Comments for Nerd Vittles

Comment on Introducing Incredible PBX 2026 for Debian 13 by Joshua Speer

Joshua Speer — Sat, 12 Sep 2026 00:43:46 +0000

Thanks for all you do! Was wondering if you had an updated procedure for the spam filtering and public-facing instances? Certain asterisk features aren't available in the new 13. I tried to have AI fill in the void but it wants me to use 12 in order to retain the spam filtering instructions you'd published before. [W M] Our preference now is to use Groundwire to access a fully-secured Incredible PBX platform rather than deploying a public-facing server.

Comment on eSIMs: The 2026 Answer to the Burner Phone by Simon

Simon — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 15:57:11 +0000

A couple of contrary observations.
A key purpose of using a burner phone is also the IMEI https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Mobile_Equipment_Identity – you ditch the phone, there’s nothing to link it to you. With an eSim, the IMEI is the same, so you can be tracked by that.
But leaving aside the nefarious purposes, one of the problems with eSims is the management. OK, you only mentioned Android, but AIUI with Apple you can only manage eSims with their software, and that makes them a gatekeeper to the networks you can use. May be wrong, it’s a long time since I saw them coming, and decided I’ll stick with a physical SIM from the network of MY choice that I can install myself. There’s a number of phones that support dual physical SIMs – though that does limit your choice and generally cost more.

But it’s easy to criticise from the other side of the pond (UK) where we enjoy pretty good coverage, and generally it’s just not worth the hassle of having two (or more) networks – we’re down to three networks now anyway (plus a bunch of MVNOs.)

Comment on Introducing the $45 Cellular Trifecta by Ward Mundy

Ward Mundy — Sat, 15 Aug 2026 13:01:56 +0000

Want to compare prepaid cell plans? Check this site regularly: https://prepaidcompare.net/

Comment on Introducing the $45 Cellular Trifecta by Ward Mundy

Ward Mundy — Sat, 15 Aug 2026 12:31:35 +0000

Some interesting comments from the 30K+ visitors from the Reddit community.

Comment on Traveling Gypsies: Road Warrior Tips for Taming the Internet by Tony

Tony — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 15:54:48 +0000

is Home Calyx Institute BYOD SIM still available? I cant get to the site.

[W M] Just tested our referral link which still works: https://members.calyx.org/r/yh6bw

Comment on Icing on the Cake: Meet FS PBX — It’s FusionPBX on Steroids by Chriss

Chriss — Tue, 06 Jan 2026 07:56:17 +0000

The link to free solutions for fqdn leads to this https://gemini.google.com/app/baa582cc0d1ed8d6 which is a private gemini session and cannot be open. Please guide.

[W M] My apologies. Try this: https://www.google.com/search?q=free+fqdn+service

Comment on Icing on the Cake: Meet FS PBX — It’s FusionPBX on Steroids by Herb

Herb — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 16:38:18 +0000

As of January 02 2026 – the command:

wget -O- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nemerald-voip/fspbx/main/install/install-fspbx.sh | bash

fails with an error Failed to fetch FusionPBX version. Exiting…

1) is this still a valid command?
2) installing on Debian 13; is that an issue?

: Works for me. But there’s a backup copy here: https://filedn.com/lBgbGypMOdDm8PWOoOiBR7j/FS%20PBX/proxmox-installer/install-fspbx.sh

Comment on A New Adventure: Introducing FusionPBX… again by Tim

Tim — Sun, 10 Aug 2025 02:28:22 +0000

Your remark: “When the installation finishes, be sure to make note of the FusionPBX admin credentials required to access the FusionPBX GUI with a browser! If you forget this step, you get to start over.” is not accurate. You can use an existing install and use the “/usr/src/fusionpbx-install.sh/debian/resources/reset_admin_password.sh” to reset the admin password.

Comment on A New Adventure: Introducing FusionPBX… again by Leakybucket

Leakybucket — Sun, 03 Aug 2025 22:15:04 +0000

For a Skyetel register based gateway: on the inbound “Destinations” enter in your full E164 DID with voice and where you want it to go. After it’s created goto “Inbound Routes” and change the dropdown for the condition expression to the ‘type’ “$[sip-to-user}”

Comment on A New Adventure: Introducing FusionPBX… again by Greg

Greg — Thu, 17 Jul 2025 23:07:05 +0000

Thank you for another fun learning activity. Perfect for a dreary July day.

Comment on Introducing Incredible PBX 2025 with Asterisk 22 and FreePBX 17 by Gregory West

Gregory West — Sun, 11 May 2025 16:35:43 +0000

I am pretty sure this is documented somewhere. I just can not find it. Tied searching all sorts of keywords, and nothing.

Question: What is the procedure for upgrading Incredible PBX 2022-R-28 to the current version? I have a running production version running on Rocky 8 (I know I know, but it has been stable so…..) Also it is running on the VULTR servers.

WM: Use the FreePBX Bulk Handler module on both platforms to move your data to the newest release of Incredible PBX.

Comment on Introducing Incredible PBX 2025 with Asterisk 22 and FreePBX 17 by Nerd Uno

Nerd Uno — Tue, 22 Apr 2025 12:02:39 +0000

Installing Incredible PBX 2025 on Proxmox is covered here: https://www.voip-info.org/forum/threads/incredible-pbx-2025-u-image-for-proxmox.28161/

Comment on Introducing Incredible PBX 2025 with Asterisk 22 and FreePBX 17 by kenn10

kenn10 — Sun, 30 Mar 2025 10:52:53 +0000

People need to RTFM before installing this. Go to the tutorial and follow it before you post about stuff not working. I recommend sticking with Debian-12 since Ubuntu can be something of a moving target at times.

Comment on Introducing Incredible PBX 2025 with Asterisk 22 and FreePBX 17 by NightStryke

NightStryke — Mon, 17 Mar 2025 07:47:41 +0000

I just tried your script, and while people should know. But your script would not work when logged into a normal user in ubuntu, if you’re going to run that script it might be prudent to tell people to use “sudo bash IncrediblePBX2025.sh”

[WM: Root user permissions have always been required to install Incredible PBX. The tutorial makes that clear.]

Comment on Introducing Incredible PBX 2025 with Asterisk 22 and FreePBX 17 by Jake Messinger

Jake Messinger — Mon, 10 Feb 2025 01:45:07 +0000

I have tried 3 times now and this fails to install on Ubuntu 24.04.1 It says it cant find fwconsole. I tried to download just 24.04 but it is no longer at ubuntu or any mirrors... it just shows 24.04.1 even in the 24.04 folder. [WM: Here's an idea. Follow the tutorial and download Ubuntu 24.04 from the link provided. However, the preferred platform for iPBX 2025 now is Debian 12 because of incompatibilities that have cropped up in Ubuntu 24.04.]

Comment on Introducing Incredible PBX 2025 with Asterisk 22 and FreePBX 17 by snovotill

snovotill — Fri, 17 Jan 2025 01:03:46 +0000

Hey …any chance of providing Incus compatibility with the ProxMox image? The infrastructure is the same but Incus is truly/fully open-source and it supports all VM and container types, even Docker! Nice work; My home phone has been on Incredible PBX for as long as I can remember!

Comment on Incredible VMware Deal: Workstation Pro and Fusion Pro Free for Personal Use by Carl

Carl — Wed, 05 Jun 2024 14:47:29 +0000

What is the purpose of nulling out machine-id?

WM: It permits a new IP address for the VM to be generated.

Comment on Introducing OSS Endpoint Manager for FreePBX 16 & Incredible PBX 2027 by Tony Fernandez

Tony Fernandez — Mon, 04 Mar 2024 14:55:08 +0000

Thanks for this. This is great.

Where is the repo located for the templates? I’d like to contribute some and get involved with this.

WM: Contact bill [at] billsimon.net

Comment on What A Steal: Host Unlimited Email Domains for Life by Clif

Clif — Fri, 01 Mar 2024 15:39:44 +0000

Ward, Do you still recommend MXRoute? Do you actually use it? Thinking of using it for some of my domains. Thanks

[WM: We use it every day. Flawless.]

Comment on Introducing OSS Endpoint Manager for FreePBX 16 & Incredible PBX 2027 by Rob Kaz

Rob Kaz — Sat, 03 Feb 2024 23:53:48 +0000

Any way to get this working with cloud hosted pbx? I’m thinking maybe clone my cloud pbx and run a local version for provisioning?

Comment on Incredible ChatGPT: Artificial Intelligence For Your Phone by Vince

Vince — Thu, 01 Feb 2024 14:39:38 +0000

Hey Ward

I have been following you since somewhere around 2008. Thanks for your consistency over all of these years.

I am actively using both ChatGPT Plus as well as CoPilot Pro (the Microsoft version) and find them invaluable. I have had great luck in creating custom GPTs which essentially forces ChatGPT to respond within the confines of a pre-defined persona.

It seems this should ultimately allow the creation of an AI phone-answering assistant that could answer questions, send messages, and route calls. I am wondering if this might be an option in the current state of Asterisk-ChatGPT integration. Thanks!

Comment on Deploying a Free Turnkey Phone System by Raphaël

Raphaël — Tue, 02 Jan 2024 02:56:08 +0000

Happy New Year !
Cannot agree more with the first paragraph…
I have been an enthusiast self-hosted PBX system user for close to 20 years (many different systems, a lot of FreePBX/Asterisk@Home/IncrediblePBX/(etc.)… and a lot of BetaMax clones fun). However, 2024 will be the year where I close for good my last DIDs (Anveo, Voip.ms, OVH) and PBX system (currently hosted on OracleCloud)
I used them the most 15 years ago, when I was in my 20s and travelling the world (and living in Canada,Australia,Brazil,Europe, etc.) and I needed a cheap and easy(-ish) way to keep in-touch with family & friends. Its usage has been slowly shrinking year after year sand I can count on my fingers the number of useful calls I had in 2023. Now at 40 years old, I’m still an expat, but grandparents are now dead and parents & friends are fully converted to WhatsApp/Signal. So apart for the random admin/bank call, I mostly receive spam calls and hack attempts.
It is now time to say good-bye.
Thank you Ward for the many years of fun (and sweat) in tweaking my PBX system !

Comment on Adding Incredible PBX Goodies & More to VitalPBX 4 by Doug

Doug — Thu, 28 Dec 2023 14:47:12 +0000

Hi Ward, I'm looking to upgrade me IncrediblePBX RaspberryPi system (home use only!) from the 2020 version. Which do you recommend? Incredible PBX 2027 or rolling to your version of VitalPBX (from your August 7 blog)? [WM: On RasPi platform, we recommend the latest Incredible PBX 2027 build here.]

Comment on VirtualBox Wonder: It’s Incredible PBX 2027-D for Debian 11 by Jeff McCarty

Jeff McCarty — Sun, 26 Nov 2023 19:45:23 +0000

Anybody else having trouble with the Clearly Devices module? When I try installing it, I get the following SQL error: An exception occurred while executing 'ALTER TABLE clearlydevices_brand_common_codes ADD tzoffset VARCHAR(7) DEFAULT NULL, DROP offset, CHANGE type type VARCHAR ▶ \n SQLSTATE[42000]: Syntax error or access violation: 1064 You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MariaDB server version f ▶ [WM- Here's the fix.]