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The Most Versatile VoIP Provider: FREE PORTING

Last Chance to Jump onto Incredible PBX Cellular Bandwagon


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We introduced our new GTI Technologies cellular extensions for U.S.-based Incredible PBX® platforms last week, and the enthusiastic response has been truly amazing. This week we want to share the results of our testing, and encourage you to become one of the pioneers for this exciting new technology. It can be integrated into almost any Asterisk® platform.

To briefly summarize, GTI cellular extensions provide a traditional cellphone connection to all four of the major U.S. carriers. GTI-enabled cellphones also register as traditional PJsip extensions with Asterisk. The GTI SIM deciphers the best network based upon the cellphone’s current location and then processes inbound and outbound calls just as if your cellphone were a registered desktop SIP phone on your PBX. Incoming calls are routed according to the inbound routing rules on your PBX, and outgoing calls follow the outbound routing rules of your PBX. 911 calls are processed directly by the carrier to whom your cellphone is connected.

GTI Global provides promotional consideration to help defray costs of our Asterisk projects.


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This is not our first rodeo, and we wander into new communications territory with our eyes wide open. So the real test of this new platform was our recent 1,000 mile voyage in the southeastern United States. Our benchmark cellphone is registered on the AT&T network and reported one or two bars of coverage throughout much of the journey. That’s more than adequate to handle calls, text messaging, Waze, and TuneIn Radio with less than a handful of momentary outages. But what a difference four carrier connectivity makes. On our Google Pixel 3 with the GTI SIM, we observed four-bar cellular coverage throughout most of the trip. So my first observation would be that those in remote locations with spotty cellphone service are likely to experience a dramatic improvement in connectivity thanks to access to almost every cellphone tower in the United States. This has nothing to do with Asterisk and everything to do with simply having a better cellphone experience in general.

Now for the Asterisk component using a GTI SIM-based cellphone. If you write down the top ten things you love about Asterisk, you now can do almost all of them from your cellphone: transfer calls, listen to your voicemail, call other extensions and ring groups, use various trunking options by dialing prefixes to save on international calls, chatting with colleagues, unlocking a front door, opening a gate, retrieving news and weather data, and on and on. You can even use the traditional 611 cellular option to route calls to your help desk or security services. And, thanks to the magic of PJsip, folks can call your office extension and both your cellphone and desktop phone ring. They’ll never know you’ve left the office.

Pricing for GTI cellular service is competitive until you get into the high data categories. Unlimited calling and texting is available on all of the plans. With no data service which is not required for calling and messaging, the monthly cost is just $20. A 2GB data plan is $25.

And here is an update on an Unlimited Data Plan that we received this morning:

We are working on building an "unlimited" data plan that is based on a data throttling mechanism. This mechanism would look like this:

User would be sold a 20GB data bundle. Once the user reaches 15GB, the data channel speed would be throttled to 128 kbps. This should stretch the remaining 5GB of data so it will last through the end of the month. While it is not truly unlimited data [nobody else has it either], it gives the perception of unlimited data to the end-user. This type of approach is under review by the business team.

UPDATE: GTI Global is a T-Mobile MVNO. So another option would be to purchase a separate T-Mobile SIM to cover data requirements. An unlimited data T-Mobile SIM costs $35/month while an unlimited plan with 2GB 4G LTE data and 3G throttling runs $20/month. There is a $2 charge for the additional T-Mobile SIM.

And here is another update. Canada DIDs are now available for an additional $0.55 per month. Cellphone calls still have to be initiated or received within the U.S.

Choosing a Cellphone Platform. Our favorite deployment strategy is to take advantage of the new dual SIM offerings that allow a user to have one SIM for personal use and a second SIM (GTI) for business use. This lets you acquire the least expensive cell service with unlimited data for personal use and acquire the $20 GTI SIM with no data plan through our Incredible PBX offering. You don’t really need two data plans on the same smartphone.

Some smartphones support two SIMs while others have one physical SIM slot plus an eSIM registration that can be acquired from the major carriers. We personally liked an unlocked $200 Motorola G8+ which has two actual SIM slots as do most of the newer Samsung, OnePlus, Huawei, and many other smartphones. Several cellphones from BLU are available for under $25. The following devices currently support a single SIM card plus an eSIM:

  • Apple® iPhone® SE
  • Apple iPhone 11
  • Apple iPhone 11 Pro
  • Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max
  • Apple iPhone XR
  • Apple iPhone XS
  • Apple iPhone XS Max
  • Google Pixel 4 / Pixel 4 XL

Become a Pioneer. At the end of this week, we’ll submit to GTI the email addresses of those wanting to venture into the future along with us. We think the companies you represent and the customers you support will thank you six months from now. GTI service is rock-solid, the technology has no competition, and the rewards for you and the organizations you support are noteworthy. You must have an Incredible PBX server or comparable Asterisk server with a static, public Internet address to use this service. Setup details are in last week’s article.

If you’d like to join the adventure, please shoot us an email request this week and keep us informed about your progress. We can’t wait to share in your discoveries!
 

UPDATE: After you hear back from us with the signup details, here’s what happens next. You will sign up on our GTI Portal. Within an hour or two, you will get an email from GTI requesting the IP address of your server and extension credentials for each GTI SIM. Once you have provided that information, GTI will provision your account. It typically takes about 2 to 4 hours for service setup on carriers network (and some time less that 30 minutes). Then you will receive further notice/request and or status of the progress via a support ticket with a copy to your email address. GTIGLOBAL IP address and FQDN information will be provided after GTI has completed the setup of your Asterisk/FreePBX domain and IP in GTI’s system. If GTI needs clarification or additional information, GTI will contact you via support ticket. Once provisioned, all of the information will be available in your GTI portal. We’re providing the sequence of events so that you can be on the lookout for each step. If it doesn’t happen, open a support ticket.

Continue Reading: Soup-to-Nuts Tutorial: Adding Cellular Extensions to Incredible PBX
 

Originally published: Monday, June 29, 2020


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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.

blankBOGO 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.

blankThe 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.

blankVitalPBX 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!
 

blankSpecial 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.
 



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Introducing Cellular Extensions for Incredible PBX & Asterisk

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The Holy Grail for many of us in the VoIP community has been a cellphone that functions like a traditional Asterisk® extension on your PBX. The typical use case would be a real estate agent, service technician, salesperson, or other mobile worker who interacts with a home office as part of their daily routine. The beauty of this for the mobile workforce is it allows both the home office receptionist and the mobile worker to not only exchange calls but also to transfer the calls and retrieve voicemail just as if the worker were using a phone in the office.

Some of you may recall that we introduced a service like this called vMobile from Vitelity about six years ago. vMobile had some growing pains not the least of which was total reliance upon Sprint for cellular coverage. The service has been discontinued.

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Today we’re testing a new offering from Global Technologies (GTI Global) on the Incredible PBX® platform that addresses some of the shortcomings of the vMobile offering. First, it provides a SIM card that can automatically utilize all four of the major carrier networks in the United States. Second, it offers a dedicated DID, a SIP trunk with free U.S. calling, and an Asterisk extension for every cellphone. And third, it takes advantage of PJsip which permits multiple phones to be connected to and ring on the same Asterisk extension.

GTI Global provided promotional consideration to help defray costs of our Asterisk projects.

Prerequisites. System integrators will acquire SIM cards through the Incredible PBX project. Pricing for the recommended unlimited calling, unlimited messaging, and 2GB monthly data plan is $25/month. A NoData plan is available for $20/month, and other higher data plans also are available. The SIM is compatible with any iPhone® or Android phone device. Users must provide their own cellphones which need not be jailbroken. Dual-SIM smartphones allow users to dedicate one line to the GTI Global SIM and another line for personal use. GTI Global currently is exploring support for eSIMs which would facilitate iPhone use.

To use the SIM-based phone, a public-facing Asterisk platform with a dedicated IP address is required, and it must support PJsip extensions. Incredible PBX 2020, Incredible PBX 16-15, and Incredible PBX 13-13 all have been tested. Other FreePBX® 13, 14, and 15 platforms should also suffice. Accompanying each SIM is a dedicated DID assigned to each cellphone. A matching PJsip extension must be created on the Asterisk platform, and the SIP credentials must be provided to GTI Global to make the cellphone connection to the PBX. Additional phones may be connected to the same PJsip extension to support a desktop phone or receptionist. Simply adjust the Max Connects entry when creating the PJsip extension to support the number of phones desired. Each phone on an extension requires a unique port.

How Calling Works. GTI Global has positioned servers in the facilities of every carrier. When a call arrives from a carrier’s tower, the carrier processes 911 calls directly through its network. For all other incoming calls, the carrier verifies the credentials of the SIM. Once verified, the call is passed to the GTI Global server which sends incoming calls to the associated extension on your PBX. The Inbound Route associated with that DID then sends the call to the assigned destination. If the GTI Global server is unavailable, the carrier processes the incoming calls just as it would any other call on its network by sending it directly to the cellphone.

When the cellphone user places a call, it is processed just as if the call had been made from an internal extension on the PBX with the exception of 911 calls which are handled directly by the carrier. After SIM verification, GTI Global passes the outgoing call to the PBX for processing using the Outbound Routing rules of the PBX. Internal extensions and voicemail can be dialed directly. Outbound calls can utilize any trunk associated with the PBX including the free U.S. trunk provided by GTI Global. CallerID is determined by the outbound trunk processing the call.

Configuring a GTI Global Extension. After logging into the FreePBX GUI, create a PJsip extension with the following settings:

Extension: 12345
Display Name: 12345 GTIglobal
Secret: yourSIPpassword

Advanced -> Max Contacts: 4

Configuring a GTI Global Trunk. Create a chan_SIP Trunk in the FreePBX GUI using your GTIglobal-provided credentials:

Trunk Name: trunk4321

PEER Details:

username=trunk4321
type=friend
secret=yourTRUNKpassword
host=xxxxxx.mvnoserver.com
disallow=all
allow=ulaw
canreinvite=no
dtmfmode=rfc2833
port=5062

Register string: trunk4321:yourTRUNKpassword@xxxxxx.mvnoserver.com:5062

IMPORTANT: When you sign up with GTI, you need to give them the IP address of your PBX, the credentials (extension and password) for your GTI PJsip extension, the outbound SIP port for your GTI trunk (UDP 5062), and the inbound PJsip port for your PJsip extension (UDP 5061).

Configuring an Inbound Route for GTI Global Calls. Replacing 16785551212 with your actual 11-digit DID assigned to each cellphone, create Inbound Routes that look like this:

Description: GTIglobal 16785551212
DID Number: 16785551212
Destination: Extension -> 12345 (your extension associated with each SIM)

You need to add the following context at the end of /etc/asterisk/extensions_custom.conf using your DID. Then reload your dialplan: asterisk -rx "dialplan reload"

[from-sip-external]
; GTI Global
exten => 16785551212,3,Goto(from-trunk,${DID},1)

Configuring an Outbound Route for GTI Global Calls. No special outbound routes are required unless you wish to use the GTI Global trunk to process U.S. calls at no cost. In this case, configure an Outbound Route pointing to your GTI Global Trunk. NOTE: Calls using this trunk can only be made from the extensions associated with GTI Global SIMs.

CallerID and Trunking Strategy. In setting up the GTI components in FreePBX, you need to consider how you wish to process outbound calls. If you want all outbound calls including those from the GTI extensions to reflect the company’s main phone number, then you can use your default outbound route making certain that CallerID override is set with the company number in the appropriate trunks. No CallerID should be set in the outbound route.

If you want calls from the GTI extensions to use the GTI trunk with the CallerID number of the individual cellphones, then the GTI trunk needs to be moved to the top of the default route sequence with no CallerID number specified in the GTI trunk or the outbound route. Instead, set the correct 11-digit CallerID numbers in each of the GTI extensions. This will not impact outbound calls from other extensions because the GTI trunk will indicate congestion forcing the calls out through the next trunk specified in the outbound route.

GTI Global Firewall WhiteList. On Incredible PBX servers and other IPtables platforms, add the following whitelist entries to your firewall:

/usr/sbin/iptables -I INPUT -p udp -m udp -s 99.198.122.166 --dport 5060:5069 -j ACCEPT
/usr/sbin/iptables -I INPUT -p udp -m udp -s 99.198.110.51  --dport 5060:5069 -j ACCEPT
/usr/sbin/iptables -I INPUT -p udp -m udp -s 96.127.174.38  --dport 5060:5069 -j ACCEPT
/usr/sbin/iptables -I INPUT -p udp -m udp -s 37.18.129.170  --dport 5060:5069 -j ACCEPT
/usr/sbin/iptables -I INPUT -p udp -m udp -s 37.18.129.171  --dport 5060:5069 -j ACCEPT
/usr/sbin/iptables -I INPUT -p udp -m udp -s 37.18.129.172  --dport 5060:5069 -j ACCEPT
/usr/sbin/iptables -I INPUT -p udp -m udp -s 37.18.129.173  --dport 5060:5069 -j ACCEPT

How to Proceed. If GTI Global cellular extensions are of interest for your customers, kindly contact us at support@incrediblepbx.com, and we’ll hook you up with the folks at GTI Global. There also is an extensive KnowledgeBase for those wanting more information.

Continue Reading: Last Chance to Jump onto Incredible PBX Cellular Bandwagon
Soup-to-Nuts Tutorial: Adding Cellular Extensions to Incredible PBX
 

Originally published: Monday, June 22, 2020


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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.

blankBOGO 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.

blankThe 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.

blankVitalPBX 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!
 

blankSpecial 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.
 



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Free Cellular Service in the U.S. & Canada Returns

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We’re a few months late to the party but, if Covid-19 has put a kink in your cellular budget or if you have young kids that could use a cellphone with unlimited calling and texting on the Sprint® network at zero cost in the U.S. and Canada, then your prayers have been answered. All you need is a CDMA phone and a $10 SIM card from TextNow. Better yet, you can purchase one of their refurbished iPhones or Android phones, and you’re off to the races. Their compatible web app with 200+ million downloads lets you make calls and send text messages from your favorite desktop computer or tablet. Special thanks to @Hometech for this tip.

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What’s the Catch? The free tier is ad-supported so you’ll get a few ads. But, other than that, unlimited calling and texting throughout the U.S. and Canada are free whether you’re on WiFi or on Sprint’s nationwide network. If the ads are bothersome, you can always move up to the $10/month ad-free platform which also gets you voicemail transcription. There’s even free data service albeit on Sprint’s 2G network. But it’s perfectly suited for email. Yes, we’re aware of Sprint’s terrible coverage in some areas, but hopefully this will improve with the T-Mobile merger. Much like Google Fi, the TextNow design supports WiFi wherever it’s available. You can’t beat the price, and no credit card is required to sign up. So what are you waiting for?

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Referral Code Saves $20. TextNow no longer offers referral codes or affiliate links, and we don’t have one. But here’s a link to some existing coupons that will save you $20 if you decide to purchase a phone from them.


 
Free Features: In addition to a free phone number and unlimited calling and texting to U.S. and Canadian numbers, TextNow offers conference calling, voicemail, and group texting. Calling and texting via the web app or platform-specific applications is just as intuitive and powerful as using a cellphone. In fact, you can set things up on your existing phone while you’re waiting on your TextNOW SIM card or smartphone to arrive. Come join the party!
 

Originally published: Friday, May 22, 2020


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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.

blankBOGO 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.

blankThe 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.

blankVitalPBX 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!
 

blankSpecial 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.
 



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2019 Technology RoundUp: What’s Hot and What’s Not

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As 2019 comes to a close, we wanted to pause briefly and share some of our discoveries from this past year on all things tech. More specifically, let’s chat about solar, electric vehicles, cutting the cord from cable TV, streaming services including music and video, and cellphone data plans. We hope some of you will chime in and share your own discoveries from 2019. We’ll also apologize in advance if some of this discussion is U.S.-centric. It just happens to be our home turf.

What Are You Waiting For: GO SOLAR!


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Let me begin by noting that the average electric bill on our 4,000+ square foot home with four heat pumps, two electric water heaters, and three pool pumps typically ran $500 a month prior to 2018. After installation of 50 solar panels on our roof, our average electric bill for the first six months of 2019 was about $10 a month. Installation cost of the system was about $60,000, but there was a 30% tax credit from the feds and a 25% tax credit (spread over six years) from South Carolina which reduced the actual out-of-pocket cost to about $30,000.


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If you’re new to solar, be advised that most states have given utility companies a monopoly on electricity which means your local energy company makes the rules on how many solar panels you can install and remain connected to the grid. In the case of South Carolina, you cannot generate more electricity than you actually use in a year, but, for energy you generate, the South Carolina model is they pay you the same rate they charge for electricity. Given our current annual cost of $1,000 versus $6,000 in the good old days, our best estimate is the break-even date will be about six years from installation date. After that, it’s a $5,000 a year gravy train with solar. Coupling these utility savings with a nearly 70% reduction in our property taxes moving from Atlanta, Georgia to Charleston, we can no longer afford to move despite the fact that a few South Carolina residents still are fighting the Civil War. blank

What Are You Waiting For: GO ELECTRIC!

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Some of you may have followed our love-hate relationship with Tesla during 2017 and 2018. Sorry to say that Elon Musk is his own worst enemy when it comes to promising far more than he can actually deliver. As much as we loved Tesla, we parted ways when a sloppy repair job totally crippled the car in the middle of nowhere leaving us hanging for over a month while Tesla attempted to diagnose the cause. It turned out they had bent a pin in replacing the big screen in the car, and it shorted out almost every function in the vehicle. The lack of a local service center coupled with the obvious shortcomings in diagnosing a system fault in the vehicle caused us to move on. HINT: Don’t fly to Mars with Elon. Tesla never came close on Elon’s full self-driving (FSD), and they still appear to be years away. We’ve joined the lawsuit to recover our FSD purchase. That and $5 will get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks.




 
Despite Tesla’s shortcomings, we didn’t give up on electric vehicles and purchased the First Edition of Jaguar’s I-Pace. What a difference a quality interior makes! The I-Pace is fairly comparable to the Tesla Model S in price, performance, and range. While not as refined as Tesla’s current AutoPilot, Jaguar’s Lane Keeping Assist is extremely reliable in highway driving and more than adequate on well-marked roads in town. Our only real complaint is the lack of a charging network comparable to Tesla’s in the southeastern United States. But Volkswagen’s new Electrify America coupled with ChargePoint looks promising for 2020.

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If you’re not a car nut (like us) and just want reliable transportation at a reasonable cost to get back and forth to work and for around-town driving, an electric vehicle will save you a lot of money. You really can’t beat a Nissan Leaf for about $30,000. For a few cents more, you can extend the range to over 200 miles, and you can add Lane Keeping Assist that is almost as good as a Tesla. Add a 240v NEMA 1450 outlet in your garage for about $500, and you can add about 20 miles of range for every hour of charge at a fraction of the cost of gasoline. You also can get the car serviced at any local Nissan dealership, and most also provide free charging. 50 kWh commercial DC quick chargers can provide an 80% charge in less than an hour.

What Are You Waiting For: CUT THE CORD!

Comcast reportedly lost a quarter million TV subscribers in both Q2 and Q3 of 2019. AT&T has lost five million subscribers to DirecTV and U-Verse since 2016. Price gouging finally has led millions of cable and satellite TV subscribers to cut the cord and say enough is enough. If you haven’t tried the 2019 edition of yesteryear’s TV rabbit ears and you live in an area with local TV stations within a 50-75 mile radius of your home, you’re in for quite a surprise. Over-the-air (OTA) HDTV broadcasts now are actually comparable or better than Comcast and DirecTV.

Did we mention all over-the-air HDTV broadcasts are free?

Choosing an HDTV Antenna. As you might have guessed, antennas come in all shapes and sizes. An outside antenna is light-years better than any indoor model but, if you live in an apartment where an outside antenna isn’t feasible, then visit your local WalMart and purchase three or four inside HDTV antennas of various shapes and sizes including some HDTV rabbit ears. Bring them all home and try the various antennas with a TV to see which provides the best reception and most stations. Take the others back for a refund. In almost all cases, we’ve found the HDTV rabbit ears (under $10) work as well as the more expensive models which can range in price between $8 and $50. Our favorite outdoor antenna is the Clearstream 4 for under $100 from WalMart. Old-timers will be pleased to know that the days of snowy pictures and ghost images are a thing of the past with HDTV.

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Recording Shows. If all you care about is watching local TV stations (commercials and all), then you can stop reading here. But if you like time shifting and skipping commercials, then a TiVo OTA DVR is the best game in town. TiVo is proud of their service and loves to charge a $15 monthly fee for access on top of the $200+ cost of the device. But our favorite is a $350 refurbished TiVo Roamio from Amazon that includes a lifetime subscription at no additional cost. If you’re worried about the reliability of a refurbished product, you can buy the Amazon 3-year protection plan for $33.99. We did. Once you use a TiVo unit with automatic skipping of commercials, you’ll rarely watch live TV broadcasts again. It’s that good.

Streaming TiVo Content to Other Devices. One nifty addition for your TiVO OTA unit is the ability to stream the content to devices other than the TV to which the TiVo unit is connected. The trick is to find a TiVo Stream device (about $150). It requires a wired Internet connection on the same subnet as your wired TiVo Roamio OTA unit. Once you have the unit in hand, contact TiVo with the serial number of your TiVo stream unit, and they will activate it. You then can stream any of your TiVo live or recorded content to up to four iPhones, iPads, and Android devices simultaneously. The streaming works on both your local WiFi network as well as any remote location using either WiFi or cellular service. Very slick!

Alternative Streaming Options. Another streaming alternative worth considering is TabloTV. The units start at $150 and are available at WalMart, Best Buy, and Amazon. You then add your own USB storage device and antenna. Finally, you need a subscription for the TabloTV Guide. The lifetime subscription is $150. The device can stream to computers using a web browser, iOS and Android phones and tablets as well as Roku devices and TVs. Our results with TabloTV have been hit and miss. On the same network as our TiVo machine, the TabloTV WiFi streams regularly experience pauses and drop-outs while the TiVo streams rarely do. Whether you choose a TabloTV or not, be sure to sign up for email delivery of their newsletter. It’s by far the best in the cut-the-cord industry.

Supplementing Local Content. Cut-the-cord commercial streaming services are booming as you might imagine. These services provide streaming content of what was traditional cable TV programming including local and cable news channels, sports channels, and commercial add-ons such as HBO and ShowTime. These streaming services typically support web access via a browser as well as iOS, Android, and Roku devices and smart TVs. Our current favorite is YouTube TV which offers 70+ channels for $50 a month with a free trial. Assuming you have a decent Internet connection, you’ll never return to Comcast or DirecTV after YouTube TV.

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Got a Kid in College? Paying college tuition and expenses is one of the most painful periods for many families, but there’s a silver lining. Your student qualifies for unlimited music streaming plus a Hulu subscription plus a ShowTime subscription, and you get all three for only $5 a month by setting up a student Spotify account. Your first 3 months are free, and it’s renewable for up to 4 years. There’s more good news. Parents can share the credentials in a different location because the hours of your listening and viewing will rarely, if ever, coincide with those of your college son or daughter.

The Granddaddy of Streaming.Services If you only can choose one, the streaming service that most folks probably will not want to live without is Netflix. Your first 30 days are free, and plans start at $8.99 a month. That gets you one simultaneous, non-HD stream to a device of your choice. You can move up to HD streaming for $12.99 for a single stream or $14.99 for simultaneous streams to four devices. Smart TVs, computers, tablets, phones, and Roku devices are all supported. If you happen to have rental property, next to WiFi, Netflix always ranks at the top of the list of most requested amenities.

Our Must-Have Traveling Companion. The Roku Streaming Stick+ may just be the best under $50 purchase you ever make. Whether you travel or just have older not-so-smart televisions at home, so long as you have access to an HDMI port, all of your streaming services are just a click away on any TV. The only setup required when you reach your destination is plugging in your WiFi credentials. Then Netflix, Hulu, ShowTime, Comcast, Spectrum, and TabloTV immediately come to life.

Best Cellphone Plan on the Planet. If T-Mobile is supported in your neck of the woods, you won’t want to miss MintMobile, the best cellphone plan on the planet. You always get unlimited U.S. calling and messaging, and then you can choose the amount of monthly 4G LTE data you need. For the first three months, you get 12GB of monthly 4G LTE data for only $15 a month. After that, you can sign up for an annual plan at their standard 3-month rates: $15 a month for 3GB, $20 a month for 8GB, or $25 a month for 12GB. It’s an unbelievable deal compared to the Bell Sisters. Use our signup link to share the wealth with the Nerd Vittles staff. Merry Christmas to all.

Originally published: Monday, December 23, 2019


 

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.

blankBOGO 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.

blankThe 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.

blankVitalPBX 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!
 

blankSpecial 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.
 



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Back to School: It’s Incredible PBX 16-15 for the Raspberry Pi

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It’s Back to School Time in the U.S.A., and we have a terrific new August project for you and your shiny new Raspberry Pi 4. It features Asterisk® 16 with all the latest FreePBX® 15 GPL modules plus the feature sets of Incredible PBX® and RasPBX and RonR’s latest build. And it’s all rolled into one terrific (free) bundle. It’s literally the best of all worlds. Finally, a word of caution. This is a work in progress. If you’re looking for instant perfection, come back after Labor Day. But, if you want to roll up your sleeves and participate in an open source project, you’ve come to the right place. We welcome your comments AND contributions. After all, that’s what open source development is all about. Participate!

This is the first of several articles on Incredible PBX 16-15. Today, we’ll get your platform built and walk you through what’s included in the new build. You can expect a new release regularly until we work through all of the kinks and some of the missing pieces. If you’ve been following our articles this past month, you already know that restoring backups from Incredible PBX 13-13 into Incredible 16-15 was one of the primary development goals of FreePBX 15. It remains a little rough around the edges, but we’re close on the CentOS platform. And, in coming weeks, we’ll integrate what we’ve learned on the CentOS 7 platform into the Raspbian 10 Buster image for the Raspberry Pi. In the meantime, come enjoy and explore the powerful, new feature set that comes with Incredible PBX 16-15 out of the box. Unlike RonR’s build, there’s nothing to compile with Incredible PBX 16-15 for Raspbian 10 even though all of the components are there to let you do so whenever the mood strikes. And, unlike the FreePBX Distro, we don’t rely on static packages which make it difficult to make future modifications on your own. Instead, Incredible PBX 16-15 offers a snapshot image with a complete toolkit to make future modifications as desired.

What’s Included? Incredible PBX 16-15 for Raspbian 10 serves up a VoIP powerhouse featuring Asterisk 16 and all FreePBX 15 GPL modules, an Apache web server, the latest MariaDB SQL server (formerly MySQL), Exim4 mail server, and most of the Incredible PBX feature set including SIP, SMS, voice recognition, AsteriDex, PicoTTS Text-to-Speech VoIP applications plus fax support, Click-to-Dial, News, Weather, Telephone Reminders, and hundreds of features that typically are found in commercial PBXs: Conferencing, IVRs and AutoAttendants, Email Delivery of Voicemail, Voicemail Blasting, and more. We’ve also incorporated the Zero Trunk Configuration feature from the LITE build which lets you sign up with one of four VoIP providers and start making and receiving calls instantly.

Choosing a SIP Provider. As we mentioned, Incredible PBX 16-15 comes preconfigured to support four of the major SIP providers: Skyetel, VoIP.ms, V1VoIP, and Anveo Direct. We obviously hope you’ll choose Skyetel not only because they financially support Nerd Vittles and our open source projects, but also because it is a clearly superior platform offering crystal-clear communications and quadruple-redundancy so you never miss a call. Skyetel also sets itself apart from the other providers in the support department. They actually respond to issues, and there’s never a charge. As the old saying goes, they may not be the cheapest, but you get what you pay for. Even without taking advantage of Nerd Vittles free $10 credit plus a half-price offer on up to $500 of Skyetel services, they’re still dirt cheap compared to the Bell Sisters and cable companies. Traditional DIDs are $1 per month. Outbound conversational calls are $0.012 per minute. Incoming conversational calls are a penny a minute, and CallerID lookups are $0.004. With all four providers, you only pay for minutes you use. Using more than one is a good idea. With your Skyetel $10 credit, there’s ample funding to order a phone number and make hundreds of calls at zero cost. Once you’re satisfied with the service (and you will be), you can fund your account with up to $250, and Skyetel will match your deposit plus give you free number porting for any existing numbers you want to add to your account. Quite literally, you have nothing to lose. Effective 10/1/2023, $25/month minimum spend required.

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Assembling the Required Raspberry Pi Components

Before you can deploy Incredible PBX 16-15, you’ll first need the necessary Raspberry Pi hardware. Here’s the short list and, if you’re in a hurry, the $35 Raspberry Pi 3B+ will cost you less than $3 extra to get it quickly from Amazon using our referral link. If you prefer to wait for a Raspberry Pi 4, read on. Either way, the RasPi remains one of the world’s best bargains! Assuming you already own an HDMI-compatible monitor and a USB keyboard

  • Raspberry Pi 4B from a Raspberry Pi reseller
  • $8 USB-C RasPi 4 (only) Power Supply
  • $10 32GB microSDHC Class 10 card (strongly recommended!)
  • $5 Official RasPi 4 Case
  • Getting Started with Incredible PBX 16-15

    Here’s our 10-Step Guide to installation and setup. "Automatic" means just watch. Steps #1 and #2: follow the links. For the remaining steps, we’ll further document the procedures.

    1. Download and unzip Incredible PBX 16-15 image from SourceForge
    2. Transfer Incredible PBX 16-15 image to microSD card
    3. Boot Raspberry Pi from new microSD card (16GB minimum)
    4. Login to RasPi console as root:password to initialize your server (Automatic)
    5. In raspi-config Advanced Options, Expand FileSystem to fill your SD card
    6. In Localization Options, set Locale, TimeZone, Keyboard, & WiFi Country
    7. Reboot after writing down your server IP address (Automatic)
    8. Login via SSH or Putty as root:password to set passwords & setup firewall (Automatic)
    9. Run admin-pw-change to set the admin password for access to the web GUI
    10. Register for and configure at least one trunk provider for Incredible PBX 16-15
    11. Enjoy!

    First Boot of Incredible PBX 16-15 with Wi-Fi

    Incredible PBX 16-15 requires Internet connectivity to complete its automated install. If you’re using a wired network connection, you can skip to the next section. With the Raspberry Pi 3B and 4B, WiFi is built into the hardware. But you still have to insert your SSID name and SSID password to make a connection to your WiFi network. To do so, follow these next steps carefully. Insert the Incredible PBX 16-15 microSD card into your Raspberry Pi 3 or 4 and apply power to the hardware. When the bootup procedure finishes, login as root with the default password: password. At the first prompt, DO NOT PRESS THE ENTER KEY! Instead, press Ctrl-C to break out of the setup script. At the command prompt, issue the following commands to bring up the WiFi config file:

    cd /etc/wpa_supplicant
    nano -w wpa_supplicant.conf
    

    If your WiFi network does not require a password, uncomment or insert the four lines below and save the file: Ctrl-X, Y, then Enter. Now restart your server: reboot. When the reboot finishes, you now should have network connectivity.

    network={
     key_mgmt=NONE
     priority=1
    }
    

    If your WiFi network requires a password, uncomment or insert the following into wpa_supplicant.conf:

    ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
    update_config=1
    
    network={
     ssid="YourSSID"
     psk="YourSSIDpassword"
     key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
     scan_ssid=1
     priority=7
    }
    

    Then scroll down to the SSID entry and replace YourSSID with the actual SSID of your WiFi network. Make sure you preserve the entry with the quotes as shown. Next, replace YourSSIDpassword with the SSID password of your WiFi network. Save the file: Ctrl-X, Y, then Enter. Now restart your server: reboot. When the reboot finishes, you now should have network connectivity.

    Once the reboot process finishes, you should see an entry on about the middle line displayed on your monitor which reads: "My IP address is…". Write down the IP address shown. You’ll need it in a minute. Skip the next section since you are using a WiFi connection.

    If you don’t see an IP address assigned to your server, then correct the network deficiency (invalid WiFi credentials, DHCP not working, Internet down), and reboot until you see an IP address assigned to your server. DO NOT PROCEED WITHOUT AN ASSIGNED IP ADDRESS.

    First Boot of Incredible PBX Using Wired Connection

    Incredible PBX 16-15 requires Internet connectivity to complete its automated install. After connecting your server to your local network with a network cable, insert the Incredible PBX 16-15 microSD card into your Raspberry Pi and apply power to the hardware. When the bootup procedure finishes, you should see an entry on about the middle line displayed on your monitor which reads: "My IP address is…". Write down the IP address shown. You’ll need it in the next step.

    If you don’t see an IP address assigned to your server, then correct the network deficiency (cable not connected, DHCP not working, Internet down), and reboot until you see an IP address assigned to your server. DO NOT PROCEED WITHOUT AN ASSIGNED IP ADDRESS.

    Completing the Incredible PBX Initialization Procedure

    Unless your desktop PC and RasPi are both on the same private LAN, the remainder of the install procedure should be completed from a desktop PC using SSH or Putty. This will assure that your desktop PC is also whitelisted in the Incredible PBX firewall. Using the console to complete the install is NOT recommended as your desktop PC will not be whitelisted in the firewall. This may result in your not being able to log in to your server. Once you have network connectivity, log in to your server as root from a desktop PC using the default password: password. Accept the license agreement by pressing ENTER. You then will be redirected to raspi-config. This is the utility used to expand your Incredible PBX 16-15 image to use your entire microSD card. If you fail to complete this step, your microSD card will be restricted to 16GB. In the raspi-config utility, choose Localization Options and set Locale, TimeZone, Keyboard, & WiFi Country. Then choose Advanced Options. All of the defaults should be satisfactory with the exception of the first item: Expand Filesystem. Choose this option and activate the resizing directive. Review the other items and then exit and reboot.

    Once your server reboots and you log back in as root, all of your passwords will be randomly assigned with the exception of the root user Linux password and your admin password for access to the web GUI. You can set the root password by issuing the command: passwd. Set the admin password for access to the web GUI with this command: /root/admin-pw-change. With the exception of these two passwords, the remaining passwords can be displayed using the command: /root/show-passwords.

    Finally, if your PBX is sitting behind a NAT-based router, you’ll need to redirect incoming UDP 5060-5061 and UDP 10000-20000 traffic to the private IP address of your PBX. This is required for all of the SIP providers included in the Incredible PBX 16-15 build. Otherwise, all inbound calls will fail.

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    Configuring Skyetel for Incredible PBX 16-15

    If you’ve decided to go with Skyetel, here’s the drill. Sign up for Skyetel service and take advantage of the Nerd Vittles Free $10 credit and BOGO special. 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 happy with the service, open another ticket after funding your account and request that Skyetel match your deposit of up to $250. That gets you up to $500 of helf-price calling. Credit is limited to one per person/company/address/location. If you have numbers to port in, you can do it at no cost after funding your account.

    Skyetel does not use SIP registrations to make connections to your PBX. Instead, Skyetel utilizes 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 16-15:

    • Name: MyPBX
    • Priority: 1
    • IP Address: PBX-Public-IP-Address
    • Port: 5060
    • Protocol: UDP
    • Description: 16-15.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 fund your account) 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.

    Configuring VoIP.ms for Incredible PBX 16-15

    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 16-15 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.

    Configuring V1VoIP for Incredible PBX 16-15

    To sign up for V1VoIP service, sign up on their web site. Then login to your account and order a DID under the DIDs tab. Once the DID has been assigned, choose View DIDs and click on the Forwarding button beside your DID. For Option #1, choose Forward to IP Address/PBX. For the Fowarding Address, enter the public IP address of your server. For the T/O (timeout) value, set it to 2o seconds. Then click the Update button. Under the Termination tab, create a new Endpoint with the public IP address of your server so that you can place outbound calls through V1VoIP.

    Configuring Anveo Direct for Incredible PBX 16-15

    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. Using a browser, login to the GUI as admin. Navigate to Connectivity -> Trunks -> Anveo-Out. Click the Pencil icon to edit the trunk settings. Then click the Custom Settings tab. Replace anveo-pin with your actual Anveo PIN. Click Submit and Apply Settings to save your changes.

    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 Softphone for Incredible PBX 16-15

    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 can be a separate board in your computer from a company such as Digium. Or it can be 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. These could be hardware devices or software devices such as the YateClient softphone. 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 PIAF Forum when you’re ready to get serious about VoIP telephony.

    We recommend YateClient 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, 701 for your Username, and whatever Password was assigned to the extension when you installed Incredible PBX. Click OK to save your entries.

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    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.

    Audio Issues with Incredible PBX 16-15

    Only if you experience one-way or no audio on some calls, add your external IP address and LAN subnet in the GUI by navigating to Settings -> Asterisk SIP Settings. In the NAT Settings section, click Detect Network Settings. Click Submit and Apply Settings to save your changes.

    Configuring Gmail as Exim Smart Relay Host

    Most Raspberry Pi implementations will be on networks managed by companies like Comcast, Spectrum, and AT&T that block downstream mail servers (that’s you) from sending email. The solution is to use Gmail or your local ISP as a smart relay host to send mail from your server. You’ll need this to deliver voicemails via email. Here’s how to set it up using a Gmail account without two-step authentication. Log into your server as root and run configure-exim-email. Choose "mail sent by smarthost; received via SMTP or fetchmail." Accept all the defaults until you get to Outgoing Smarthost prompt. Enter: smtp.gmail.com::587. At the following prompts, choose NO, NO, mbox, and NO. When the setup completes, edit /etc/exim4/passwd.client and insert the following line using your Gmail AcctName and AcctPW:

    *.google.com:AcctName@gmail.com:AcctPW
    smtp.gmail.com:AcctName@gmail.com:AcctPW
    

    Save the file and then issue the following commands to complete the setup:

    update-exim4.conf
    systemctl restart exim4
    exim4 -qff
    

    Now send yourself a test email message to make sure things are working properly:

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

    Some prefer an email notification whenever your server is booted. Once you have configured a relay host above, you can add the feature by editing /etc/rc.local and adding the following lines with your actual email address just above the service knockd start line:

    _PRIVATE="Private IP: `cat /etc/hostip | cut -f1-2 -d " "`"
    _PUBLIC=" Public IP: `curl -s -S --user-agent \\
    "Mozilla/4.0" http://myip.incrediblepbx.com | awk 'NR==2'`"
    echo "$_PRIVATE\\n$_PUBLIC" | mail -s "RasPi 16-15 has booted" yourname@yourmailserver.com
    

    Incredible PBX 16-15 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.

    admin-pw-change lets you update the admin password for web browser access to the Incredible PBX GUI.

    apache-pw-change lets you update the admin password for Apache applications such as AsteriDex and Reminders.

    avantfax-pw-change lets you update the root password for AvantFax access (coming soon!).

    add-fqdn is used to whitelist a fully-qualified domain name in the firewall. Because Incredible PBX 16-15 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.

    configure-exim-email lets you reconfigure the email server if you need to use an SMTP relay such as Google to get outbound email flowing. Tutorial here.

    iptables-restart is the ONLY command you should ever use to restart the IPtables firewall and Fail2Ban.

    knock.FAQ contains your PortKnocker credentials for emergency access to your server if the firewall locks you out. Tutorial here.

    proximity (once configured) will automatically forward calls to your cellphone when you are out of BlueTooth range from your RasPi. Also must enable running of script in /etc/crontab.

    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 701-705. 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 16-15 actually is. A similar listing is available in the GUI at Admin -> Feature Codes.

    show-passwords is a script that displays ALL of the passwords associated with Incredible PBX 16-15. 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.

    timezone-setup lets you reconfigure the correct time zone for your server.

    purge-cdr-cel-records cleans out all existing entries in both the CDR and CEL tables of the Asterisk CDR database.

    log-cleanup removes all entries from most of the logs in /var/log.

    sig-fix disables module signature checking in FreePBX. It is automatically disabled upon installation.

    readme-RonR.txt documents the scripts provided from RonR build. We do NOT recommend using the FCC Blacklist because of its current size.

    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 16-15.

    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"

    Incredible PBX 16-15 Last-Minute Fixes

    For each release, we will post fixes for Incredible PBX 16-15 here. If you download a newer release, previous fixes have already been addressed and should not be applied. If you’re still using an earlier release, be sure to apply all patches for your release plus all patches for subsequent releases.

    Release 1 Fixes:

    Login to your server as root and issue the following commands to update your server. A reboot is not required unless noted.

    service knockd start
    sed -i 's|exit 0"|exit zero"|' /etc/rc.local
    sed -i 's|exit 0|service knockd start\\nexit 0|' /etc/rc.local
    /root/reset-extension-passwords
    

    A glitch in the admin-pw-change utility used to set the password for web access to the GUI has also been fixed. Simply log out of your server and log back in as root, and the Automatic Update Utility will fix the problem. You then can successfully set your admin password.

    Release 2 Fixes:

    # failed exim messages from Fail2Ban
    sed -i 's|/dev/null|:blackhole:|' /etc/aliases
    systemctl restart exim4
    exim -bp | exiqgrep -i | xargs exim -Mrm
    systemctl restart fail2ban
    # missing AGI files
    cd /var/lib/asterisk/agi-bin
    wget http://incrediblepbx.com/raspi1615-agibin.tar.gz
    tar zxvf raspi1615-agibin.tar.gz
    rm -f raspi1615-agibin.tar.gz
    

    Release 3 Updates/Fixes:

    Release 3 adds dozens of Incredible PBX applications. See the Application User’s Guide for tutorials. In addition, release 3 adds MySQL ODBC support (special thanks to @jerrm for sorting this out) with demo Asterisk applications for customer lookups (dial 222 and enter 12345) and AsteriDex speed dials (dial 223 and enter 335 (D-E-L) for Delta Airlines.

    Release 4 Updates/Fixes:

    Release 4 adds Allison’s Demo IVR and Stealth AutoAttendant as well as support for Blinkt!. It provides hourly alerts during the workday as well as whenever pbxstatus is run. You can order one here. This brings us to functional equivalence with the CentOS 7 release of Incredible PBX 16-15.

    Release 5 Updates/Fixes:

    Release 5 sets NAT default setting for all extensions to YES. This reduces the likelihood that callers will experience one-way audio on calls. The size of the swap file also was double to eliminate dashboard warning messages when some larger microSD cards were deployed.

    Continue Reading: Icing on the Cake for Incredible PBX 16-15 and Raspberry Pi

    Originally published: Wednesday, August 7, 2019


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    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.

    blankBOGO 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.

    blankThe 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.

    blankVitalPBX 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!
     

    blankSpecial 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.
     



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    Introducing Incredible PBX 16 LITE for CentOS 7

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    We had a banner week with the introduction of Incredible PBX® LITE for Raspbian 10. What we heard privately from many users was that they’d always wanted a turnkey PBX that was preconfigured to make and receive calls. The irony of offering this platform without the FreePBX® GUI to celebrate Independence Day was not lost on many of our savvy supporters. And, while the bells and whistles were icing on the cake, many simply wanted a flexible VoIP platform that didn’t require going back to college. This week we’re upping the ante by introducing a similar Incredible PBX LITE platform for CentOS® 7 with a few major enhancements. First, you get the new Asterisk® 16 LTS version which will keep you chugging along with bug fixes and security updates for the next 4+ years. Second, we’ve replaced FLITE with PicoTTS for a much improved (free) text-to-speech platform. And finally, we’ve added WebMin and all the other Incredible PBX components that make Incredible PBX incredible. Will there be a new release of Incredible PBX 16 with the FreePBX GUI modules? Absolutely. And there may be a few, new surprises along the way as well. Stay tuned!

    What’s Included? Despite its name, Incredible PBX LITE still serves up a VoIP powerhouse featuring Asterisk 16, an Apache web server, the latest MariaDB SQL server (formerly MySQL), SendMail, and most of the Incredible PBX feature set including SIP, SMS, Opus, voice recognition, PicoTTS Text-to-Speech VoIP applications plus fax support, Click-to-Dial, News, Weather, Reminders, and hundreds of features that typically are found in commercial PBXs: Conferencing, IVRs and AutoAttendants, Email Delivery of Voicemail, and much more.

    What’s Missing? We’ve removed the entire FreePBX GUI platform while retaining most of its design engineering and feature set. We’ve also eliminated the need to run a web server or database server although they’re still there. And gone are the days of having to configure extensions and trunks as well as inbound and outbound routes before you can actually use your PBX to make your first call. The tradeoff is a noticeable performance improvement.

    Choosing a SIP Provider. Incredible PBX LITE comes preconfigured to support five SIP extensions and four of the major SIP providers: Skyetel, VoIP.ms, V1VoIP, and Anveo Direct. We obviously hope you’ll choose Skyetel not only because they financially support Nerd Vittles and our open source projects, but also because it is a clearly superior platform offering crystal-clear communications and triple-redundancy so you never miss a call. Skyetel also sets itself apart from the other providers in the support department. They actually respond to issues, and there’s never a charge. As the old saying goes, they may not be the cheapest, but you get what you pay for. Even without taking advantage of Nerd Vittles half-price offer on up to $500 of Skyetel services, they’re still dirt cheap compared to the Bell Sisters and cable companies. Traditional DIDs are $1 per month. Outbound conversational calls are $0.012 per minute. Incoming conversational calls are a penny a minute, and CallerID lookups are $0.004. With all four providers, you only pay for minutes you use. Using more than one is a good idea.

    Choosing a Platform for Incredible PBX 16 LITE

    As with our other open source offerings, the platform choice for Incredible PBX 16 LITE depends upon a number of factors. For most folks, you’d be crazy to go out and purchase hardware to use in your home or office when cloud-based platforms are available for about a dollar a month. Unless you plan to publicly expose your server on the Internet to facilitate remote SIP connections, the OpenVZ offerings below are perfectly adequate while in business with the cautionary note that you need off-site backups AND a tested backup plan. Three providers previously listed have closed their doors in 2019. You’ve been warned.

    ProviderRAMDiskBandwidthPerformance as of 12/1/19Cost
    CrownCloud KVM (LA)1GB20GB +
    Snapshot
    1TB/month598Mb/DN 281Mb/UP
    2CPU Core
    $25/year
    Best Buy!
    Naranjatech KVM (The Netherlands)1GB20GB1TB/monthHosting since 2005
    VAT: EU res.
    20€/year w/code:
    SBF2019
    BudgetNode KVM (LA)1GB40GB RAID101TB/monthAlso available in U.K PM @Ishaq on LET before payment$24/year
    FreeRangeCloud KVM (Ashburn VA, Winnipeg, Freemont CA)1GB20GB SSD3TB/monthPick EGG loc'n
    Open ticket for last 5GB SSD
    $30/year w/code:
    LEBEGG30

    Installing Incredible PBX 16 LITE with CentOS 7

    If you’ve installed previous iterations of Incredible PBX, today’s drill is similar. Here is a thumbnail sketch of the install procedure for Incredible PBX 16 LITE. Begin by installing a minimal CentOS 7 (64-bit) platform or pick the CentOS 7 option with 1GB RAM and 20GB of storage from your cloud provider’s menu of choices. Then log into your server as root and issue the following commands:

    passwd
    yum -y update
    yum -y install net-tools nano wget tar
    wget http://incrediblepbx.com/incrediblepbx-16-LITE.tar.gz
    tar zxvf incrediblepbx-16-LITE.tar.gz
    rm -f incrediblepbx-16-LITE.tar.gz
    # to add swap file on non-OpenVZ cloud platforms with no swap file
    ./create-swapfile-DO
    # kick off Phase I install
    ./IncrediblePBX16-LITE.sh
    # after reboot, kick off Phase II install
    ./IncrediblePBX16-LITE.sh
    # add HylaFax/AvantFax, if desired
    ./incrediblefax13.sh
    # set desired timezone
    ./timezone-setup
    # set new extension passwords
    ./reset-extension-passwords
    # remember to enable TUN/TAP if using VPS Control Panel with OpenVZ
    # reconfigure PortKnocker if installing on an OpenVZ platform
    echo 'OPTIONS="-i venet0:0"' >> /etc/sysconfig/knockd
    service knockd restart
    # set up NeoRouter VPN client, if desired
    nrclientcmd
    # check network speed
    wget -O speedtest-cli https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sivel/speedtest-cli/master/speedtest.py
    chmod +x speedtest-cli
    ./speedtest-cli
    

    Planning Ahead for That Rainy Day

    If you haven’t already learned the hard way, let us save you from a future shock. Hardware fails. All of it. So spend an extra hour now so that you’ll be prepared when (not if) disaster strikes. First, once you have your new PBX configured the way you plan to use it, make a backup of your PBX by running the Incredible Backup script: /root/incrediblebackup13

    Copy down the name of the backup file that was created. You’ll need it in a few minutes.

    Second, build yourself an identical VirtualBox platform on your desktop PC. It’s the same steps as outlined above.

    Next, create a /backup folder on your VirtualBox PBX and copy the backup file from your main server to your VirtualBox server and restore it after logging in to VirtualBox PBX as root:

    mkdir /backup
    scp root@main-pbx-ip-address:/backup/backup-file-name.tar.gz /backup/.
    /root/incrediblerestore13 /backup/backup-file-name.tar.gz
    

    Complaints that you "forgot" to make a backup and your hardware has failed or your provider has gone out of business are not welcomed. We’re sorry for your loss. Case closed.

    Completing the Incredible PBX Setup Procedure

    Unless your desktop PC and server are both on the same private LAN, the install procedure should be performed from a desktop PC using SSH or Putty. This will insure that your desktop PC is also whitelisted in the Incredible PBX firewall. Using the console to perform the install is NOT recommended as your desktop PC will not be whitelisted in the firewall. This may result in your not being able to log in to your server. Once you have network connectivity, log in to your server as root from a desktop PC using your root password. Accept the license agreement by pressing ENTER.

    Kick off the Phase I install. Once your server reboots and you log back in as root, start the Phase II install. All of your passwords will be randomly assigned with the exception of the root user Linux password. You can set it at any time by issuing the command: passwd. With the exception of your root user password, the remaining passwords can be displayed using the command: /root/show-passwords.

    Finally, if your PBX is sitting behind a NAT-based router, you’ll need to redirect incoming UDP 5060 and UDP 10000-20000 traffic to the private IP address of your PBX. This is required for all of the SIP providers included in the Incredible PBX LITE build. Otherwise, all inbound calls will fail.

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    Configuring Skyetel for Incredible PBX 16 LITE

    If you’ve decided to go with Skyetel, here’s the drill. Sign up for Skyetel service and take advantage of the Nerd Vittles BOGO special. 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 BOGO credit for your account by referencing the Nerd Vittles special offer. Skyetel will match your deposit of up to $250 which gets you up to $500 of helf-price calling. Credit is limited to one per person/company/address/location. Effective 10/1/2023, $25/month minimum spend required.

    Skyetel does not use SIP registrations to make connections to your PBX. Instead, Skyetel utilizes 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 LITE:

    • Name: MyPBX
    • Priority: 1
    • IP Address: PBX-Public-IP-Address
    • Port: 5060
    • Protocol: UDP
    • Description: lite1.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.

    Configuring VoIP.ms for Incredible PBX LITE

    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 LITE 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.

    Configuring V1VoIP for Incredible PBX LITE

    To sign up for V1VoIP service, sign up on their web site. Then login to your account and order a DID under the DIDs tab. Once the DID has been assigned, choose View DIDs and click on the Forwarding button beside your DID. For Option #1, choose Forward to IP Address/PBX. For the Fowarding Address, enter the public IP address of your server. For the T/O (timeout) value, set it to 2o seconds. Then click the Update button. Under the Termination tab, create a new Endpoint with the public IP address of your server so that you can place outbound calls through V1VoIP.

    Configuring Anveo Direct for Incredible PBX LITE

    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. Newer downloads include an add-anveo-pin script to update your PIN in Incredible PBX. If you don’t have the script, login to your server as root and use nano to edit extensions_additional.conf in the /etc/asterisk directory. Search (Ctl-W) for anveo-pin and replace anveo-pin with the 6-digit alphanumeric PIN for your account. Press Ctrl-X, Y, then Enter to save your settings. Reload your dialplan with the command: asterisk -rx "dialplan reload"

    Configuring a Softphone for Incredible PBX LITE

    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 can be a separate board in your computer from a company such as Digium. Or it can be 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. These could be hardware devices or software devices such as the YateClient softphone. 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 PIAF Forum when you’re ready to get serious about VoIP telephony.

    We recommend YateClient 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, 701 for your Username, and whatever Password was assigned to the extension when you installed Incredible PBX. Click OK to save your entries.

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    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.

    Audio Issues with Incredible PBX LITE

    Only if you experience one-way or no audio on some calls, add your external IP address and LAN subnet in /etc/asterisk/sip_general_custom.conf like the following example:

    nat=force_rport,comedia
    externip=xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
    localnet=192.168.0.0/255.255.0.0 
    

    Then issue the following commands:

    sed -i 's|nat=no|nat=force_rport,comedia|' /etc/asterisk/sip_additional.conf
    systemctl restart asterisk
    

    Displaying Formatted CDR Data

    By default, web access is limited to whitelisted IP addresses so it’s safe to access your Call Detail Report (CDR) using a browser. Unfortunately, the only browser that currently handles this with automatic formatting is Firefox. To begin, install the FireCSV extension in Firefox. Next, log in to your server as root and change to the /var/www/html folder. Issue the command ln -s /var/log/asterisk/cdr-csv/Master.csv mycdr.csv to create a symlink to your CSV data. Now you can access your CDR data with Firefox by navigating to http://server-ip/mycdr.csv.

    There’s also a simple way to display CSV files from the Linux command line using this tip from StackOverflow:

    column -s, -t < /var/log/asterisk/cdr-csv/Master.csv | less -#2 -N -S
    

    Incredible PBX LITE 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 LITE 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.

    add-anveo-pin is used to add or update your Anveo Direct outbound calling PIN.

    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 701-705. 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 16 LITE actually is.

    show-passwords is a script that displays ALL of the passwords associated with Incredible PBX 16 LITE. 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.

    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 16 LITE.

    Call Detail Records available in spreadsheet format at /var/log/asterisk/cdr-csv/Master.csv.

    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"

    Originally published: Monday, July 8, 2019


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    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.

    blankBOGO 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.

    blankThe 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.

    blankVitalPBX 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!
     

    blankSpecial 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.
     



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    Introducing Incredible PBX LITE featuring Raspbian 10

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    As you may know, the Raspberry Pi Foundation introduced the $35 Raspberry Pi 4 last week. In addition to jaw-dropping hardware enhancements, the introduction also included the new Raspbian 10 (Buster) platform which was surprising since Debian 10 isn’t scheduled for official release until the end of this week. As with prior releases, Raspbian 10 brought with it some major headaches for the VoIP community not the least of which is FreePBX® cannot (yet) be installed. But sometimes there’s a silver lining accompanying bad news.

    Several Debian 10 issues caused us to rethink what a VoIP platform for the Raspberry Pi actually should look like. After all, most Raspberry Pi hobbyists aren’t interested in mastering the intricacies of Asterisk® and FreePBX. They’re more concerned with a stable, fast VoIP communications platform that’s easy to deploy and will operate without hiccups in a home or small office environment. Thus was born Incredible PBX LITE, a new turnkey VoIP platform that requires zero configuration out of the box and supports five SIP telephones and up to four trunk providers for low-cost worldwide calling. Simply sign up with one of these VoIP service providers, acquire a telephone number (DID), enter the IP address of your PBX, and you can instantly make and receive calls using up to five SIP telephones or softphones.

    UPDATE: If you’d prefer the full-featured Incredible PBX 16-15 for the Raspberry Pi, it’s now available here as well.

    What’s Included? Despite its name, Incredible PBX LITE still serves up a VoIP powerhouse featuring Asterisk 13, an Apache web server, the latest MariaDB SQL server (formerly MySQL), SendMail, and most of the Incredible PBX feature set including SIP, SMS, Opus, voice recognition, FLITE Text-to-Speech VoIP applications plus fax support, Click-to-Dial, News, Weather, Reminders, and hundreds of features that typically are found in commercial PBXs: Conferencing, IVRs and AutoAttendants, Email Delivery of Voicemail, Voicemail Blasting…

    What’s Missing? We’ve removed the entire FreePBX GUI platform while retaining most of its feature set. We’ve also eliminated the need to run a web server or database server although they’re still there. And gone are the days of having to configure extensions and trunks as well as inbound and outbound routes before you can actually use your PBX to make your first call. The tradeoff is a noticeable performance improvement. While a Raspberry Pi 4 isn’t required to run Incredible PBX LITE, doing so provides another three-fold performance boost compared to a Raspberry Pi 3B+. Simply stated, Incredible PBX LITE performance now rivals what you would expect on a powerful cloud-based platform such as Digital Ocean or Vultr.

    Choosing a SIP Provider. As we mentioned, Incredible PBX LITE comes preconfigured to support four of the major SIP providers: Skyetel, VoIP.ms, V1VoIP, and Anveo Direct. We obviously hope you’ll choose Skyetel not only because they financially support Nerd Vittles and our open source projects, but also because it is a clearly superior platform offering crystal-clear communications and triple-redundancy so you never miss a call. Skyetel also sets itself apart from the other providers in the support department. They actually respond to issues, and there’s never a charge. As the old saying goes, they may not be the cheapest, but you get what you pay for. Even without taking advantage of Nerd Vittles half-price offer on up to $500 of Skyetel services, they’re still dirt cheap compared to the Bell Sisters and cable companies. Traditional DIDs are $1 per month. Outbound conversational calls are $0.012 per minute. Incoming conversational calls are a penny a minute, and CallerID lookups are $0.004. With all four providers, you only pay for minutes you use. Using more than one is a good idea. Effective 10/1/2023, $25/month minimum spend required.

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    Assembling the Required Raspberry Pi Components

    Before you can deploy Incredible PBX LITE, you’ll first need the necessary Raspberry Pi hardware. Here’s the short list and, if you’re in a hurry, the $35 Raspberry Pi 3B+ will cost you less than $3 extra to get it quickly from Amazon using our referral link. If you prefer to wait for a Raspberry Pi 4, read on. Either way, the RasPi remains one of the world’s best bargains! Assuming you already own an HDMI-compatible monitor and a USB keyboard

  • Raspberry Pi 4B from a Raspberry Pi reseller
  • $8 15.3W USB-C RasPi 4 (only) Power Supply
  • $8 32GB microSDHC Class 10 card (strongly recommended!)
  • $5 Official RasPi 4 Case
  • Getting Started with Incredible PBX LITE

    Here’s everything to know about installation and setup. "Automatic" means just watch. Steps #1 and #2 are self-explanatory. For the remaining steps, we’ll further document the procedures in the sections below.

    1. Download and unzip Incredible PBX LITE image from SourceForge
    2. Transfer Incredible PBX LITE image to microSD card
    3. Boot Raspberry Pi from new microSD card (16GB minimum)
    4. Login to RasPi console as root:password to initialize your server (Automatic)
    5. In raspi-config Advanced Options, Expand FileSystem to fill your SD card
    6. In Localization Options, set Locale, TimeZone, Keyboard, & WiFi Country
    7. Reboot after writing down your server IP address (Automatic)
    8. Login via SSH or Putty as root:password to set passwords & setup firewall (Automatic)
    9. Register for and configure at least one trunk provider for Incredible PBX LITE
    10. Install Incredible Fax: /root/incrediblefax13_raspi3.sh (Credentials: admin:password)

    First Boot of Incredible PBX LITE with Wi-Fi

    Incredible PBX LITE requires Internet connectivity to complete its automated install. If you’re using a wired network connection, you can skip to the next section. With the Raspberry Pi 3B and 4B, WiFi is built into the hardware. But you still have to insert your SSID name and SSID password to make a connection to your WiFi network. To do so, follow these next steps carefully. Insert the Incredible PBX LITE microSD card into your Raspberry Pi 3 or 4 and apply power to the hardware. When the bootup procedure finishes, login as root with the default password: password. At the first prompt, DO NOT PRESS THE ENTER KEY! Instead, press Ctrl-C to break out of the setup script. At the command prompt, issue the following commands to bring up the WiFi config file:

    cd /etc/wpa_supplicant
    nano -w wpa_supplicant.conf
    

    If your WiFi network does not require a password, then uncomment the four lines below and save the file: Ctrl-X, Y, then Enter. Now restart your server: reboot. When the reboot finishes, you now should have network connectivity.

    network={
     key_mgmt=NONE
     priority=1
    }
    

    If your WiFi network requires a password, scroll down to the SSID entry and replace YourSSID with the actual SSID of your WiFi network. Make sure you preserve the entry with the quotes as shown. Next, replace YourSSIDpassword with the SSID password of your WiFi network. Save the file: Ctrl-X, Y, then Enter. Now restart your server: reboot. When the reboot finishes, you now should have network connectivity.

    Once the reboot process finishes, you should see an entry on about the middle line displayed on your monitor which reads: "My IP address is…". Write down the IP address shown. You’ll need it in a minute. Skip the next section since you are using a WiFi connection.

    If you don’t see an IP address assigned to your server, then correct the network deficiency (invalid WiFi credentials, DHCP not working, Internet down), and reboot until you see an IP address assigned to your server. DO NOT PROCEED WITHOUT AN ASSIGNED IP ADDRESS.

    First Boot of Incredible PBX Using Wired Connection

    Incredible PBX LITE requires Internet connectivity to complete its automated install. After connecting your server to your local network with a network cable, insert the Incredible PBX LITE microSD card into your Raspberry Pi and apply power to the hardware. When the bootup procedure finishes, you should see an entry on about the middle line displayed on your monitor which reads: "My IP address is…". Write down the IP address shown. You’ll need it in the next step.

    If you don’t see an IP address assigned to your server, then correct the network deficiency (cable not connected, DHCP not working, Internet down), and reboot until you see an IP address assigned to your server. DO NOT PROCEED WITHOUT AN ASSIGNED IP ADDRESS.

    Completing the Incredible PBX Initialization Procedure

    Unless your desktop PC and RasPi are both on the same private LAN, the remainder of the install procedure should be completed from a desktop PC using SSH or Putty. This will assure that your desktop PC is also whitelisted in the Incredible PBX firewall. Using the console to complete the install is NOT recommended as your desktop PC will not be whitelisted in the firewall. This may result in your not being able to log in to your server. Once you have network connectivity, log in to your server as root from a desktop PC using the default password: password. Accept the license agreement by pressing ENTER. You then will be redirected to raspi-config. This is the utility used to expand your Incredible PBX LITE image to use your entire microSD card. If you fail to complete this step, your microSD card will be restricted to 16GB. In the raspi-config utility, choose Localization Options and set Locale, TimeZone, Keyboard, & WiFi Country. Then choose Advanced Options. All of the defaults should be satisfactory with the exception of the first item: Expand Filesystem. Choose this option and activate the resizing directive. Review the other items and then exit and reboot.

    Once your server reboots and you log back in as root, all of your passwords will be randomly assigned with the exception of the root user Linux password. You can set it by issuing the command: passwd. With the exception of your root user password, the remaining passwords can be displayed using the command: /root/show-passwords.

    Finally, if your PBX is sitting behind a NAT-based router, you’ll need to redirect incoming UDP 5060 and UDP 10000-20000 traffic to the private IP address of your PBX. This is required for all of the SIP providers included in the Incredible PBX LITE build. Otherwise, all inbound calls will fail.

    SECURITY ALERT: There was a configuration error in the initial setup which leaves the firewall deactivated. This gets corrected by the Incredible PBX Automatic Update Utility the next time you login to your server as root. Please do so immediately.

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    Configuring Skyetel for Incredible PBX LITE

    If you’ve decided to go with Skyetel, here’s the drill. Sign up for Skyetel service and take advantage of the Nerd Vittles BOGO special. 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 BOGO credit for your account by referencing the Nerd Vittles special offer. Skyetel will match your deposit of up to $250 which gets you up to $500 of helf-price calling. Credit is limited to one per person/company/address/location.

    Skyetel does not use SIP registrations to make connections to your PBX. Instead, Skyetel utilizes 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 LITE:

    • Name: MyPBX
    • Priority: 1
    • IP Address: PBX-Public-IP-Address
    • Port: 5060
    • Protocol: UDP
    • Description: lite1.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.

    Configuring VoIP.ms for Incredible PBX LITE

    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 LITE 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.

    Configuring V1VoIP for Incredible PBX LITE

    To sign up for V1VoIP service, sign up on their web site. Then login to your account and order a DID under the DIDs tab. Once the DID has been assigned, choose View DIDs and click on the Forwarding button beside your DID. For Option #1, choose Forward to IP Address/PBX. For the Fowarding Address, enter the public IP address of your server. For the T/O (timeout) value, set it to 2o seconds. Then click the Update button. Under the Termination tab, create a new Endpoint with the public IP address of your server so that you can place outbound calls through V1VoIP.

    Configuring Anveo Direct for Incredible PBX LITE

    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. Login to your server as root and use nano to edit extensions_additional.conf in the /etc/asterisk directory. Search (Ctl-W) for anveo-pin and replace anveo-pin with the 6-digit alphanumeric PIN for your account. Press Ctrl-X, Y, then Enter to save your settings. Reload your dialplan with the command: asterisk -rx "dialplan reload"

    Audio Issues with Incredible PBX LITE

    Only if you experience one-way or no audio on some calls, add your external IP address and LAN subnet in /etc/asterisk/sip_general_custom.conf like the following example:

    nat=yes
    externip=xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
    localnet=192.168.0.0/255.255.0.0 
    

    Then restart Asterisk: systemctl restart asterisk

    Configuring a Softphone for Incredible PBX LITE

    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 can be a separate board in your computer from a company such as Digium. Or it can be 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. These could be hardware devices or software devices such as the YateClient softphone. 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 PIAF Forum when you’re ready to get serious about VoIP telephony.

    We recommend YateClient 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, 701 for your Username, and whatever Password was assigned to the extension when you installed Incredible PBX. Click OK to save your entries.

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    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.

    Incredible PBX LITE 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 LITE 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.

    proximity is a script used in conjunction with bluetooth to decipher whether your smartphone is within range of your server. If not, the script forwards calls to extension 701 to an extension or external smartphone of your choice. Edit the proximity script to add your preferences. Then uncomment the proximity line in /etc/crontab. Complete setup details on setup are available in our previous tutorial.

    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 701-705. 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 LITE actually is.

    show-passwords is a script that displays ALL of the passwords associated with Incredible PBX LITE. 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.

    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 LITE.

    Call Detail Records available in spreadsheet format at /var/log/asterisk/cdr-csv/Master.csv.

    Originally published: Monday, July 1, 2019


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    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.

    blankBOGO 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.

    blankThe 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.

    blankVitalPBX 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!
     

    blankSpecial 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.
     



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    The Very Best Cellphone Plans and Smartphones for 2019

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    You can read reviews of the best cellphone plans and smartphones until your eyes glaze over and still end up scratching your head when it comes to making a decision. Our approach is a little different. It’s about making smart choices based upon the specific requirements for you and your family. Let’s get the obvious criteria out of the way first. The cellphone provider that you choose has to work in your home, on your way to work, at your office, and in the places to which you typically travel. In the United States, that used to rule out everyone except AT&T, Verizon, and their MVNOs. Not any more. T-Mobile’s coverage now rivals that of the Bell Sisters, and Sprint isn’t far behind. The second important criteria is how many phones you need. If it’s a plan just for you or you and your spouse, it’s a very different landscape than finding suitable providers for a family of four or five. Age also matters. If it’s just two of you and one of you is at least 55 years old, there’s at least one incredible deal. Another important consideration is how much of your cellular usage is from locations with good Wi-Fi coverage. With most providers and newer smartphones, WiFi usage doesn’t cost you anything when it comes to your monthly cellphone bill. And, last but not least, is a careful analysis of how you use your phones. Binge watching Netflix and sending hundreds of high resolution photos every day through cellular connections is very different than using a phone primarily to make calls, send text messages, and retrieve text-based email. Equally important is whether you need your smartphone to also provide Internet connectivity for a tethered computer or tablet.

    Let’s get the easy choices out of the way first. If you’re shopping for no more than two phones and one of you is at least 55 years old and one or both of you consumes enormous amounts of data without WiFi every month, T-Mobile is the hands-down winner at $70 a month with no tax/fees for two phones with unlimited talk as well as text and 50GB of data in 210+ countries. You may wish to consider the T-Mobile One Plus add-on if you do considerable traveling or regularly use tethering.

    Excluding WiFi, the average cell phone user today consumes between 2GB and 8GB of data per month. If you have an existing cellphone plan, check your bill and see where your usage typically falls. If you’re within the range of 3GB and 12GB per phone per month with no WiFi coverage, then MintMobile’s $15 (3GB), $20 (8GB), and $25 (12GB) plans with unlimited talk and text using the T-Mobile network are the clear winner. HotSpot tethering with a PC is allowed. The only wrinkle is having to pay for a year of service after your 3-month trial ends.

    If you’re part of a family of four or five with heavy cellphone usage, the best "unlimited" deal is probably Cricket Wireless which is an AT&T subsidiary and uses the AT&T network. If you don’t mind data speeds reduced to 3 Mbps with unlimited streaming at 480p, then their $100/month plan for four phones is a great deal even with the usual AT&T throttling after 22GB of data usage per month. Add a fifth phone for $25. Tethering is an extra $10/phone.

    If Sprint works well in your surroundings and you have your own compatible phones, then Sprint’s Unlimited Kickstart offering is worth a careful look. Up to 5 lines can be purchased for $25/month each, but there is no guarantee as to network speeds, streaming is limited to 480p, and there is no tethering. You can move up to their Unlimited Basic Plan with up to 5 phones for a total of $100/month plus taxes and fees for 2 to 5 phones until June 30, 2020.

    MetoPCS from T-Mobile has an offer similar to Sprint’s for 4 lines with unlimited data up to 35GB/month for $100/month with no taxes or additional fees. Pricing escalates to $40/line for two phones and $30/line for three. Tethering is not supported.

    If Verizon is your preference, the least costly unlimited plan is offered by their Visible subsidiary at $40/month with data speeds limited to 5 Mbps and video streaming limited to 480p DVD quality. Tethering is permitted. iPhones and Galaxy S9/S9+ phones are supported. Or you can purchase for $99 or swap any Android phone for the Visible R2 phone from ZTE.

    Things get murkier and more expensive from here. One consideration we haven’t touched upon with the low cost providers is bundling. Depending upon your Internet service provider and cable TV provider, the cost of your cellphone plan can change dramatically. For example, AT&T bundles DirecTV service for 4 TVs plus 4 cellphones sharing 15GB of monthly data for $200/month with lots of fine print. Xfinity/Comcast mobile service on Verizon’s network is available to existing Xfinity Internet customers for $12/GB with no line access fees on up to 5 smartphones. Or you can sign up for "unlimited" service at $45/phone with 20GB throttling. Spectrum has a similar mobile offer using Verizon at $14/GB or $45/phone for Spectrum Internet customers. And Google offers their GoogleFi service for $20/phone plus $10/GB of data actually used. Additional lines are $15. Google uses both T-Mobile and Sprint for service.

    The elephant in the room with all of these cellphone plans is data throttling. All of the providers do it with impunity, and the short answer is you’ll simply have to choose a provider whose terms of service you can live with. While T-Mobile’s 50GB cap is considerably higher than AT&T’s 22GB, there are plenty of weasel words in T-Mobile’s terms that allow them to do what is necessary to "protect" their network. On the other hand, AT&T actually has locations (including ours) where data throttling reportedly isn’t used at all. We actually have a MiFi device on AT&T’s network that, during some months, has recorded over 100GB of data usage without throttling. So the bottom line is your mileage may vary, and it behooves you to shop around until you find a provider with whom you are comfortable based upon your own usage patterns.

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    We haven’t touched upon choosing a smartphone up until now. We all have our favorites and some providers have extremely favorable pricing if you bundle phones as part of your initial signup. If you don’t mind a 2-year-old model of an iPhone, these often can be free. The same holds for older Android top tier phones from Samsung and other providers. Just last week, Google offered its latest Pixel phones at half price for new GoogleFi customers. Whatever we listed today would probably be old news before you finished reading about it. We will mention one incredibly versatile Android phone, and that’s Motorola’s one-year-old Corning® Gorilla® glass, unlocked Moto G6 which can be found for under $200. In appearance it is indistinguishable from Samsung’s Galaxy S7 Edge, and it compares favorably to almost every feature in Apple’s latest $1,000+ iPhone with the possible exception of the camera (see photo above). It’s compatible with all of the carriers mentioned above except Visible. As with many of the newer smartphones, the G6 supports Wi-Fi calling as well as OpenVPN connectivity.

    Originally published: Monday, May 6, 2019


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    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.

    blankBOGO 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.

    blankThe 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.

    blankVitalPBX 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!
     

    blankSpecial 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.
     



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