecting extensions to your PBX using the public IP address may result in no audio on calls with some SIP clients. By connecting using the OpenVPN private IP address solves the problem in some cases.

Getting Started with Incredible Fax 2021

Believe it or not, there still are lots of folks that use faxes in their everyday lives. If you’re one of them, Incredible PBX has your back. Begin by logging into your server as root and running ./incrediblefax2021-ubuntu20.04.sh to install HylaFax and AvantFax on your server. You’ll be prompted a dozen or more times for information. Answer no to the secure fax question. For the rest of the prompts, just press ENTER to accept the default entries. Rebooting your server is required when the install finishes. Once your server is back on line, there will be a new AvantFax tab in the GUI. Before proceeding, be sure to set an Apache web apps password by running /root/apache-pw-change. Next, login to AvantFax with your browser. You first will be prompted for your Apache credentials. Enter admin for the username and whatever password you set up in the previous step. Then you will be prompted for your AvantFax credentials. The default is admin:password. After you enter the username and password, you will be prompted to change your admin password. The AvantFax dashboard then will display. If nothing has come unglued, you should see four green Idle icons:



You can Send Faxes from within AvantFax by choosing the Send Fax tab, or you can use one of many HylaFax clients. Google is your friend.

Configuring Inbound Routes for Fax Detection

Not all VoIP trunks support fax transmission, e.g. Vitelity. Assuming yours do and you’ll only know by trial and error, here’s how to configure FreePBX to automatically detect incoming faxes and process them for PDF delivery by email. First, make certain the Fax Configuration Module is enabled in Module Admin. Then, for each Inbound Route on which you wish to receive faxes, you’ll need to enable fax detection on each route.

Under the Fax tab of each Inbound Route, enter the following settings:

Detect Faxes: YES
Fax Detection Type: SIP
Fax Ring: YES
Fax Detect Time: 4
Fax Destination: Custom Destinations -> Fax (Hylafax)

To try things out, send yourself a fax at no cost in the U.S. from FaxZero.

Using the GraphQL API Tool with Incredible PBX

Begin by installing the required GraphQL components:

pip3 install --pre gql[all]

Next, open the FreePBX GUI and navigate to Connectivity -> API. Select the Scope Visualizer tab and check Read/Write for ALL GraphQL Modules. Then select the GraphQL Explorer tab and click Reload Explorer. In the GraphiQL dialog, enter the following and press the Start arrow to list all of your extensions:

query {
  fetchAllExtensions {
    status
    message
    totalCount
    extension {
      extensionId
    }
  }
}

For the complete tutorial on using GraphQL to list, edit, and populate virtually anything on your PBX, read this tutorial and review the Asterisk documentation for the GraphQL API.

Installing OPUS in the Oracle Cloud

Log into your server as root and issue the following commands:

rm /usr/lib64/asterisk/modules/codec_opus.so
rm /usr/lib64/asterisk/modules/codec_opus_open_source.so
rm /usr/lib64/asterisk/modules/res_format_attr_opus.so
rm /usr/lib/asterisk/modules/codec_opus.so
rm /usr/lib/asterisk/modules/format_ogg_opus*.so
rm /usr/lib/asterisk/modules/res_format_attr_opus.so
rm /usr/lib/asterisk/modules/codec_opus_open_source.so
cd /usr/lib64/asterisk/modules
wget http://incrediblepbx.com/opus-oracle.tar.gz
tar zxvf opus-oracle.tar.gz
rm opus-oracle.tar.gz
fwconsole restart
asterisk -rx "module show like opus"
asterisk -rx "core show translation paths opus"

How Sausage Is Made AND Special Thanks

While our name is associated with this build, I want to give a special tip of the hat to the important contributions from Dick Ollett on the text-to-speech deployment, Bill Simon on the CDR/CEL implementation with ODBC, and @knerd for his GraphQL tips. AArch64 is a different beast, and we couldn’t have pulled this off without their assistance. If you’re ever curious how sausage is actually made in the open source development world, you can read all about it in this VoIP-Info.org Forum thread. THANK YOU! Should you ever need paid Asterisk consulting, these are our two go-to guys. You can find them on the forum, or you can contact us for a referral.

Originally published: Monday, May 30, 2022   Updated: Sunday, September 25, 2022



Need help with Asterisk? Visit the VoIP-info Forum.


 

Special Thanks to Our Generous Sponsors


FULL DISCLOSURE: ClearlyIP, Skyetel, Vitelity, DigitalOcean, Vultr, VoIP.ms, 3CX, Sangoma, TelecomsXchange and VitalPBX have provided financial support to Nerd Vittles and our open source projects through advertising, referral revenue, and/or merchandise. As an Amazon Associate and Best Buy Affiliate, we also earn from qualifying purchases. We’ve chosen these providers not the other way around. Our decisions are based upon their corporate reputation and the quality of their offerings and pricing. Our recommendations regarding technology are reached without regard to financial compensation except in situations in which comparable products at comparable pricing are available from multiple sources. In this limited case, we support our sponsors because our sponsors support us.

BOGO Bonaza: Enjoy state-of-the-art VoIP service with a $10 credit and half-price SIP service on up to $500 of Skyetel trunking with free number porting when you fund your Skyetel account. No limits on number of simultaneous calls. Quadruple data center redundancy. $25 monthly minimum spend required. Tutorial and sign up details are here.

The lynchpin of Incredible PBX 2020 and beyond is ClearlyIP components which bring management of FreePBX modules and SIP phone integration to a level never before available with any other Asterisk distribution. And now you can configure and reconfigure your new Incredible PBX phones from the convenience of the Incredible PBX GUI.

VitalPBX is perhaps the fastest-growing PBX offering based upon Asterisk with an installed presence in more than 100 countries worldwide. VitalPBX has generously provided a customized White Label version of Incredible PBX tailored for use with all Incredible PBX and VitalPBX custom applications. Follow this link for a free test drive!
 

Special Thanks to Vitelity. Vitelity is now Voyant Communications and has halted new registrations for the time being. Our special thanks to Vitelity for their unwavering financial support over many years and to the many Nerd Vittles readers who continue to enjoy the benefits of their service offerings. We will keep everyone posted on further developments.
 



Systems Integration and Public Participation with FreePBX



It’s been an interesting few days in the FreePBX® VoIP community with a thread on the VoIP-Info.org and another on the FreePBX Forum. It’s prompted us to revisit what open source development is all about and what all of this means to those of you that rely upon Asterisk® and FreePBX.

After the departure of the Schmooze folks from Sangoma, virtually all development has been moved behind closed doors with the first opportunity for public participation occurring after new features appear in modules pushed to the so-called Edge repository. This is where folks can shake the kinks out of modules that presumably are almost ready for prime time. For example, take a look at the Changelog for the Framework Module. Prior to the departure of the Schmooze team, changes were managed by openly-accessible tickets. But now you will notice tickets bear a FREEI designation indicating restricted Sangoma-internal access only.


Beta previously was an appropriate moniker for these modules. If you read the FreePBX forum post above, you’ll note that now modules are being pushed to the Edge repository not only before public comment but apparently before much of any internal testing is performed by the Sangoma folks. The net result is you’d be crazy to ever use Edge modules in any production environment where, in the past, Edge modules more typically were used to fix something that was already broken in the traditional repository. Because the Bootstrap module is the lynchpin of virtually all other FreePBX modules, a recent glitch that had not been tested broke almost everything in FreePBX 16 if you happened to be using Edge modules.

I’m reminded of the old adage about marine aquariums. You never want to put a new fish in your main tank unless you’re willing to risk killing all of your other fish. This latest fiasco prompts our cautionary note about further use of the FreePBX Edge repository. Don’t load new modules on your production servers without testing them first in a VirtualBox sandbox unless you have a snapshot or backup of your server that can be deployed in minutes when something cataclysmic occurs.

And that brings us to our response concerning what Incredible PBX® is and is not all about. Going back to the early 80’s, we began tweaking hardware and software deployments to eliminate much of the pain associated with deployment of automated systems. Our friend on the VoIP-Info forum refers to Incredible PBX as a fork of FreePBX. Quite the contrary, it is anything but a fork. We use the FreePBX GPL modules exactly as they are published by Sangoma with an additional master key not controlled by Sangoma for your protection and for ours. This allows us to block specific module updates that prove to be dangerous for our users. Equally important, Incredible PBX offers improved functionality and stability, the same features that are typically associated with the work of a systems integrator… that you pay for. On the stability side, we migrated to new FreePBX repositories maintained by Clearly IP simply because the FreePBX repos had become extremely unreliable and proprietary. Sangoma deploys modules using key signatures that only they control. That means if you make any improvements or changes the FreePBX Dashboard displays all sorts of security alerts, something your customers and end-users would prefer not to see. Some of you may recall this was our primary objection to module signatures years ago.

On the enhancement side, we’ve tried to add free components that our millions of readers have clamored for. You may recall that Nerd Vittles was the first to provide turnkey Google Voice support for Asterisk over a decade ago. We then tackled security after numerous compromises of FreePBX systems around the world. Since then the list has grown exponentially. Here’s the added feature set you’ve enjoyed by deploying an Incredible PBX platform instead of the FreePBX Distro. And, unlike FreePBX commercial modules, these components won’t cost you a dime and are freely distributable. So the choice is yours.

  • User-customizable installers for Rocky 8, Debian 10 & 11, Ubuntu 20.04, Raspbian
  • User-customizable images for VirtualBox, VMware, Proxmox, and Raspberry Pi
  • Preconfigured, free faxing with HylaFax and AvantFax
  • Preconfigured, secure IPtables firewall
  • Preconfigured, secure Fail2Ban
  • Preconfigured PortKnocker
  • Preconfigured NeoRouter VPN
  • Preconfigured OpenVPN
  • Preconfigured, secure WebMin
  • Preconfigured SendMail and Postfix
  • Preconfigured ODBC Integration for FreePBX
  • Sample ODBC Database Lookups for FreePBX
  • Dozens of Preconfigured Trunk Provider Setups for FreePBX
  • Preconfigured, secure PUBLIC Access Setups for FreePBX
  • Preconfigured scripts to update CentOS, Debian, Ubuntu, Raspbian, and Rocky
  • Preconfigured scripts to update or upgrade Asterisk
  • Preconfigured scripts to update or upgrade FreePBX
  • Preconfigured scripts to update or upgrade PHP
  • Preconfigured script to implement PPTP
  • Preconfigured script to implement TFTP
  • Preconfigured script to implement SAMBA
  • Preconfigured script to implement Gmail Smarthost for SendMail/Postfix
  • Preconfigured script to implement non-Gmail Smarthost for SendMail/Postfix
  • Automatic Update Utility to resolve bugs and security vulnerabilities
  • Integrated TTS apps: FLITE, Festival, PicoTTS, GoogleTTS, Amazon Polly
  • Integrated TTS apps for Voicemail Transcription
  • Integrated STT apps and samples for Asterisk and FreePBX
  • Integrated Voicemail Transcription for Asterisk with Email Delivery
  • AsteriDex 4 web-based MySQL GUI with FreePBX Dialer & Lookups
  • Telephone and Web-Based Reminders for FreePBX with Email and SMS Alerts
  • TTS News Headlines for FreePBX
  • TTS Weather Forecasts for FreePBX (by ZIP Code and Airport Code)
  • CallerID Superfecta for Asterisk
  • MailCall for Asterisk via TTS
  • SMS Scripts for Skyetel and VoIP.ms Message Blasting
  • Speech-to-Text Directory Assistance for Asterisk
  • Wolfram Alpha TTS for FreePBX
  • U-Rang Screenpop Utility for Asterisk
  • xTide TTS for FreePBX
  • Facebook Messaging Integration
  • Twitter Messaging Integration
  • Skype and Gizmo Telephony Integration
  • Teleyapper Message Broadcasting System for Asterisk
  • Scripts to disable Module Signature Checking with FreePBX
  • Script to configure time zones worldwide
  • Incredible Backup and Restore Utilities for all OS platforms
  • LENNY, The Robocallers Worst Nightmare

People hear the word "fork" and get scared away from testing alternative VoIP solutions. If you’re one of those folks, we would encourage you to spend an hour with Incredible PBX using one of our supported virtual platforms: VirtualBox, VMware, or Proxmox. We think the decision will be a no-brainer after your testing. For a list of all of our free VoIP solutions, visit the Incredible PBX Wiki. Enjoy!

Originally published: Monday, May 23, 2022



Need help with Asterisk? Visit the VoIP-info Forum.


 

Special Thanks to Our Generous Sponsors


FULL DISCLOSURE: ClearlyIP, Skyetel, Vitelity, DigitalOcean, Vultr, VoIP.ms, 3CX, Sangoma, TelecomsXchange and VitalPBX have provided financial support to Nerd Vittles and our open source projects through advertising, referral revenue, and/or merchandise. As an Amazon Associate and Best Buy Affiliate, we also earn from qualifying purchases. We’ve chosen these providers not the other way around. Our decisions are based upon their corporate reputation and the quality of their offerings and pricing. Our recommendations regarding technology are reached without regard to financial compensation except in situations in which comparable products at comparable pricing are available from multiple sources. In this limited case, we support our sponsors because our sponsors support us.

BOGO Bonaza: Enjoy state-of-the-art VoIP service with a $10 credit and half-price SIP service on up to $500 of Skyetel trunking with free number porting when you fund your Skyetel account. No limits on number of simultaneous calls. Quadruple data center redundancy. $25 monthly minimum spend required. Tutorial and sign up details are here.

The lynchpin of Incredible PBX 2020 and beyond is ClearlyIP components which bring management of FreePBX modules and SIP phone integration to a level never before available with any other Asterisk distribution. And now you can configure and reconfigure your new Incredible PBX phones from the convenience of the Incredible PBX GUI.

VitalPBX is perhaps the fastest-growing PBX offering based upon Asterisk with an installed presence in more than 100 countries worldwide. VitalPBX has generously provided a customized White Label version of Incredible PBX tailored for use with all Incredible PBX and VitalPBX custom applications. Follow this link for a free test drive!
 

Special Thanks to Vitelity. Vitelity is now Voyant Communications and has halted new registrations for the time being. Our special thanks to Vitelity for their unwavering financial support over many years and to the many Nerd Vittles readers who continue to enjoy the benefits of their service offerings. We will keep everyone posted on further developments.
 



A Walk on the Wild Side: Meet Incredible PBX for MX Linux



This week’s adventure is just for fun. It’s a VirtualBox® Beauty featuring Incredible PBX®, Asterisk® 18, FreePBX® 15, and MX Linux 21.1. If you’re unfamiliar with MX Linux, it is one of the slickest Debian aggregations because it seamlessly integrates a desktop GUI featuring Xfce Desktop, KDE, and fluxbox into a Debian 11 platform with native support for LibreOffice, Firefox, Thunderbird, SAMBA, and some awesome games and music utilities including Clementine. If all of these apps sound like Greek, then you owe it to yourself to spend an evening or weekend exploring MX Linux while enjoying most of the integrated functionality of the Incredible PBX 2021 platform. Did we mention that printer integration is seamless with most of the major brands so you can enjoy the office suite without missing a beat by abandoning your Mac or Windows desktop.


What would we use this for? The short answer is not for production. The long answer is it’s a perfect complement for a traveling Chromebook where you want to connect back to your PBX mothership while retaining full functionality of a desktop computer back home at zero cost. VirtualBox is free. Incredible PBX is free. MX Linux including our bundled .ova image is free. And an 8GB Chromebook with 64GB of eMMC storage is dirt cheap. So what’s not to like?

Installing Oracle VM VirtualBox

Oracle’s virtual machine platform inherited from Sun is amazing. It’s not only free, but it’s pure GPL2 code. VirtualBox gives you a virtual machine platform that runs on top of any desktop operating system. In terms of limitations, we haven’t found any. We even tested this on an Atom-based Windows 7 machine with 2GB of RAM, and it worked without a hiccup. So step #1 today is to download one or more of the VirtualBox installers from VirtualBox.org or Oracle.com. Our recommendation is to put all of the 100MB installers on a 4GB thumb drive.1 Then you’ll have everything in one place whenever and wherever you happen to need it. Once you’ve downloaded the software, simply install it onto your favorite desktop machine. Here’s a link to get VirtualBox running on a Chromebook. Accept all of the default settings, and you’ll be good to go. For more details, here’s a link to the Oracle VM VirtualBox User Manual.

NOTE: The Incredible PBX for MX Linux VM requires a VirtualBox 6.x platform. Adjust screen size in View -> Virtual Screen.

Installing the Incredible PBX for MX Linux Image

To begin, visit our SourceForge page and follow the steps to assemble the 8GB+ .ova image of Incredible PBX with MX Linux.

Next, copy it to your VirtualBox desktop machine and double-click on the Incredible PBX .ova image. Then click Import. Once the import is finished, you’ll see a new Incredible PBX for MX Linux virtual machine in the VM List of the VirtualBox Manager Window. Let’s make a couple of one-time adjustments to the Incredible PBX configuration to account for possible differences in sound and network cards on different host machines.

(1) Click once on the Incredible PBX virtual machine in the VM List. Then (2) click the Settings button. In System tab, verify Hardware Clock in UTC Time is checked. In the Audio tab, check the Enable Audio option and choose your sound card. In the Network tab for Adapter 1, check the Enable Network Adapter option. From the Attached to pull-down menu, choose Bridged Adapter. Then select your network card from the Name list. Then click OK. That’s all the configuration that is necessary.

Running Incredible PBX for MX Linux in VirtualBox

Once you’ve imported and configured the Incredible PBX for MX Linux Virtual Machine, you’re ready to go. Highlight the Incredible PBX virtual machine in the VM List on the VirtualBox Manager Window and click the Start button. The standard Linux boot procedure will begin and, within a few seconds, you’ll get the familiar Linux login prompt. Choose Other from the pull-down list and enter root for your username and password for your password.


During the bootstrap procedure, you may see a couple of dialogue boxes pop up that explain the keystrokes to move back and forth between your host operating system desktop and your virtual machine. Remember, you still have full access to your desktop computer. Incredible PBX is merely running as a task in a VM window. Always gracefully halt Incredible PBX just as you would on any computer.

Here’s what you need to know. To work in the Incredible PBX virtual machine, just left-click your mouse while it is positioned inside the VM window. To return to your host operating system desktop, press the right Option key on Windows machines or the left Command key on any Mac. On Linux desktops, press the right Ctrl key. For other operating systems, read the dialogue boxes for instructions on moving around. To access the Linux CLI, login as root with the default password: password.

Once the Xfce Desktop displays, click on the Xfce Terminal Emulator icon in the left menu bar which will drop you into the Linux CLI.

First, create a new end-user account which we will explain in a minute. Just enter the following command: adduser nerd.

Next, update your admin password for Incredible PBX web access: ./admin-pw-change.

Then update your admin password for web applications: ./apache-pw-change. You’ll need these admin passwords to access the web GUI to manage your PBX as well as to use the AsteriDex and Reminders web apps.

Finally, run ./timezone-setup to set the correct time zone for your virtual machine.

Make note of your virtual machine’s local IP and time by typing pbxstatus. You’ll need this IP address to log into the Incredible PBX GUI using Firefox on the Xfce Desktop.

Setting the Date and Time with VirtualBox

If pbxstatus still shows an incorrect time, manually set the date and time and then update the hardware clock. Here’s how assuming 05160709 is the month (May), day (16), and correct time (7:09 a.m.) of your server:

date 05160709
clock -w

Returning to the Xfce Desktop

Now let’s return to the Xfce Desktop and close the terminal window. Type exit and press ENTER.

MX Linux won’t let you run many of its desktop applications while logged in as root. To switch to the nerd user we created above, do the following. Click on the Application Menu icon in the bottom left column. Then click the Lock Screen icon at the top of the applications menu. When the familiar login screen reappears, log back into your virtual machine as nerd using the password you set up when you created the account. Now explore all the fabulous features that MX Linux offers. And follow our Incredible PBX tutorial to get up and running in minutes.

Originally published: Monday, May 16, 2022



Need help with Asterisk? Visit the VoIP-info Forum.


 

Special Thanks to Our Generous Sponsors


FULL DISCLOSURE: ClearlyIP, Skyetel, Vitelity, DigitalOcean, Vultr, VoIP.ms, 3CX, Sangoma, TelecomsXchange and VitalPBX have provided financial support to Nerd Vittles and our open source projects through advertising, referral revenue, and/or merchandise. As an Amazon Associate and Best Buy Affiliate, we also earn from qualifying purchases. We’ve chosen these providers not the other way around. Our decisions are based upon their corporate reputation and the quality of their offerings and pricing. Our recommendations regarding technology are reached without regard to financial compensation except in situations in which comparable products at comparable pricing are available from multiple sources. In this limited case, we support our sponsors because our sponsors support us.

BOGO Bonaza: Enjoy state-of-the-art VoIP service with a $10 credit and half-price SIP service on up to $500 of Skyetel trunking with free number porting when you fund your Skyetel account. No limits on number of simultaneous calls. Quadruple data center redundancy. $25 monthly minimum spend required. Tutorial and sign up details are here.

The lynchpin of Incredible PBX 2020 and beyond is ClearlyIP components which bring management of FreePBX modules and SIP phone integration to a level never before available with any other Asterisk distribution. And now you can configure and reconfigure your new Incredible PBX phones from the convenience of the Incredible PBX GUI.

VitalPBX is perhaps the fastest-growing PBX offering based upon Asterisk with an installed presence in more than 100 countries worldwide. VitalPBX has generously provided a customized White Label version of Incredible PBX tailored for use with all Incredible PBX and VitalPBX custom applications. Follow this link for a free test drive!
 

Special Thanks to Vitelity. Vitelity is now Voyant Communications and has halted new registrations for the time being. Our special thanks to Vitelity for their unwavering financial support over many years and to the many Nerd Vittles readers who continue to enjoy the benefits of their service offerings. We will keep everyone posted on further developments.
 



  1. Many of our purchase links refer users to Amazon when we find their prices are competitive for the recommended products. Nerd Vittles receives a small referral fee from Amazon to help cover the costs of our blog. We never recommend particular products solely to generate Amazon commissions. However, when pricing is comparable or availability is favorable, we support Amazon because Amazon supports us. []

Deal of the Year: OBi2182 Color WiFi Phones now $59.99



One year and counting… If you still have some Google Voice numbers lying around or if you’d like to join the party a little late, now is your second chance. Amazon now is selling the OBi2182 phones to U.S. residents with native Google Voice as well as WiFi, Bluetooth, HD Voice, speakerphone, and a power adapter currently selling for $69.99. Hold, transfer, and conferencing support are included in the phone. Here’s our Amazon referral link to keep the lights on.

We were big fans of OBiHai once upon a time. But then they sold out to Polycom. And they subsequently sold out to Plantronics. And support went from bad to worse along the way. But things appear to have stabilized so this offering may just be one of the best deals on the planet. Not only do you get unlimited free calling throughout the U.S., Canada, and Ukraine but you also get some of the best pricing ever on most international calls. While we no longer have any dealings with ObiHai, Polycom, or Plantronics, we know many of our followers were left high and dry when Google pulled the plug on Google Voice for Asterisk®. Here’s a tip.

Adding one or more of these phones makes a perfect supplement to your Asterisk platform making it easy to add free calling to your home or home office PBX. And it’s not too late to order a Google Voice number if you’re new to the game. Configuring a SIP or PJsip connection as well as Bluetooth connectivity to your cellphone is just as simple as adding Google Voice trunks using the OBiTalk web interface shown below. Trunk setups take less than a minute apiece. The phone supports 12 lines. And WiFi calls are crystal-clear thanks to HD Voice.


Grab an OBi2182 while you still can! An Admin Guide to the OBi2182 is available here.

Originally published: Monday, May 9, 2022



Need help with Asterisk? Visit the VoIP-info Forum.


 

Special Thanks to Our Generous Sponsors


FULL DISCLOSURE: ClearlyIP, Skyetel, Vitelity, DigitalOcean, Vultr, VoIP.ms, 3CX, Sangoma, TelecomsXchange and VitalPBX have provided financial support to Nerd Vittles and our open source projects through advertising, referral revenue, and/or merchandise. As an Amazon Associate and Best Buy Affiliate, we also earn from qualifying purchases. We’ve chosen these providers not the other way around. Our decisions are based upon their corporate reputation and the quality of their offerings and pricing. Our recommendations regarding technology are reached without regard to financial compensation except in situations in which comparable products at comparable pricing are available from multiple sources. In this limited case, we support our sponsors because our sponsors support us.

BOGO Bonaza: Enjoy state-of-the-art VoIP service with a $10 credit and half-price SIP service on up to $500 of Skyetel trunking with free number porting when you fund your Skyetel account. No limits on number of simultaneous calls. Quadruple data center redundancy. $25 monthly minimum spend required. Tutorial and sign up details are here.

The lynchpin of Incredible PBX 2020 and beyond is ClearlyIP components which bring management of FreePBX modules and SIP phone integration to a level never before available with any other Asterisk distribution. And now you can configure and reconfigure your new Incredible PBX phones from the convenience of the Incredible PBX GUI.

VitalPBX is perhaps the fastest-growing PBX offering based upon Asterisk with an installed presence in more than 100 countries worldwide. VitalPBX has generously provided a customized White Label version of Incredible PBX tailored for use with all Incredible PBX and VitalPBX custom applications. Follow this link for a free test drive!
 

Special Thanks to Vitelity. Vitelity is now Voyant Communications and has halted new registrations for the time being. Our special thanks to Vitelity for their unwavering financial support over many years and to the many Nerd Vittles readers who continue to enjoy the benefits of their service offerings. We will keep everyone posted on further developments.
 



Interconnecting Asterisk Servers with PJsip and OpenVPN


It’s been several years since we discussed interconnecting Asterisk® servers so today we want to do a version refresh using PJsip Trunking. We also want to show you how easy it is to secure the communications path by setting up the trunks using OpenVPN connections. When we’re finished, you’ll have a FREE way to call between sites using FreePBX® Outbound Routes. Because Incredible PBX comes preconfigured with all the components you’ll need, we’ll use that platform to further simplify the deployment. We’ll be interconnecting two Asterisk servers today, but you can use the same methodology to connect numerous sites.

Deploying OpenVPN with Asterisk Servers

To begin, you’ll want to get all of the sites configured with a virtual private network using OpenVPN. Our tutorial will walk you through the process. Keep in mind that all current releases of Incredible PBX are preconfigured to let you drop in your OpenVPN client credentials by naming them incrediblepbx.ovpn and copying the file into the /etc directory. Rebooting your server will bring up the virtual private network with a 10.8.0.x IP address.

Configuring PJsip Trunks on Your Asterisk Servers

If you remember yesteryear’s knuckle drill configuring SIP or IAX trunks for Asterisk connectivity, you’re in for a pleasant surprise using PJsip trunking with FreePBX. Using the GUI, create a new PJsip trunk for every site to which you want to establish a connection. A similar PJsip trunk must be created on the other site as well. If you’re just interconnecting two servers, then using the City locations for the Trunk Names will suffice. But, if there are more than two servers, specify unique names for each end of every PJsip connection, e.g.

NewYork1 <-> London1
NewYork2 <-> Washington1
NewYork3 <-> Miami1
London2 <-> Washington2
London3 <-> Miami2
Washington3 <-> Miami3

For today, we’ll interconnect a server in New York and London, but we’ll plan for the future and use London1 for the Trunk Name on the New York server and NewYork1 for the Trunk Name on the London server.

Let’s begin by configuring the London1 trunk on the New York server. After entering the London1 Trunk Name in the General tab, click on the pjsip Settings tab. In the General tab, leave the defaults in the first four fields. Then change the Registration field to None. For the SIP Server field, enter the OpenVPN IP address of the London server, e.g. 10.8.0.2. Because we’re using Incredible PBX, the PJsip port is 5061 so enter that in the SIP Server Port field. If you’re using a different flavor of FreePBX, enter the appropriate port number for PJsip on your platform. Next, click on the Advanced tab and enter the London server’s OpenVPN address in the Match (Permit) field, e.g. 10.8.0.2. In the Codecs tab, make note of the enabled codecs and make certain that the entries match on all of your servers. Click the Submit button to save your settings and then reload your dialplan.

Now let’s configure the NewYork1 trunk on the London server. After entering the NewYork1 Trunk Name in the General tab, click on the pjsip Settings tab. In the General tab, leave the defaults in the first four fields. Then change the Registration field to None. For the SIP Server field, enter the OpenVPN IP address of the New York server, e.g. 10.8.0.1. Because we’re using Incredible PBX, the PJsip port is 5061 so enter that in the SIP Server Port field. If you’re using a different flavor of FreePBX, enter the appropriate port number for PJsip on your platform. Next, click on the Advanced tab and enter the New York server’s OpenVPN address in the Match (Permit) field, e.g. 10.8.0.1. In the Codecs tab, make certain that the entries match those on your New York server. Click the Submit button to save your settings and then reload your dialplan. Here’s how it looks in the FreePBX GUI:


Use Outbound Routes to Interconnect Extensions

To keep things simple, let’s assume both your New York and London servers have extensions 701-705. To call an extension on the other server, we will simply dial 9 and then the 3-digit extension, e.g. dialing 9701 on the New York server will ring 701 on the London server and dialing 9701 on the London server will ring 701 on the New York server.

Create an Outbound Route on the New York server called London specifying London1 for the Trunk Sequence in the Route Settings tab. In the Dial Patterns tab, enter 9 in the Prefix field and XXX for the Match Pattern. Click Submit to save your settings and then reload dialplan.


Create an Outbound Route on the London server called New York specifying NewYork1 for the Trunk Sequence in the Route Settings tab. In the Dial Patterns tab, enter 9 in the Prefix field and XXX for the Match Pattern. Click Submit to save your settings and then reload dialplan.

If you’re interconnecting more than two sites, then you probably will want to designate a specific Prefix for every City so that users can travel between sites and use the same methodology to reach the same extensions from every location.

You can test things out using softphones by registering 701 to an extension in New York and another to the 701 extension in London. Now you can place secure and FREE calls between the sites by dialing 9701 from each softphone. Enjoy!

Originally published: Monday, May 2, 2022



Need help with Asterisk? Visit the VoIP-info Forum.


 

Special Thanks to Our Generous Sponsors


FULL DISCLOSURE: ClearlyIP, Skyetel, Vitelity, DigitalOcean, Vultr, VoIP.ms, 3CX, Sangoma, TelecomsXchange and VitalPBX have provided financial support to Nerd Vittles and our open source projects through advertising, referral revenue, and/or merchandise. As an Amazon Associate and Best Buy Affiliate, we also earn from qualifying purchases. We’ve chosen these providers not the other way around. Our decisions are based upon their corporate reputation and the quality of their offerings and pricing. Our recommendations regarding technology are reached without regard to financial compensation except in situations in which comparable products at comparable pricing are available from multiple sources. In this limited case, we support our sponsors because our sponsors support us.

BOGO Bonaza: Enjoy state-of-the-art VoIP service with a $10 credit and half-price SIP service on up to $500 of Skyetel trunking with free number porting when you fund your Skyetel account. No limits on number of simultaneous calls. Quadruple data center redundancy. $25 monthly minimum spend required. Tutorial and sign up details are here.

The lynchpin of Incredible PBX 2020 and beyond is ClearlyIP components which bring management of FreePBX modules and SIP phone integration to a level never before available with any other Asterisk distribution. And now you can configure and reconfigure your new Incredible PBX phones from the convenience of the Incredible PBX GUI.

VitalPBX is perhaps the fastest-growing PBX offering based upon Asterisk with an installed presence in more than 100 countries worldwide. VitalPBX has generously provided a customized White Label version of Incredible PBX tailored for use with all Incredible PBX and VitalPBX custom applications. Follow this link for a free test drive!
 

Special Thanks to Vitelity. Vitelity is now Voyant Communications and has halted new registrations for the time being. Our special thanks to Vitelity for their unwavering financial support over many years and to the many Nerd Vittles readers who continue to enjoy the benefits of their service offerings. We will keep everyone posted on further developments.
 



5 Minute Wonder: Incredible PBX 2022 in Cloud for $25/Yr.



We’ve been building turnkey Incredible PBX® servers for virtual machine platforms for many years. Because the servers are built from images, typical install times have been 5 minutes or less with Proxmox, VirtualBox, and VMware ESXi. But the missing piece has been a similar image install on a true cloud-based platform. This limitation was primarily due to the fact that we don’t own or control the available cloud platforms which typically limit image installs to operating systems such as CentOS, Debian, Ubuntu, and Windows. However, CrownCloud was good enough to add our Incredible PBX 2021 Debian image and the Incredible PBX 2020 CentOS 7 image to their portfolio. And, today, we have more good news. CrownCloud has now added the Incredible PBX 2022 image for Rocky 8 as well.

These 5-minute turnkey installs of Incredible PBX 2020 for CentOS 7, Incredible PBX 2021 for Debian 10, and now Incredible PBX 2022 for Rocky 8 are being offered at the jaw-dropping price of $25 a year. The monthly cost is cheaper than a cup of coffee at Starbucks, and you’ll have a fully-functioning, production-ready KVM platform including a free snapshot with 1GB RAM, 20GB SSD storage, and 1TB of monthly bandwidth in your choice of server locations including Los Angeles and Atlanta in the United States as well as Germany and the Netherlands in Europe. And, unlike all of the other Asterisk® aggregations, Incredible PBX still provides a source code-based platform that can be tailored to meet any special requirements your organization may need.

We don’t make a nickel on these offerings so consider this our special thanks to all of our loyal fans.

Here are the links to sign up for the service and take advantage of these Incredible PBX deals:

When you sign up for the service, choose any traditional OS for the base install. Once it’s on line, go into CrownPanel and choose Reinstall. Then select Incredible PBX 2022 for Rocky from the Application Images pulldown as your new install. In less than 5 minutes, your server will be ready for you to login. Be sure to use SSH and NOT the VNC utility included in CrownPanel. This will assure that your desktop machine’s IP address gets whitelisted in the Incredible PBX firewall. Otherwise, you won’t be able to SSH into your server from your desktop. Once you login, the Incredible PBX configurator will prompt you to set passwords for root login, admin login to FreePBX, and admin login credentials for Apache to access AsteriDex and Reminders. Add a trunk provider (Skyetel is preconfigured and enabled by default) and a softphone or Incredible PBX SIP phone, and your PBX is fully operational. Check out the CrownCloud Wiki.


Planning Ahead for That Rainy Day

One of our favorite features of Crown Cloud is the free snapshot (a.k.a. backup) at no additional charge. We recommend you take snapshots regularly as you make major changes in your server’s configuration. In this way, if something comes unglued, you can easily restore the snapshot and never miss a beat. You’ll find the Remote Snapshot option in your CrownPanel menu.

Configuring Skyetel for Incredible PBX

If you’ve decided to go with Skyetel, here’s the drill. Sign up for Skyetel service and take advantage of the Nerd Vittles specials. First, complete the Prequalification Form here. You then will be provided a link to the Skyetel site to complete your registration. Once you have registered on the Skyetel site and your account has been activated, open a support ticket and request the $10 credit for your account by referencing the Nerd Vittles special offer. Once you are satisfied with the service, fund your account as desired, and Skyetel will match your deposit of up to $250 simply by opening another ticket. That gets you up to $500 of half-price calling. Credit is limited to one per person/company/address/location. Effective 10/1/2023, $25/month minimum spend required.

Skyetel does not require SIP registrations to make connections to your PBX. Instead, Skyetel can use Endpoint Groups to identify which servers can communicate with the Skyetel service. An Endpoint Group consists of a Name, an IP address, a UDP or TCP port for the connection, and a numerical Priority for the group. For incoming calls destined to your PBX, DIDs are associated with an Endpoint Group to route the calls to your PBX. For outgoing calls from your PBX, a matching Endpoint Group is required to authorize outbound calls through the Skyetel network. Thus, the first step in configuring the Skyetel side for use with your PBX is to set up an Endpoint Group. Here’s a typical setup for Incredible PBX:

  • Name: MyPBX
  • Priority: 1
  • IP Address: PBX-Public-IP-Address
  • Port: 5060
  • Protocol: UDP
  • Description: my.incrediblepbx.com

To receive incoming PSTN calls, you’ll need at least one DID. On the Skyetel site, you acquire DIDs under the Phone Numbers tab. You have the option of Porting in Existing Numbers (free for the first 60 days after you sign up for service) or purchasing new ones under the Buy Phone Numbers menu option.

Once you have acquired one or more DIDs, navigate to the Local Numbers or Toll Free Numbers tab and specify the desired SIP Format and Endpoint Group for each DID. Add SMS/MMS and E911 support, if desired. Call Forwarding and Failover are also supported. That completes the VoIP setup on the Skyetel side. System Status is always available here. Everything is already in place on the Incredible PBX 2022 side of the house so you can start making and receiving calls immediately.

Configuring ClearlyIP SIP Trunking

For the tightest integration with FreePBX, no SIP provider holds a candle to Incredible PBX SIP Trunking with ClearlyIP. The reason is fairly obvious. The ClearlyIP folks were the original developers of FreePBX. In addition to all of the traditional SIP trunking services, you also get CNAM support and state-of-the-art E911 service which can be deployed in full compliance with Kari’s Law and the Ray Baum Act. If you’re a system integrator and don’t know about your financial liability for failure to comply with the new rules, it’s time to do some reading.

Configuring VoIP.ms for Incredible PBX

To sign up for VoIP.ms service, may we suggest you use our signup link so that Nerd Vittles gets a referral credit for your signup. Once your account is set up, you’ll need to set up a SIP SubAccount and, for Authentication Type, choose Static IP Authentication and enter your Incredible PBX server’s public IP address. For Transport, choose UDP. For Device Type, choose Asterisk, IP PBX, Gateway or VoIP Switch. Order a DID in their web panel, and then point the DID to the SubAccount you just created. Be sure to specify atlanta1.voip.ms as the POP from which to receive incoming calls. In the Incredible PBX GUI, be sure to enable the VoIP.ms trunk.

Configuring Anveo Direct for Incredible PBX

To sign up for Anveo Direct service, sign up on their web site and then login. After adding funds to your account, purchase a DID under Inbound Service -> Order DID. Next, choose Configure Destination SIP Trunk. Give the Trunk a name. For the Primary SIP URI, enter $[E164]$@server-IP-address. For Call Options, select your new DID from the list. You also must whitelist your public IP address under Outbound Service -> Configure. Create a new Call Termination Trunk and name it to match your server. For Dialing Prefix, choose six alphanumeric characters beginning with a zero. In Authorized IP Addresses, enter the public IP address of your server. Set an appropriate rate cap. We like $0.01 per minute to be safe. Set a concurrent calls limit. We like 2. For the Call Routing Method, choose Least Cost unless you’re feeling extravagant. For Routes/Carriers, choose Standard Routes. Write down your Dialing Prefix and then click the Save button.

Before you can make outbound calls through Anveo Direct from your PBX, you first must configure the Dialing Prefix that you wrote down in the previous step. Log into the GUI as admin using a web browser and edit the Anveo-Out trunk in Connectivity -> Trunks. Enable the Trunk. Then click on the custom-Settings tab and replace anveo-pin with your actual Dialing Prefix. Click Submit and Apply Config to complete the setup. In the Incredible PBX GUI, be sure to enable all of the remaining Anveo trunks.

By default, incoming Anveo Direct calls will be processed by the Default inbound route on your PBX. If you wish to redirect incoming Anveo Direct calls using DID-specific inbound routes, then you’ve got a bit more work to do. In addition to creating the inbound route using the 11-digit Anveo Direct DID, enter the following commands after logging into your server as root using SSH/Putty:

cd /etc/asterisk
echo "[from-anveo]" >> extensions_custom.conf
echo "exten => _.,1,Ringing" >> extensions_custom.conf
echo "exten => _.,n,Goto(from-trunk,\\${SIP_HEADER(X-anveo-e164)},1)" >> extensions_custom.conf
asterisk -rx "dialplan reload"

Configuring a SIP Phone for Incredible PBX 2022

We’re in the home stretch now. You can connect virtually any kind of telephone to your new PBX. Plain Old Phones require an analog telephone adapter (ATA) which is a standalone SIP device such as ObiHai’s OBi100 or OBi110 (if you have a phone line from Ma Bell to hook up as well). SIP phones can be connected directly so long as they have an IP address. We obviously recommend the Incredible PBX IP phones from ClearlyIP which are the most versatile.

If you’ve been keeping up with recent Nerd Vittles developments, then you already know that we have just introduced a new Cellular Phone which connects directly to your PBX and serves as a perfect remote extension and traveling companion. You can read all about it here.

Software devices such as the YateClient softphone are another option for desktop machines. We’ll start with a free one today so you can begin making calls. You can find dozens of recommendations for hardware-based SIP phones both on Nerd Vittles and the VoIP-Info.org Forum when you’re ready to get serious about VoIP telephony.

We recommend YateClient for Windows which is free. Download it from here. Run YateClient once you’ve installed it and enter the credentials for the 701 extension on Incredible PBX. You can find them by running /root/show-passwords. You’ll need the IP address of your server plus your extension 701 password. In the YateClient, fill in the blanks using the IP address of your Server plus :5061 for the PJsip 701 extension, 701 for your Username, and whatever Password was assigned to the extension when you installed Incredible PBX. Click OK to save your entries.

Once you are registered to extension 701, close the Account window. Then click on YATE’s Telephony Tab and place some test calls to the numerous apps that are preconfigured on Incredible PBX. Dial a few of these to get started:

DEMO - Apps Demo
123 - Reminders
947 - Weather by ZIP Code
951 - Yahoo News
TODAY - Today in History
LENNY - The Telemarketer's Worst Nightmare

If you are a Mac user, another great no-frills softphone is Telephone. Just download and install it from the Mac App Store. For Android users, check out the terrific new VitalPBX Communicator. Works flawlessly with Incredible PBX.

For smartphone solutions, visit the Incredible PBX Wiki for our softphone recommendations.

Configuring SendMail with Incredible PBX

In order to receive voicemails by email delivery, outbound mail functionality from your server obviously is required. We strongly recommend configuring SendMail using either your ISP or Gmail as an SMTP Relay Host. NOTE: If you are using a Gmail account with 2-step verification enabled, you MUST use a Gmail App Key instead of your Gmail account password. You also must enable Less Secure Apps access to the Gmail account.

Configuring a Gmail account with Incredible PBX 2022 is as simple as entering your Gmail credentials. Just run this script: /root/enable-gmail-smarthost-for-sendmail.

Here are the steps using a Gmail account with Incredible PBX 2020:

cd /etc/mail
yum -y install sendmail-cf
hostname -f > genericsdomain
touch genericstable
cd /usr/bin
rm -f makemap
ln -s ../sbin/makemap.sendmail makemap
cd /etc/mail
makemap -r hash genericstable.db < genericstable
mv sendmail.mc sendmail.mc.original
wget http://incrediblepbx.com/sendmail.mc.gmail
cp sendmail.mc.gmail sendmail.mc
mkdir -p auth
chmod 700 auth
cd auth
echo AuthInfo:smtp.gmail.com \\"U:smmsp\\" \\"I:user_id\\" \\"P:password\\" \\"M:PLAIN\\" > client-info
echo AuthInfo:smtp.gmail.com:587 \\"U:smmsp\\" \\"I:user_id\\" \\"P:password\\" \\"M:PLAIN\\" >> client-info
echo AuthInfo:smtp.gmail.com:465 \\"U:smmsp\\" \\"I:user_id\\" \\"P:password\\" \\"M:PLAIN\\" >> client-info
# Stop here and edit client-info (nano -w client-info) in all three lines.
# Replace  user_id with your gMail account name without @gmail.com
# Replace password with your real gMail password OR
#  use your Gmail App Key if 2-step verification is enabled
# Be sure to replace the double-quotes shown above if they don't appear in the file!!!
# Save your changes (Ctrl-X, Y, then Enter)
chmod 600 client-info
makemap -r hash client-info.db < client-info
cd ..
make
systemctl restart sendmail

Even though these servers are hosted in the cloud, we still recommend using a SmartHost to minimize email delivery problems.

Test outbound mail using this command with your actual email address:

echo "test" | mail -s testmessage yourname@youremaildomain.com

On some implementations, you may notice in the FreePBX GUI that the mail queue has failed. Here's the fix:

chmod 777 /var/spool/mqueue
service sendmail restart

Once you are sure your emails are being delivered reliably, here's a sample GUI voicemail configuration for an extension:



Be advised that Google has hinted that the Gmail Smarthost landscape may be changing. See our recent article for a simple SmartHost alternative.

Incredible PBX Administration

We've eased the pain of administering your new PBX with a collection of scripts which you will find in the /root folder after logging in with SSH or Putty. Here's a quick summary of what each of the scripts does.

add-fqdn is used to whitelist a fully-qualified domain name in the firewall. Because Incredible PBX blocks all traffic from IP addresses that are not whitelisted, this is what you use to authorize an external user for your PBX. The advantage of an FQDN is that you can use a dynamic DNS service to automatically update the IP address associated with an FQDN so that you never lose connectivity.

add-ip is used to whitelist a public IP address in the firewall. See the add-fqdn explanation as to why this matters.

del-acct is used to remove an IP address or FQDN from the firewall's whitelist.

admin-pw-change is used to set the admin password for access to the FreePBX/Incredible PBX web GUI using a browser pointed to the local IP address of your server.

apache-pw-change is used to set the admin password for access to Apache/Incredible PBX apps including AsteriDex and Reminders. This provides a password layer of protection for access to these applications.

reset-conference-pins is a script that automatically and randomly resets the user and admin pins for access to the preconfigured conferencing application. Dial C-O-N-F from any registered SIP phone to connect to the conference.

reset-extension-passwords is a script that automatically and randomly resets ALL of the SIP passwords for extensions 702-705. Be careful using this one, or you may disable existing registered phones and cause Fail2Ban to blacklist the IP addresses of those users. HINT: You can place a call to the Ring Group associated with all five extensions by dialing 777.

reset-reminders-pin is a script that automatically and randomly resets the pin required to access the Telephone Reminders application by dialing 123. It's important to protect this application because a nefarious user could set up a reminder to call a number anywhere in the world assuming your SIP provider's account was configured to allow such calls.

show-feature-codes is a cheat sheet for all of the feature codes which can be dialed from any registered SIP phone. It documents how powerful a platform Incredible PBX actually is. A similar listing is available in the GUI at Admin -> Feature Codes.

show-passwords is a script that displays most of the passwords associated with Incredible PBX. This includes SIP extension passwords, voicemail pins, conference pins, telephone reminders pin, and your Anveo Direct outbound calling pin (if configured). Note that voicemail pins are configured by the user of a SIP extension the first time the user accesses the voicemail system by dialing *97.

ssh-regen.sh allows you to reset the SSH keys for your server for added security.

update-IncrediblePBX is the Automatic Update Utility which checks for server updates from incrediblepbx.com every time you log into your server as root using SSH or Putty. Do NOT disable it as it is used to load important fixes and security updates when necessary. We recommend logging into your server at least once a week.

pbxstatus (shown above) displays status of all major components of Incredible PBX.

Forwarding Calls to Your Cellphone. Keep in mind that inbound calls to your DIDs automatically ring all five SIP extensions, 701-705. The easiest way to also ring your cellphone is to set one of these five extensions to forward incoming calls to your cellphone. After logging into your PBX as root, issue the following command to forward calls from extension 705 to your cellphone: asterisk -rx "database put CF 705 6781234567"

To remove call forwarding: asterisk -rx "database del CF 705"

Keeping FreePBX 15 Modules Current

We strongly recommend that you periodically update all of your FreePBX modules to eliminate bugs and to reduce security vulnerabilities. From the Linux CLI, log into your server as root and issue the following commands:

rm -f /tmp/*
fwconsole ma upgradeall
fwconsole reload
/root/sig-fix
/root/sig-fix

Where To Go From Here

Complete documentation on the ClearlyIP Devices Module is available here.

Complete documentation on the FreePBX GPL Modules is available here.

Complete documentation on the Incredible PBX additions is available here.

An introduction to configuring extensions, trunks, and routes is available here.

Free voicemail transcription with email delivery. Tutorial available here.

Setting Up a VPN for Your PBX: OpenVPN or NeoRouter
 

Originally published: Monday, March 28, 2022



Need help with Asterisk? Visit the VoIP-info Forum.


 

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FULL DISCLOSURE: ClearlyIP, Skyetel, Vitelity, DigitalOcean, Vultr, VoIP.ms, 3CX, Sangoma, TelecomsXchange and VitalPBX have provided financial support to Nerd Vittles and our open source projects through advertising, referral revenue, and/or merchandise. As an Amazon Associate and Best Buy Affiliate, we also earn from qualifying purchases. We’ve chosen these providers not the other way around. Our decisions are based upon their corporate reputation and the quality of their offerings and pricing. Our recommendations regarding technology are reached without regard to financial compensation except in situations in which comparable products at comparable pricing are available from multiple sources. In this limited case, we support our sponsors because our sponsors support us.

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Special Thanks to Vitelity. Vitelity is now Voyant Communications and has halted new registrations for the time being. Our special thanks to Vitelity for their unwavering financial support over many years and to the many Nerd Vittles readers who continue to enjoy the benefits of their service offerings. We will keep everyone posted on further developments.