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Twofer Tuesday: 2 Cloud Servers for the Price of a RasPi
It’s been more than a year since we last chatted about Cloud At Cost. Because they’re in the midst of yet another 50% off Fire Sale and to close out February with a bang, it seemed like a good time to take a fresh look at a terrific way to get started with Linux. For today’s $35 cloud project, we’re going to build a free WordPress server and a free commercial PBX compliments of 3CX. For what it’s worth, we’ve been running a PIAF5 server at CloudAtCost for more than four months without a single hiccup. It provides flawless Google Voice calling from either a connected SIP phone or from the 3CX Client running on a SIM-free Android phone or iPhone. See our recent article for tips on setting up a SIM-free mobile phone.
For those coming from the Windows World, Linux can be a little intimidating. Learning with a Cloud-based server presents its own challenges because of the security issues when your server sits on the public Internet. And then there’s the cost factor. Not everyone has several hundred dollars to buy hardware and, frankly, learning about Linux on a $35 Raspberry Pi can drive most folks to drink. So today we’ll show you another way. It’s not necessarily a better way. But it’s different, and it’s loads of fun for not much money. Today’s project takes about an hour, and you’ll have two terrific Linux applications to play with for life when we’re finished.
There’s lots to hate at Cloud At Cost, a Canadian provider that offers virtual machines in the cloud for a one-time fee with no recurring charges. For $35, you currently get two virtual machine platforms, and each has 512MB of RAM, 10GB of storage, and a gigabit Internet connection FOR LIFE. We haven’t seen a week go by when Cloud at Cost didn’t offer some sort of discount. Today it’s 50% off which brings the per server cost down to $17.50 each. That’s less than most lunches these days. If you don’t like half off and would prefer to wait for a better discount, check their Twitter feed every few days. So that’s the good news. But, if 99.999% reliability, performance, and excellent customer support are your must-haves, then look elsewhere. So why would anyone in their right mind sign up for a cloud solution that didn’t offer those things? Did we mention it’s $17.50 for a lifetime cloud server!
If you take our recommendation, you’ll need to go into this with the right attitude. It’s not going to be flawless perfection computing. It’s a sandbox on which to experiment with Linux, and VoIP, and Cloud Computing. Will your virtual machine disintegrate at some juncture? Maybe so. We’ve had about a third of ours fail at some point. But you can rebuild them easily, especially if you keep a backup. Our experience is that the first couple days are critical. If you start seeing sluggish performance which degenerates to zero, don’t waste your time. Take good notes as you go along, delete the virtual machine, and rebuild a new one. It won’t cost you a dime, and it’ll save you hours of frustration. We suspect that bad folks get onto some of the servers and delight in bringing the machines to their knees. So the quicker you cut your losses, the better off you will be. Is CloudAtCost a good solution for production use? Don’t risk it unless waterboarding is your favorite sport. It’s probably not gonna work, and you WILL be disappointed. Repeat after me: IT’S A SANDBOX!
Building a LAMP Server in the Cloud
Our first objective today is to show you how to build a rock-solid, secure Linux server in the Cloud with all the bells and whistles that make Linux the server platform of choice for almost every organization in the world. We’ll continue by showing you how to embellish the platform with WordPress to do something that’s special for you whether it’s your own blog like Nerd Vittles, or a school newspaper, or an on-line shopping site to sell comic books. The basic foundation for most Linux platforms is called a LAMP server which stands for Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP. Linux is an open source operating system that includes contributions from thousands of developers around the world. Apache is the web server platform on which most commercial businesses stake their reputation. MySQL is the open source database management system now owned by Oracle. If it’s good enough for Facebook, it’s good enough for you. And PHP is THE web-based programming language that will let you build almost any application using Linux, Apache, and MySQL.
So what’s the big deal? There are thousands of online tutorials that will show you how to build a LAMP server. For long time readers of Nerd Vittles, you already know that the component we continually stress is security. Without that, the rest really doesn’t matter. You’ll be building a platform for someone else to hijack and use for nefarious purposes. When we’re finished with today’s Project #1, you’ll have a cloud-based LAMP server that is totally invisible to the rest of the world with the exception of its web interface. And we’ll show you a simple way to reduce the exposure of that web interface to some of its most likely attackers. Will it be 100% secure? Nope. If you have a web server on the public Internet, it’s never going to be 100% secure because there’s always the chance of a software bug that nobody has yet discovered and corrected. THAT’S WHAT BACKUPS ARE FOR!
Creating a CentOS Machine in the Cloud
To get started, you’ve got to plunk down your $35 at Cloud at Cost. This buys you two server platforms while they’re cheap! Once you’ve paid the piper, they will send you credentials to log into the Cloud at Cost Management Portal. Change your password IMMEDIATELY after logging in. Just go to SETTINGS and follow your nose.
To create your first virtual machine, click on the CLOUDPRO button and click Add New Server. If you’ve only purchased the $17.50 CloudPRO 1 platform, then you’ll need all of the available resources shown in the pick list. Otherwise, choose 1 CPU, 512MB RAM, and 10GB storage for your first server. Leave CentOS 6.7 64bit selected as the OS Type and click Complete. Depending upon the type of special pricing that Cloud at Cost is offering when you sign up, the time to build your virtual machine can take anywhere from a minute to the better part of a day. We’ve learned to build new virtual machines at night, and they’re usually available for use by the next morning. Luckily, this slow performance does not impact existing virtual machines that already are running in their hosting facility.
Initial Configuration of Your CentOS 6 VM
With a little luck, your virtual machine soon will appear in your Cloud at Cost Management Portal and look something like what’s shown above. The red arrow points to the i button you’ll need to click to decipher the password for your new virtual machine. You’ll need both the IP address and the password for your new virtual machine in order to log into the server which is now up and running with a barebones CentOS 6.7 operating system. Note the yellow caution flag. That’s telling you that Cloud at Cost will automatically shut down your server in a week to save (them) computing resources. You can change the setting to keep your server running 24/7. Click Modify, Change Run Mode, and select Normal – Leave Powered On. Click Continue and OK to save your new settings.
Finally, you’ll want to change the Host Name for your server to something more descriptive than c7…cloudpro.92… Click the Modify button again and click Rename Server to make the change. Your management portal then will show the new server name as shown above.
Logging into Your CentOS 6 VM
In order to configure and manage your new CentOS 6 virtual machine, you’ll need to log into the new server using either SSH or, for Windows users, Putty. After installing Putty, run it and log in to the IP address of your VM with username root and the password you deciphered above. On a Mac, open a Terminal session and issue a command like this using the actual IP address of your new virtual machine:
ssh root@12.34.56.78
Before you do anything else, reset your root password to something very secure: passwd
Installing the LAMP Server Basics
Now we’re ready to build your LAMP server platform. We’ve chopped this up into lots of little steps so we can explain what’s happening as we go along. There’s nothing hard about this, but we want to document the process so you can repeat it at any time. As we go along, just cut-and-paste each clump of code into your SSH or Putty session and review the results to make sure nothing comes unglued. If something does, the beauty of virtual machines is you can delete them instantly within your management portal and just start over whenever you like. So here we go…
We’ll begin by permanently turning off SELINUX which causes more problems than it solves. The first command turns it off instantly. The second line assures that it’ll stay off whenever you reboot your virtual machine.
setenforce 0 sed -i s/SELINUX=enforcing/SELINUX=disabled/g /etc/selinux/config
First, let’s address a couple of CloudAtCost quirks that may cause problems down the road. CloudAtCost has a nasty habit of not cleaning up after itself with fresh installs. The net result is your root password gets reset every time you reboot.
killall plymouthd echo killall plymouthd >> /etc/rc.local rm -f /etc/rc3.d/S97*
Now let’s bring CentOS 6.7 up to current CentOS 6.8 specs and add a few important applications:
yum -y update yum -y install nano wget expect net-tools dialog git xz yum -y install kernel-headers yum -y install kernel-devel reboot
After reboot, log back in as root. Now we’ll set up your Apache web server and configure it to start whenever you reboot your server:
yum -y install httpd service httpd start chkconfig httpd on
Next, let’s set up your MySQL server, bring it on line, and make sure it restarts after server reboots. Unless you plan to add Asterisk® and FreePBX® to your server down the road, you’ll want to uncomment the two commands that begin with # by removing the # symbol and replacing new-password with a very secure password for your root user account in MySQL. Be sure to run the last command to secure your server. After logging in, the correct answers are n,Y,Y,Y,Y.
yum -y install mysql mysql-server service mysqld start chkconfig mysqld on #/usr/bin/mysqladmin -u root password 'new-password' #/usr/bin/mysqladmin -u root -p -h localhost.localdomain password 'new-password' mysql_secure_installation
Next, we’ll set up PHP and configure it to work with MySQL:
yum -y install php yum -y install php-mysql service httpd restart
Finally let’s get SendMail installed and configured. Insert your actual email address in the last line and send yourself a test message to be sure it’s working. Be sure to check your spam folder since the message will show a sender address of localhost which many email systems including Gmail automatically identify as spam.
yum -y install sendmail rpm -e postfix service sendmail restart yum -y install mailx echo "test" | mail -s testmessage youracctname@yourmailserver.com
Installing Supplemental Repositories
One of the beauties of Linux is not being totally dependent upon CentOS for all of your packaged applications. Let’s add a few other repositories that can be used when you need to add a special package that is not in the CentOS repository. Let’s start with EPEL. We’ll disable it by default and only use it when we need it.
yum -y install http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/6/x86_64/epel-release-6-8.noarch.rpm sed -i 's|enabled=1|enabled=0|' /etc/yum.repos.d/epel.repo
We actually need the EPEL repo to install Fail2Ban for monitoring of attacks on certain Linux services such as SSH:
yum --enablerepo=epel install fail2ban -y cd /etc wget http://incrediblepbx.com/fail2ban-lamp.tar.gz tar zxvf fail2ban-lamp.tar.gz
Another important repository is REMI. It is especially helpful if you decide to upgrade PHP from the default version 5.3 to one of the newer releases: 5.5 or 5.6. In this case, you’ll want to activate the specific repository to support the release you choose in /etc/yum.repos.d/remi-safe.repo.
yum -y install http://rpms.famillecollet.com/enterprise/remi-release-6.rpm sed -i 's|enabled=1|enabled=0|' /etc/yum.repos.d/remi-safe.repo
One final repository to have on hand is RPMForge, now renamed RepoForge. We’ll use it in a bit to install a dynamic DNS update utility which you actually won’t need at CloudAtCost since your server is assigned a static IP address. But it’s handy to have in the event you wish to assign a free FQDN to your server anyway.
yum -y install http://incrediblepbx.com/rpmforge-release-0.5.3-1.el6.rf.x86_64.rpm sed -i 's|enabled = 1|enabled = 0|' /etc/yum.repos.d/rpmforge.repo
Country Blocking with IPSET
We’ll use the EPEL repo to install ipset, a terrific addition to the IPtables Linux firewall that lets you quickly block entire countries from accessing your server:
yum --enablerepo=epel install ipset -y
Next, we’ll add a sample script that documents how the country blocking mechanism works with ipset. For a complete list of countries that can be blocked, go here. If you need a decoder badge to match abbreviations against country names, you’ll find it here. To add other countries, simply edit the shell script and clone lines 4-7 using the names of the countries and country zone files that you wish to add. Be sure to insert the new lines before the commands to restart iptables and fail2ban. This script will need to be run each time your server reboots and before IPtables is brought on line. We’ll handle that a little later.
echo "#\\!/bin/bash" > /etc/block-china.sh echo " " >> /etc/block-china.sh echo "cd /etc" >> /etc/block-china.sh echo "ipset -N china hash:net" >> /etc/block-china.sh echo "rm cn.zone" >> /etc/block-china.sh echo "wget -P . http://www.ipdeny.com/ipblocks/data/countries/cn.zone" >> /etc/block-china.sh echo "for i in $(cat /etc/cn.zone ); do ipset -A china $i; done" >> /etc/block-china.sh echo "service iptables restart" >> /etc/block-china.sh echo "service fail2ban restart" >> /etc/block-china.sh sed -i 's|\\\\||' /etc/block-china.sh chmod +x /etc/block-china.sh
Adding a Few Handy Utilities
If you’re like us, you’ll want to test the speed of your Internet connection from time to time. Let’s install a free script that you can run at any time by logging into your server as root and issuing the command: /root/speedtest.py. Here were our results from last year. Running speedtest on a new server we built today showed a vast improvement in performance. Downloads were over ten times as fast, and upload speeds more than tripled. In fact, we now are using two CloudAtCost servers to host the old PIAF3 repositories.
cd /root wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sivel/speedtest-cli/master/speedtest.py chmod +x speedtest.py
Next, let’s put in place a simple status display which will quickly tell you what’s running and what’s not. We’ve borrowed some GPL code from Incredible PBX to help you out. Run status-lamp at any time for a snapshot of your server.
cd /usr/local/sbin wget http://incrediblepbx.com/status-lamp.tar.gz tar zxvf status-lamp.tar.gz rm -f status-lamp.tar.gz sed -i 's|myip.pbxinaflash.com|myip.incrediblepbx.com|' /usr/local/sbin/status-lamp
Now we’ll put the Linux Swiss Army Knife in place. It’s called WebMin, and it provides a GUI to configure almost everything in Linux. Pick up a good WebMin book from your public library to get started. Once installed, you access WebMin from your browser at the IP address of your server on the default port of 10000: https://serverIPaddress:10000. It’s probably a good idea to change this port number and the commented out line shows how to do it with the new port being 9001 in the example. The way in which we typically configure the Linux firewall will block all access to WebMin except from an IP address which you have whitelisted, e.g. your home computer’s public IP address.
cd /root yum -y install perl perl-Net-SSLeay openssl perl-IO-Tty yum -y install http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/webadmin/webmin-1.831-1.noarch.rpm #sed -i 's|10000|9001|g' /etc/webmin/miniserv.conf service webmin restart chkconfig webmin on
Configuring the Linux IPtables Firewall
RULE #1: DON’T BUILD SERVERS EXPOSED TO THE INTERNET WITHOUT SECURITY!
As installed by CloudAtCost, your server provides ping and SSH access from a remote computer and nothing else. The good news: it’s pretty safe. The bad news: it can’t do anything useful for anybody because all web access to the server is blocked. We want to fix that, tighten up SSH access to restrict it to your IP address, and deploy country blocking to show you how.
As we implement the firewall changes, you need to be extremely careful in your typing so that you don’t accidentally lock yourself out of your own server. A typo in an IP address is all it takes. The good news is that, if you do lock yourself out, you still can gain access via the CloudAtCost Management Portal by clicking the Console button of your virtual machine. Because the console is on the physical machine and the lo interface is whitelisted, you can log in and disable the firewall temporarily: service iptables stop
. Then fix the typo and restart the firewall: service iptables start
.
First, let’s download the new IPtables config file into your root folder and take a look at it.
cd /root wget http://incrediblepbx.com/iptables-lamp.tar.gz tar zxvf iptables-lamp.tar.gz
Now edit the /root/iptables-lamp file by issuing the command: nano -w /root/iptables-lamp
You can scroll up and down through the file with Ctl-V and Ctl-Y. Cursor keys work as well. Once you make changes, save your work: Ctl-X, Y, ENTER
. You’re now an expert with the nano text editor, an absolutely essential Linux tool.
Here’s what that file actually looks like:
*filter :INPUT DROP [0:0] :FORWARD ACCEPT [0:0] :OUTPUT ACCEPT [0:0] -A INPUT -p tcp -m tcp --tcp-flags ACK ACK -j ACCEPT -A INPUT -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT -A INPUT -p icmp -j DROP -A INPUT -i lo -j ACCEPT -A INPUT -p tcp ! --syn -m state --state NEW -j DROP -A INPUT -m state --state INVALID -j DROP -A INPUT -p tcp -m tcp --tcp-flags FIN,SYN,RST,PSH,ACK,URG NONE -j DROP -A INPUT -p tcp -m tcp --tcp-flags SYN,FIN SYN,FIN -j DROP -A INPUT -p tcp -m tcp --tcp-flags SYN,RST SYN,RST -j DROP -A INPUT -p tcp -m tcp --tcp-flags FIN,RST FIN,RST -j DROP -A INPUT -p tcp -m tcp --tcp-flags ACK,FIN FIN -j DROP -A INPUT -p tcp -m tcp --tcp-flags ACK,URG URG -j DROP -A INPUT -p tcp -m set --match-set china src -j DROP -A INPUT -p udp -m udp --dport 53 -j ACCEPT -A INPUT -p tcp -m tcp --dport 53 -j ACCEPT -A INPUT -p tcp -m tcp --dport 113 -j ACCEPT -A INPUT -p udp -m udp --dport 123 -j ACCEPT -A INPUT -p tcp -m tcp --dport 123 -j ACCEPT -A INPUT -m state --state NEW -m tcp -p tcp --dport 22 -j ACCEPT #-A INPUT -s 12.34.56.78 -j ACCEPT #-A INPUT -s yourFQDN.dyndns.org -j ACCEPT -A INPUT -p tcp -m tcp --dport 80 -j ACCEPT -A INPUT -j REJECT --reject-with icmp-host-prohibited -A FORWARD -j REJECT --reject-with icmp-host-prohibited COMMIT
Reminder: If you add another country to your block-china script, don’t forget to add a corresponding new country entry to your iptables file. See line 17 above that includes the word "china" for the syntax. There’s nothing much else to tweak except the two commented out (brown) lines that begin with #. First, remove the # symbol by moving the cursor to the right of the first one and hitting the backspace/delete key on your keyboard. Replace 12.34.56.78
with the public IP address of the computer from which you will be accessing your virtual machine. If you need multiple entries for multiple computers at different addresses, clone the line by pressing Ctrl-K and then Ctrl-U twice. Yes, we know. Some folks IP addresses change from time to time. In the next section, we’ll show you how to set up a Dynamic DNS entry with a utility that will keep track of your current IP address. In this case, uncomment the second commented line and replace yourFQDN.dyndns.org
with your dynamic DNS address. Be very careful to assure that your FQDN is always on line. If the firewall cannot verify your DNS entry when it starts, the IPtables firewall will not start which means your server will be left unprotected. HINT: IP addresses are much safer because they are never verified.
Once you have your whitelisted addresses configured, comment out the port 22 line to keep the bad guys from trying to break into your server with SSH. Then save the file: Ctl-X, Y, ENTER
. Next, issue the following commands to copy everything into place and restart the firewall.
mv /etc/sysconfig/iptables /etc/sysconfig/iptables.orig cp -p /root/iptables-lamp /etc/sysconfig/iptables echo "/etc/block-china.sh" >> /etc/rc.local /etc/block-china.sh
Always, always, always check to be sure your firewall is functioning: iptables -nL
. If you don’t see your desktop computer’s public IP address near the end of the listing, then the firewall is dead. status-lamp should also show IPtables down. Check for an error message which will tell you the problematic line so you can correct it.
Implementing Dynamic DNS Service
There are a number of free and paid Dynamic DNS providers. The way this works is you choose a fully-qualified domain name (FQDN) to identify your computer. Then you run a dynamic DNS update utility periodically from that computer. It reports back the current public IP address of your computer and your provider updates the IP address assigned to your FQDN if it has changed. In addition to supporting sites with ever changing IP addresses, it also allows you to permanently assign an FQDN to your computer or server so that it can be accessed without using a cryptic IP address.
If that computer happens to be an Incredible PBX server or a LAMP server that you’ve set up using this tutorial, then the following will get the DNS client update utility loaded using the RPM Forge repository that we previously installed:
yum --enablerepo=rpmforge install ddclient -y
Similar DNS update clients are available for Windows, Mac OS X, and many residential routers. Then it’s just a matter of plugging in the credentials for your dynamic DNS provider and your FQDN. In the case of the CentOS client, the config file is /etc/ddclient/ddclient.conf
. Now reboot your server and pick up a good book on Linux to begin your adventure.
Now For Some Fun…
First, let’s check things out and make sure everything is working as it should. With your favorite web browser, visit the IP address of your new server. You should see the default Apache page:
Next, let’s be sure that PHP is working as it should. While still logged into your server as root using SSH or Putty, issue the following commands and make up some file name to replace test4567 in both lines. Be sure to keep the .php file name extension. Note to gurus: Yes, we know the second line below is unnecessary if you remove the space after the less than symbol in the first line. Unfortunately, WordPress forces the space into the display which left us no alternative.
echo "< ?php phpinfo(); ?>" > /var/www/html/test4567.php sed -i 's|< |<|' /var/www/html/test4567.php
Now jump back to your web browser and access the new page you just created using the IP address of your server and the file name you made up: http://12.34.56.78/test4567.php
The PHPinfo listing will tell you everything you ever wanted to know about your web server setup including all of the PHP functions that have been enabled. That's why you want an obscure file name for the page. You obviously don't want to share that information with every bad guy on the planet. Remember. This is a public-facing web site that anyone on the Internet can access if they know or guess your IP address.
When you're ready to set up your own web site, just name it index.php and store the file in the /var/www/html directory of your server. In the meantime, issuing the following command will assure that anyone accessing your site gets a blank page until you're ready to begin your adventure:
echo " " > /var/www/html/index.php
Ready to learn PHP programming? There's no shortage of books to get you started.
Adding WordPress to Your LAMP Server
Where to begin with WordPress? What used to be a simple platform for bloggers has morphed into an all-purpose tool that makes building virtually any type of web site child's play. If you want to see what's possible, take a look at the templates and sample sites shown on WPZOOM. Unless you're an art major and savvy web designer, this will be the best $70 you ever spent. One of these templates will have your site up and running in minutes once we put the WordPress pieces in place. For the big spenders, $149 will give you access to over 50 gorgeous templates which you can download and use to your heart's content on multiple sites. And, no, your sites don't blow up after a year. You just can't download any additional templates or updates unless you renew your subscription. The other alternative is choose from thousands of templates that are provided across the Internet as well as in the WordPress application itself.
WordPress templates run the gamut from blogs to newsletters to photographer sites to e-commerce to business portfolios to video to travel to magazines to newspapers to education to food to recipes to restaurants and more. Whew! There literally is nothing you can't put together in minutes using a WordPress template. But, before you can begin, we need to get WordPress installed on your server. This is optional, of course. And, if you follow along and add WordPress, we've set it up in such a way that WordPress becomes the primary application for your site. Stated differently, when people use a browser to access your site, your WordPress template will immediately display. When we finish the basic WordPress setup and once you upload an image or two, you'll have a site that looks something like this:
Before you begin, we strongly recommend that you acquire a domain for your site if you plan to use it for anything but experimentation. The reason is because it can be complicated to migrate a WordPress site from one location to another.1 Once you've acquired your domain, point the domain to the IP address of your new server. With a dirt cheap registrar such as Omnis.com, it's easy:
Now let's get started. To begin, we need to load the WordPress application onto your server:
cd /root mkdir wordpress cd wordpress wget http://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz tar -xvzf latest.tar.gz -C /var/www/html
Next, we'll configure MySQL to support WordPress. We're assuming that you have NOT already created root passwords for MySQL. If you have, you'll need to add -pYourPassword to the various commands below immediately after root. There is no space between -p and your root password. Also edit the first line and make up a new password (replacing XYZ below) for the wordpress user account that will manage WordPress on your server before you cut and paste the code:
mysql -u root -e 'CREATE USER wordpress@localhost IDENTIFIED BY "XYZ";' mysql -u root -e 'CREATE DATABASE wordpress;' mysql -u root -e 'GRANT ALL ON wordpress.* TO wordpress@localhost;' mysql -u root -e 'FLUSH PRIVILEGES;'
Next, we need to configure WordPress with your new MySQL credentials. Before you cut and paste, replace XYZ in the fourth line with the password you assigned in the preceding MySQL step:
cp /var/www/html/wordpress/wp-config-sample.php /var/www/html/wordpress/wp-config.php sed -i 's|database_name_here|wordpress|' /var/www/html/wordpress/wp-config.php sed -i 's|username_here|wordpress|' /var/www/html/wordpress/wp-config.php sed -i 's|password_here|XYZ|' /var/www/html/wordpress/wp-config.php chown -R apache:apache /var/www/html/wordpress
Before you forget, take a moment and create a very secure password for your MySQL root user accounts. Here are the commands. Just replace new-password with your new password before you cut and paste. Note that you also will be prompted for this password when you execute the second command because you will now have a root user password in place from executing the first command.
/usr/bin/mysqladmin -u root password 'new-password' /usr/bin/mysqladmin -u root -p -h localhost.localdomain password 'new-password'
Finally, we need to modify your Apache web server to support WordPress as the primary application. Be sure to enter your actual email address in the third line before you cut and paste the code below:
echo " " >> /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf echo "" >> /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf echo 'ServerAdmin somebody@somedomain.com' >> /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf echo "DocumentRoot /var/www/html/wordpress" >> /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf echo "ServerName wordpress" >> /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf echo "ErrorLog /var/log/httpd/wordpress-error-log" >> /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf echo "CustomLog /var/log/httpd/wordpress-acces-log common" >> /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf echo " " >> /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf echo " " >> /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf service httpd restart
That should do it. Open a browser and navigate to the IP address of your server. You should be greeted with the following form. Fill in the blanks as desired. The account you're setting up will be the credentials you use to add and modify content on your WordPress site when you click Log In (as shown above). Make the username obscure and the password even more so. Remember, it's a public web site accessible worldwide! When you click Install WordPress, you'll be off to the races.
After your server whirs away for a minute or two, you will be greeted with the WordPress login prompt. With the username and password you entered above, you'll be ready to start configuring your WordPress site.
Once you're logged in, navigate to Appearance -> Themes and click Add New Theme. There's you will find literally hundreds of free WordPress templates that can be installed in a matter of seconds if WPZOOM is too rich for your blood. For a terrific all-purpose (free) theme, try Atahualpa. We'll leave our actual demo site running for a bit in case you want to explore and check out its performance. Installing and configuring the new theme took less than a minute:
A Final Word to the Wise. WordPress is relatively secure but new vulnerabilities are discovered regularly. Keep your templates, plug-ins, AND the WordPress application up to date at all times! The WordFence plug-in is a must-have. And we strongly recommend adding the following lines to your WordPress config file which then will let WordPress update everything automatically. Microsoft has given automatic updates a bad name, but in the case of WordPress, they work well.
echo "define('WP_AUTO_UPDATE_CORE', true);" >> /var/www/html/wordpress/wp-config.php echo "add_filter( 'auto_update_plugin', '__return_true' );" >> /var/www/html/wordpress/wp-config.php echo "add_filter( 'auto_update_theme', '__return_true' );" >> /var/www/html/wordpress/wp-config.php
Building a 3CX Server in the Cloud
Now we're ready for our second cloud project. In less than 10 minutes, we're going to build a free 3CX commercial PBX using the remaining Cloud resources from our $35 purchase. To create your second virtual machine, click on the CLOUDPRO button in the CloudAtCost control panel and then click Add New Server. Choose 1 CPU, 512MB RAM, and 10GB storage for your second server. Choose Debian 8 64bit as the OS Type and click Complete.
Obtain a free license key for 3CX. Next, log in to your new Debian server as root using SSH or Putty and issue these commands. We'll begin by changing your root password.
NOTE: What appears as the fourth line below needs to be added to line #3!
passwd wget -O- http://downloads.3cx.com/downloads/3cxpbx/public.key | apt-key add - echo "deb http://downloads.3cx.com/downloads/3cxpbx/ /" | tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/3cxpbx.list apt-get update rm -f /zang-debian.sh apt-get -y install 3cxpbx apt-get -y install sendmail sendmail-bin
When the initial setup finishes, choose the Web Interface Wizard and complete the install using your favorite web browser. Enter your 3CX license key when prompted. Make up a very secure Username and Password to access your 3CX portal. Specify that your IP address is Dynamic when prompted (even though it isn't). This tells 3CX to generate an FQDN for your server. Accept the default ports for HTTP (5000) and HTTPS (5001) access to your server. We recommend choosing 4-digit extensions numbers so you'll be ready for next week's project interconnecting your 3CX server to a Raspberry Pi for the best of both worlds. While logged into the 3CX management portal, adjust Settings → Email to Mail Server → 127.0.0.1 and Reply to → noreply@YourActual3CX-FQDN. Leave the other settings blank and click TEST then OK. Set up a SIP trunk with inbound and outbound call routes. Now download your favorite 3CX smartphone client, send yourself the Welcome Email for your default extension, and start calling. It really doesn't get much easier in the VoIP World. Come join the PIAF Forum if you need a helping hand!
Free Calling in the U.S. and Canada with PIAF5. We know our more frugal U.S. residents are wondering if there's a way to make free calls even with 3CX. You didn't really think there would be a release of PBX in a Flash without Google Voice support, did you? It's easy using the Simonics SIP to Google Voice gateway service. Setup time is about a minute, and the one-time cost is $4.99 using this Nerd Vittles link. Setup instructions for the 3CX side are straight-forward as well, and we've documented the procedure on the PIAF Forum.
Free Calling Worldwide with SIP URIs. There's another free calling option as well. PIAF5 and 3CX support worldwide SIP URI calling at no cost. As part of the PIAF5 install procedure, 3CX registers an FQDN for you with one of the 3CX domains if you indicate that your server has a dynamic IP address. Unless you really know what you're doing with DNS, it's a good idea to tell 3CX you have a dynamic IP address whether you do or not. Here's why. Once you have an assigned FQDN in the 3CX universe, one very slick feature is the ease with which you can publish a SIP URI address for any or all of your 3CX extensions thereby allowing PIAF5 users to receive calls from any SIP client worldwide at no cost. Setup takes less than a minute. It's as easy as 1-2-3. Here's how:
1. Login to the 3CX GUI and go to Settings → Network → FQDN. Tick "Allow calls from/to external SIP URIs" and make note of your FQDN, e.g. mypiaf5server.3cx.us. Click OK.
2. For an extension to enable (e.g. 001), go to Extensions → Edit 001 → Options → SIP ID and create any desired SIP URI alias for this extension, e.g. billybob. Click OK.
3. Anyone with a SIP client anywhere worldwide can now call extension 001 using SIP URI: billybob@mypiaf5server.3cx.us.
Special Thanks: Our special tip of the hat goes to a few web sites that we found helpful in putting this article together especially Unixmen and Matt Wilcox & friends and Programming-Review.
Originally published: Tuesday, February 28, 2017
9 Countries Have Never Visited Nerd Vittles. Got a Friend in Any of Them https://t.co/wMfmlhiQ9y #asterisk #freepbx pic.twitter.com/TPFGZbqWB6
— Ward Mundy (@NerdUno) April 22, 2016
Need help with Asterisk? Visit the PBX in a Flash Forum.
Special Thanks to Our Generous Sponsors
FULL DISCLOSURE: ClearlyIP, Skyetel, Vitelity, DigitalOcean, Vultr, VoIP.ms, 3CX, Sangoma, TelecomsXchange and VitalPBX have provided financial support to Nerd Vittles and our open source projects through advertising, referral revenue, and/or merchandise. As an Amazon Associate and Best Buy Affiliate, we also earn from qualifying purchases. We’ve chosen these providers not the other way around. Our decisions are based upon their corporate reputation and the quality of their offerings and pricing. Our recommendations regarding technology are reached without regard to financial compensation except in situations in which comparable products at comparable pricing are available from multiple sources. In this limited case, we support our sponsors because our sponsors support us.
BOGO Bonaza: Enjoy state-of-the-art VoIP service with a $10 credit and half-price SIP service on up to $500 of Skyetel trunking with free number porting when you fund your Skyetel account. No limits on number of simultaneous calls. Quadruple data center redundancy. $25 monthly minimum spend required. Tutorial and sign up details are here.
The lynchpin of Incredible PBX 2020 and beyond is ClearlyIP components which bring management of FreePBX modules and SIP phone integration to a level never before available with any other Asterisk distribution. And now you can configure and reconfigure your new Incredible PBX phones from the convenience of the Incredible PBX GUI.
VitalPBX is perhaps the fastest-growing PBX offering based upon Asterisk with an installed presence in more than 100 countries worldwide. VitalPBX has generously provided a customized White Label version of Incredible PBX tailored for use with all Incredible PBX and VitalPBX custom applications. Follow this link for a free test drive!
Special Thanks to Vitelity. Vitelity is now Voyant Communications and has halted new registrations for the time being. Our special thanks to Vitelity for their unwavering financial support over many years and to the many Nerd Vittles readers who continue to enjoy the benefits of their service offerings. We will keep everyone posted on further developments.
Some Recent Nerd Vittles Articles of Interest...
- Should you ever have to migrate your WordPress site from one domain to another, here are two helpful tools to consider: the Automatic Domain Name Changer Plugin and our favorite: WordPress-Domain-Changer. [↩]
Free At Last: Introducing PBX in a Flash 5
Today is a big day. We are thrilled to introduce PBX in a Flash 5 powered by 3CX®. As many of you know, 3CX has been a platinum sponsor of Nerd Vittles for quite some time so this may not be a complete surprise. The good news is a new Debian-based PIAF5 ISO is now available to ease the installation process for those getting their feet wet with Linux for the first time. Debian 8 is a terrific Linux distribution used in the very best server products.
The most important change is the transition from Asterisk®/FreePBX® to 3CX. Say what, 3CX? Isn’t that a commercial product? Yes, but PIAF5 remains free for up to 8 simultaneous calls with a SIP trunk as well as 5-user web conferencing. That’s sufficient to support about 25 employees and represents a very large segment of the existing PIAF installed base. While the code is not open source, it is standards-based. Keep in mind that neither Sangoma’s FreePBX Distro® nor Digium’s AsteriskNOW® product is open source software either. When Digium decided to adopt the Sangoma business model, we decided to take a fresh look at the Unified Communications landscape. Navigating Sangoma’s licensing labyrinth coupled with the commingling of GPL modules and nagware for dozens of commercial VoIP components plus a closed source ISO was no longer an acceptable business model for us.
Some of our users prefer open source code, and we will continue to enhance Incredible PBX for XiVO in the grandest GPL tradition. But others wanted a product that offered 24×7 commercial support, and we’ve heard you loud and clear. After carefully reviewing available UC offerings, 3CX was the hands down winner in the commercial sector. Frankly, our only reservation was its Windows platform requirement. PIAF5’s new Debian ISO solves that.
In reality, what matters to users are reliability, support, upgradeability, and ease of use. 3CX has all of them in spades not to mention a feature set that is second to none. And now it’s available on the Debian platform with PIAF5.
We know some are wondering how 3CX became the new PIAF5 platform. So let’s start there.
First, the 3CX installed base includes almost 100,000 companies. That’s not downloads. And it’s not hobbyists. It’s entire companies that are actively using and relying upon 3CX for their day-to-day operations. Simply stated, 3CX is a proven, stable, and dependable product that you’d be willing to stake your business on. Many have including some of the world’s finest corporations. Stay tuned for a special PIAF5 hosting offer from our friends at Vitelity!
Second, 3CX is incredibly flexible, easy to configure, and simple to manage. Whether you’re new to PBXs or a diehard telecom guy, you’re in for a pleasant surprise when you see how intuitive 3CX is to set up and manage. Nothing comes close in the open source world.
Third, the 3CX feature set is impressive. You won’t be nickel and dimed for every component you wish to add. While there are standard and enterprise editions of 3CX as well, we think you’ll find the free version has the vast majority of components you would expect to find in any PBX, particularly for use in a home or small business. But don’t take our word for it. Review the 3CX feature comparison chart, and you can judge for yourself.
Last but not least, support is dirt cheap for end-users and free for resellers. We hope many of our long-time gurus will consider signing up as 3CX resellers and make yourself some money after all of these years wrestling with FreePBX. You won’t be disappointed!
PIAF5 deploys on premise with Linux-compatible, local hardware, or you can set it up as a virtual machine, or you can install it in the Cloud using most Linux VPS providers including Google, OVH, Digital Ocean, and Vultr. Use our referral links and take PIAF5 for a free or almost free spin for a few months while supporting Nerd Vittles. You have nothing to lose!
So there you have it. We think it was worth the wait. We encourage everyone to try out PIAF5 for yourself. And, just to repeat, Incredible PBX for XiVO isn’t going anywhere. It will remain our featured open source, GPL alternative as we move forward. And now you have a Real Choice in free alternatives with the best of both worlds, commercial and open source.
Getting Started with PIAF5 on Dedicated Hardware or a Virtual Machine. If your platform supports ISO installs, here are the simple steps to get PIAF5 up and running. First, download the PIAF5 ISO and burn it to a CD or thumb drive. Second, obtain a free license key for 3CX. Next, boot your server from the ISO image and walk through the Debian setup process. We recommend 2GB of RAM and a 20GB drive for PIAF5, but it will run on even a minimal CloudAtCost server. When the install is finished, make note of the IP address to access with a web browser to complete the setup. Enter your 3CX license key when prompted. Set up a SIP trunk with inbound and outbound call routes. Once you have the ISO and your license key in hand, the installation procedure takes less than 10 minutes.
Getting Started with PIAF5 in the Cloud. Begin by setting up a 64-bit Debian 8 platform. Obtain a free license key for 3CX. Once your Debian install is finished, log in as root using SSH or Putty and issue these commands. NOTE: What appears as the third line below needs to be added to line #2!
wget -O- http://downloads.3cx.com/downloads/3cxpbx/public.key | apt-key add - echo "deb http://downloads.3cx.com/downloads/3cxpbx/ /" | tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/3cxpbx.list apt-get update apt-get install 3cxpbx
When the initial setup finishes, choose the Web Interface Wizard and complete the install using your favorite web browser. Enter your 3CX license key when prompted. Set up a SIP trunk with inbound and outbound call routes. Done.
Configuring Gmail as SMTP RelayHost for 3CX. 3CX has a detailed tutorial explaining how to set up your Gmail account as the SMTP relay host for 3CX. Be advised that there is one additional step before Google will authorize access from an IP address it doesn’t already have for your GMail account. In addition to Enabling Less Secure Apps (as covered in the 3CX tutorial), you also will need to activate the Google Reset Procedure while logged into your Gmail account. Otherwise, Google will block access. Once you have configured Gmail as your relay host and performed the two enabling steps above, immediately test email delivery within the 3CX GUI while Google security is relaxed: Settings → Email → TEST.
Free Calling in the U.S. and Canada with PIAF5. We know our more frugal U.S. residents are wondering if there’s a way to make free calls even with 3CX. You didn’t really think there would be a release of PBX in a Flash without Google Voice support, did you? It’s easy using the Simonics SIP to Google Voice gateway service. Setup time is about a minute, and the one-time cost is $4.99 using this Nerd Vittles link. Setup instructions for the 3CX side are straight-forward as well, and we’ve documented the procedure on the PIAF Forum.
Free Calling Worldwide with SIP URIs. There’s another free calling option as well. PIAF5 and 3CX support worldwide SIP URI calling at no cost. As part of the PIAF5 install procedure, 3CX registers an FQDN for you with one of the 3CX domains if you indicate that your server has a dynamic IP address. Unless you really know what you’re doing with DNS, it’s a good idea to tell 3CX you have a dynamic IP address whether you do or not. Here’s why. Once you have an assigned FQDN in the 3CX universe, one very slick feature is the ease with which you can publish a SIP URI address for any or all of your 3CX extensions thereby allowing PIAF5 users to receive calls from any SIP client worldwide at no cost. Setup takes less than a minute. It’s as easy as 1-2-3. Here’s how:
1. Login to the 3CX GUI and go to Settings → Network → FQDN. Tick "Allow calls from/to external SIP URIs" and make note of your FQDN, e.g. mypiaf5server.3cx.us. Click OK.
2. For an extension to enable (e.g. 001), go to Extensions → Edit 001 → Options → SIP ID and create any desired SIP URI alias for this extension, e.g. billybob. Click OK.
3. Anyone with a SIP client anywhere worldwide can now call extension 001 using SIP URI: billybob@mypiaf5server.3cx.us.
SMS Messaging with PIAF5 and Google Voice. Just to demonstrate why you’re going to love the new PIAF5 platform, here’s a sneak peek at one of many applications which are on the way with Incredible PBX for PIAF5. Meet SMS Messaging. First, complete the two Google enabling steps documented in the Gmail SMTP RelayHost section above: Enable Less Secure Apps and Activate Google Reset Procedure. Then install the Google Voice CLI tools as root:
cd /root
apt-get -y install python-setuptools
wget http://incrediblepbx.com/install-gv-cli
chmod +x install-gv-cli
./install-gv-cli
To Send an SMS Message Blast to one or more destinations, (1) create a message in /root/smsmsg.txt, (2) specify the SMS numbers in /root/smslist.txt, (3) insert your Google credentials into /root/smsblast, and (4) run /root/smsblast to send the message. Enjoy!
Published: Wednesday, October 19, 2016
Commercial PBX in the Cloud plus Free U.S./Canada Calling for Life: $15.45 one-time cost https://t.co/pSPXJrJIC9 #asterisk #GoogleVoice #3CX pic.twitter.com/a8qsY1IxYY
— Ward Mundy (@NerdUno) October 17, 2016
Special Thanks to Our Generous Sponsors
FULL DISCLOSURE: ClearlyIP, Skyetel, Vitelity, DigitalOcean, Vultr, VoIP.ms, 3CX, Sangoma, TelecomsXchange and VitalPBX have provided financial support to Nerd Vittles and our open source projects through advertising, referral revenue, and/or merchandise. As an Amazon Associate and Best Buy Affiliate, we also earn from qualifying purchases. We’ve chosen these providers not the other way around. Our decisions are based upon their corporate reputation and the quality of their offerings and pricing. Our recommendations regarding technology are reached without regard to financial compensation except in situations in which comparable products at comparable pricing are available from multiple sources. In this limited case, we support our sponsors because our sponsors support us.
BOGO Bonaza: Enjoy state-of-the-art VoIP service with a $10 credit and half-price SIP service on up to $500 of Skyetel trunking with free number porting when you fund your Skyetel account. No limits on number of simultaneous calls. Quadruple data center redundancy. $25 monthly minimum spend required. Tutorial and sign up details are here.
The lynchpin of Incredible PBX 2020 and beyond is ClearlyIP components which bring management of FreePBX modules and SIP phone integration to a level never before available with any other Asterisk distribution. And now you can configure and reconfigure your new Incredible PBX phones from the convenience of the Incredible PBX GUI.
VitalPBX is perhaps the fastest-growing PBX offering based upon Asterisk with an installed presence in more than 100 countries worldwide. VitalPBX has generously provided a customized White Label version of Incredible PBX tailored for use with all Incredible PBX and VitalPBX custom applications. Follow this link for a free test drive!
Special Thanks to Vitelity. Vitelity is now Voyant Communications and has halted new registrations for the time being. Our special thanks to Vitelity for their unwavering financial support over many years and to the many Nerd Vittles readers who continue to enjoy the benefits of their service offerings. We will keep everyone posted on further developments.
Some Recent Nerd Vittles Articles of Interest…
It’s Back: $10.50 Buys an Incredible PBX in the Cloud For Life… If You Hurry
In January, we began our new series on Cloud Computing by documenting how to build an awesome LAMP server in the Cloud using Linux. Today we’re again going to show you how to use the same Cloud platform and take advantage of the $10.50 coupon code TAKE70 to build an Incredible PBX in the Cloud FOR LIFE. When you’re finished, you’ll have a state-of-the-art Incredible PBX 13 server with hundreds of PBX features including free calling to the U.S. and Canada using any (free) Google Voice account. Keep in mind this isn’t $10.50 a month for your cloud server. It’s $10.50, period! The whole project takes less than an hour. Before we begin, let’s revisit our cautionary note for those that missed it in the previous article. It’s important.
There’s lots to hate at Cloud At Cost, a Canadian provider that offers virtual machines in the cloud for a one-time fee with no recurring charges. For
$35$10.50, you get a virtual machine with 512MB of RAM, 10GB of storage, and a gigabit Internet connection FOR LIFE. We haven’t seen a week go by when Cloud at Cost didn’t offer some sort of discount. Today it’s 70% which brings the total cost down to $10.50. That’s less than a burger at Five Guys. That’s the good news. But, if security, 99.999% reliability, performance, and excellent customer support are your must-haves, then look elsewhere. So why would anyone in their right mind sign up for a cloud solution that didn’t offer those four things? Did we mention it’s $10.50 for a lifetime cloud server?If you take our recommendation and plunk down your $10.50, you’ll need to go into this with the right attitude. It’s not going to be flawless perfection computing. It’s a sandbox on which to experiment with [VoIP] and Cloud Computing. Will your virtual machine disintegrate at some juncture? Probably. Our experience is that the first couple days are critical. If you start seeing sluggish performance which degenerates to zero, don’t waste your time. Take good notes as you go along, delete the virtual machine, and rebuild a new one. It won’t cost you a dime, and it’ll save you hours of frustration. We suspect that bad folks get onto some of the servers and delight in bringing the machines to their knees. So the quicker you cut your losses, the better off you will be. Is CloudAtCost a good solution for production use?
AbsolutelyProbably not so don’t try to fit a square peg in the round hole. It’s not gonna work, and you WILL be disappointed.
Today’s experiment will give you a platform on which to learn before you decide upon a more permanent deployment solution. And it will give you a terrific home for a backup server once you do move to a long-term solution so your $10.50 won’t be wasted.
TAKE70: Build a VoIP Server in the Cloud FOR LIFE w/ Free US/CAN calling https://t.co/l9It2xq14S #asterisk #freepbx pic.twitter.com/UYuCMcfEn8
— Ward Mundy (@NerdUno) January 31, 2016
The objective today is to show you how to build a rock-solid, secure VoIP server in the Cloud with all the bells and whistles you’d typically find on a PBX costing tens of thousands of dollars. Incredible PBX is pure GPL, open source code with one major difference. It’s FREE! And it’s supported by thousands of users on the PIAF Forum that started just like you.
Some of you are probably wondering why you would want a PBX at all. Hearing is believing as they say. Spend a couple minutes and call our CloudAtCost demo server. We preconfigured it using everything provided in today’s tutorial. It’ll let you play with some of the features that a PBX offers such a voice dialing from a directory, news and weather forecasts, and much more. And, in case you’re wondering, it’s been running 24/7 for two full months without a single hiccup. To try it for yourself, just dial:
Nerd Vittles Demo IVR Options
1 – Call by Name (say “Delta Airlines” or “American Airlines” to try it out)
2 – MeetMe Conference (password is 1234)
3 – Wolfram Alpha (say “What planes are flying overhead now?”)
4 – Lenny (The Telemarketer’s Worst Nightmare)
5 – Today’s News Headlines
6 – Weather Forecast (Just enter your ZIP Code!)
7 – Today in History
8 – Speak to a Real Person (or maybe just voicemail if we’re out)
For long time readers of Nerd Vittles, you already know that the component we continually stress is security. Without that, the rest really doesn’t matter. You’ll be building a platform for someone else to hijack and use for nefarious purposes. When we’re finished today, you’ll have a cloud-based VoIP server that is totally invisible to the rest of the world except a short list of VoIP providers that have been thoroughly vetted by Nerd Vittles staff. You can whitelist additional locations and phones to meet your individual needs without worrying about your server being compromised.
Creating Your Virtual Machine Platform in the Cloud
To get started, you’ve got to cough up your $10.50 at Cloud at Cost using coupon code TAKE70. Once you’ve signed up, CloudAtCost will send you credentials to log into the Cloud at Cost Management Portal. Change your portal password IMMEDIATELY after logging in. Just go to SETTINGS and follow your nose. HINT: DC2 is the preferred data center!
To create your virtual machine, click on the CLOUDPRO button and click Add New Server. If you’ve only purchased the $10.50 CloudPRO 1 platform, then you’ll need all of the available resources shown in the pick list. Leave CentOS 6.7 64bit selected as the OS Type and click Complete. Depending upon the type of special pricing that Cloud at Cost is offering when you sign up, the time to build your virtual machine can take anywhere from a minute to the better part of a day. Things have settled down since the 90% off week so new servers typically are ready in a few minutes. However, we’ve learned to build new virtual machines at night where possible. Then they’re usually available for use by the next morning. Luckily, this slow performance does not impact existing virtual machines that already are running in the CloudAtCost hosting facilities.
Initial Configuration of Your CentOS 6.7 Virtual Machine
With a little luck, your virtual machine soon will appear in your Cloud at Cost Management Portal and look something like what’s shown above. The red arrow points to the i button you’ll need to click to decipher the password for your new virtual machine. You’ll need both your IP address and the password for the new virtual machine in order to log into the server which is now up and running with a barebones CentOS 6.7 operating system. Note the yellow caution flag. That’s telling you that Cloud at Cost will automatically shut down your server in a week to save (them) computing resources. You can change the setting to keep your server running 24/7. Click Modify, Change Run Mode, and select Normal – Leave Powered On. Click Continue and OK to save your new settings.
Finally, you’ll want to change the Host Name for your server to something more descriptive than c7…cloudpro.92… Click the Modify button again and click Rename Server to change it. IncrediblePBX13 has a nice ring to it, but to each his own.
Logging into Your New CentOS 6.7 Virtual Machine
In order to configure and manage your new CentOS 6.7 virtual machine, you’ll need to log into the new server using either SSH or, for Windows users, Putty. After installing Putty, run it and log in to the IP address of your VM with username root and the password you deciphered above. On a Mac, open a Terminal session and issue a command like this using the actual IP address of your new virtual machine:
ssh root@12.34.56.78
Before you do anything else, reset your Virtual Machine’s root password to something very secure: passwd
Next, let’s address a couple of CloudAtCost quirks that may cause problems down the road. CloudAtCost has a nasty habit of not cleaning up after itself with fresh installs. The net result is your root password may get reset every time you reboot even though you changed it.
sed -i '/exit 0/d' /etc/rc.local killall plymouthd echo killall plymouthd >> /etc/rc.local rm -f /etc/rc3.d/S97* echo "exit 0" >> /etc/rc.local
Installing Incredible PBX 13 with CentOS 6.7
Now we’re ready to build your VoIP server platform. There aren’t many steps so just cut-and-paste the code into your SSH or Putty session and review the results to make sure nothing comes unglued. If something does, the beauty of virtual machines is you can delete them instantly within your management portal and just start over whenever you like. So here we go…
We’ll begin by permanently turning off SELINUX which causes more problems than it solves. The first command turns it off instantly. The second line assures that it’ll stay off whenever you reboot your virtual machine.
setenforce 0 sed -i s/SELINUX=enforcing/SELINUX=disabled/g /etc/selinux/config
Now let’s bring CentOS 6.7 up to current specs and add a few important applications:
yum -y update yum -y install net-tools nano wget tar reboot
Once your server reboots, we’re ready to kick off the Incredible PBX 13 install:
cd /root wget http://incrediblepbx.com/incrediblepbx13-12.2-centos.tar.gz tar zxvf incrediblepbx* ./IncrediblePBX*
When the install begins, read the license agreement and press ENTER to agree to the terms and get things rolling. Now would be a great time to go have breakfast or lunch. Come back in about an hour and your server should be ready to go.
Implementing Dynamic DNS Service on Your Client Machines
Unlike some other PBX offerings that leave your server exposed to the Internet, Incredible PBX is different. Unless the IP address from which you are accessing the server has been whitelisted, nobody on the Internet can see your server. The only exception is the preferred providers list and those on the same local area network (which is nobody in the case of CloudAtCost). As part of the Incredible PBX install, the IP address of the computer you used to perform the install was whitelisted automatically. But there may be other computers from which you wish to allow access to the PBX in order to deploy telephones at remote sites. Some of these sites may have dynamic IP addresses that change from time to time. Or you may have traveling salesman that land in a new hotel almost every night with a new IP address. Fortunately, there are a number of free and paid Dynamic DNS providers. For sites with dynamic IP addresses, simply choose a fully-qualified domain name (FQDN) to identify each location where you need computer access or need to deploy a phone. Then run a dynamic DNS update utility periodically from a computer or router at that site. It reports back the current public IP address of the site and your DNS provider updates the IP address assigned to that FQDN whenever there are changes.
DNS update clients are available for Windows, Mac OS X, and many residential routers. They’re also available for Android devices. Then it’s just a matter of plugging in the remote users’ FQDNs so Incredible PBX knows to give them server access via the whitelist. You implement this in seconds using the add-ip and add-fqdn utilities in the /root directory.
There are other ways to gain access as well using the PortKnocker utility or Travelin’ Man 4 from a telephone. Both of these are covered in the Incredible PBX 13 tutorial so we won’t repeat it here.
Incredible PBX Preliminary Setup Steps
First, let’s check things out and make sure everything is working as it should. With your favorite web browser, visit the IP address of your new server. You should see the default Incredible PBX page, the Kennonsoft Menu. It’s divided into two parts, a Users tab (shown below) and an Admin tab with additional options that we’ll cover shortly.
Now we need to jump back to SSH or Putty and log back into your server as root. You’ll note that the Incredible PBX Automatic Update Utility is run each time you log in. This is how important security updates are pushed to your server so do it regularly. And, no, you don’t need to contribute to our open source projects unless you want to. You’ll still get the updates as they are released.
After the Automatic Update Utility runs, the login script will execute status which tells you everything you need to know about the health of your server. After the initial install, it will look something like this with your server’s IP address obviously. We’ll cover the RED items down the road a bit.
For now, we need to complete a few preliminary setup steps for Incredible PBX to make sure you can log into the various components which have been installed on your computer. There are several different credentials you will need. Most of these are configured using scripts in the /root folder of your server. First, you need your root password for the server itself, and you should have already set that up with a very secure password using passwd. These same credentials are used to login to WebMin.
Next you’ll need an admin password for the Incredible PBX GUI. This is the management utility and Asterisk® code generator which consists of FreePBX® GPL modules that are open source and free to use. The admin password is set by running admin-pw-change in the /root directory.
There are also a number of web-based applications such as Telephone Reminders, AsteriDex, phpMyAdmin, and VoiceMail & Recordings (User Control Panel). You obviously don’t want everyone with a telephone using all of these applications so they are protected using a couple different Apache web server credentials. First, you set up an admin password for the administrator-level applications using the htpasswd utility. Then you set up an end-user account and password for access to AsteriDex, Reminders, and the User Control Panel. With the User Control Panel, end users also will need a username and password for their particular phone extension and this is configured with the Incredible PBX GUI using Admin -> User Management -> Add New User. If this sounds convoluted, it’s really not. Apache credentials can be entered once in an administrator’s or end user’s browser and they’re stored permanently.
Here is a checklist of the preliminary steps to complete before using your server:
Make your root password very secure: passwd
Create admin password for Incredible PBX GUI access: /root/admin-pw-change
Create admin password for web apps: htpasswd /etc/pbx/wwwpasswd admin
Create joeuser password for web apps: htpasswd /etc/pbx/wwwpasswd joeuser
Set up UCP accounts for Voicemail & Recordings access using Incredible PBX GUI
Make a copy of your Knock codes: cat /root/knock.FAQ
Decipher IP address and other info about your server: status
Set your correct time zone: /root/timezone-setup
Activating Incredible Fax on Your Server
Incredible PBX also includes an optional (and free) faxing component that lets you send and receive faxes that are delivered to your email address. To activate Incredible Fax, run the following script and plug in your email address for delivery of incoming faxes: /root/incrediblefax11.sh. After entering your email address, you’ll be prompted for all sorts of additional information. Unless you have unusual requirements, pressing the ENTER key at every prompt is the appropriate response. You’ll need to reboot your server again when the fax installation is complete. Once you log back into your server as root, the bottom line of the status display should now be green UP entries.
Managing Your Server with the Incredible PBX GUI
About 99% of your time managing your server will be spent in the Incredible PBX GUI. To access it, fire up your browser and point to the IP address of your server. At the Kennonsoft menu, click on the Users tab which will change to Admin and bring up the Admin menu shown here:
From the Administrator menu in the Kennonsoft GUI, click on Incredible PBX Administration. This will bring up the following menu:
Click on the first icon to access the Incredible PBX GUI. You’ll be prompted for your credentials. For the username, enter admin. For the password, enter the password you set up using admin-pw-change above. You should then be greeted by the main status display in the Incredible GUI:
If you’re new to Asterisk and FreePBX, here’s the one paragraph primer on what needs to happen before you can make free calls with Google Voice. You’ll obviously need a free Google Voice account. This gets you a phone number for people to call you and a vehicle to place calls to plain old telephones throughout the U.S. and Canada at no cost. You’ll also need a softphone or SIP phone (NOT a regular POTS telephone) to actually place and receive calls. YATE makes a free softphone for PCs, Macs, and Linux machines so download your favorite and install it on your desktop. Phones connect to extensions to work with Incredible PBX. Extensions talk to trunks (like Google Voice) to make and receive calls. We use outbound routes to direct outgoing calls from extensions to trunks, and we use inbound routes to route incoming calls from trunks to extensions to make your phones ring. In a nutshell, that’s how a PBX works. There are lots of bells and whistles that you can explore down the road.
As configured after installation, you have everything you’ll need except a Google Voice trunk, and we’ll cover that next. Then we’ll add a softphone with your extension 701 credentials, and you’ll be ready to make and receive calls. Before we move on, let’s decipher your extension 701 password so that you’ll have it for later. Choose Applications -> Extensions -> 701 and scroll down the screen to the Secret field and write down your password. You can also change it if you like and click Submit and then the Red button to update your settings. While you’re here, write down your extension 701 Voicemail Password.
Deploying Google Voice on Your Server
That leaves one RED entry on your status display, GV OAUTH. Whether to use plain text passwords or OAUTH 2 credentials with Google Voice accounts presently is a matter of choice although Google regularly threatens to discontinue access to Google Voice without OAUTH authentication. We suggest you play with Google Voice using plain text passwords just to get your feet wet because OAUTH implementation gets complicated. When you get ready to deploy a permanent Incredible PBX server, that would be the appropriate time to switch to OAUTH. This tutorial (beginning at step 1b) will guide you through the process.
If you want to use Google Voice, you’ll need a dedicated Google Voice account to support Incredible PBX. If you want to use the inbound fax capabilities of Incredible Fax, then you’ll need an additional Google Voice line that can be routed to the FAX custom destination using the GUI. The more obscure the username (with some embedded numbers), the better off you will be. This will keep folks from bombarding you with unsolicited Gtalk chat messages, and who knows what nefarious scheme will be discovered using Google messaging six months from now. So keep this account a secret!
We’ve tested this extensively using an existing Gmail account, and inbound calling is just not reliable. The reason seems to be that Google always chooses Gmail chat as the inbound call destination if there are multiple registrations from the same IP address. So, be reasonable. Do it our way! Set up a dedicated Gmail and Google Voice account, and use it exclusively with Incredible PBX. It’s free at least through 2013. Google Voice no longer is by invitation only so, if you’re in the U.S. or have a friend that is, head over to the Google Voice site and register.
You must choose a telephone number (aka DID) for your new account, or Google Voice calling will not work… in either direction. Google used to permit outbound Gtalk calls using a fake CallerID, but that obviously led to abuse so it’s over! You also have to tie your Google Voice account to at least one working phone number as part of the initial setup process. Your cellphone number will work just fine. Don’t skip this step either. Just enter the provided 2-digit confirmation code when you tell Google to place the test call to the phone number you entered. Once the number is registered, you can disable it if you’d like in Settings, Voice Setting, Phones. But…
IMPORTANT: Be sure to enable the Google Chat option as one of your phone destinations in Settings, Voice Setting, Phones. That’s the destination we need for The Incredible PBX to work its magic! Otherwise, all inbound and outbound calls will fail. If you don’t see this option, you may need to call up Gmail and enable Google Chat there first. Then go back to the Google Voice Settings.
While you’re still in Google Voice Settings, click on the Calls tab. Make sure your settings match these:
- Call Screening – OFF
- Call Presentation – OFF
- Caller ID (In) – Display Caller’s Number
- Caller ID (Out) – Don’t Change Anything
- Do Not Disturb – OFF
- Call Options (Enable Recording) – OFF
- Global Spam Filtering – ON
Click Save Changes once you adjust your settings. Under the Voicemail tab, plug in your email address so you get notified of new voicemails. Down the road, receipt of a Google Voice voicemail will be a big hint that something has come unglued on your PBX.
One final word of caution is in order regardless of your choice of providers: Do NOT use special characters in any provider passwords, or nothing will work!
Once you have your Google Voice account properly configured with Google, here is the proper sequence to get a Google Voice account working with Incredible PBX. First, using a browser, login to your Google Voice account. Second, make sure that Google Chat is activated in your Phone -> Settings. Third, in a separate browser tab, enable Less Secure Apps for your Google account. Fourth, in another separate browser tab, activate the Google Voice reset procedure. Fifth, in the Incredible PBX GUI, choose Connectivity -> Google Voice (Motif) and enter your Google Voice credentials:
Sixth, save your settings by clicking Submit and the Red Button to reload the GUI. Finally, using SSH or Putty, log into your server as root and restart Asterisk: amportal restart.
Setting Up a Soft Phone to Use with Incredible PBX
Now you’re ready to set up a telephone so that you can play with Incredible PBX. 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’ll need the IP address of your server plus your extension 701 password. Choose Settings -> Accounts and click the New button. Fill in the blanks using the IP address of your server, 701 for your account name, and your extension 701 password. Click OK.
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 - Allison's IVR Demo
947 - Weather by ZIP Code
951 - Yahoo News
*61 - Time of Day
*68 - Wakeup Call
TODAY - Today in History
Now you’re ready to connect to the telephones in the rest of the world. If you live in the U.S., the easiest way (at least for now) is to use the free Google Voice account we set up above. Unlike traditional telephone service where you were 100% dependent upon MaBell, there is no such limitation with VoIP. The smarter long-term solution is to choose several SIP providers and set up redundant trunks for your incoming and outbound calls. The PIAF Forum includes dozens of recommendations to get you started. Here are a few of our favorites:
Originally published: Friday, January 29, 2016 Republished: Monday, March 14, 2016
9 Countries Have Never Visited Nerd Vittles. Got a Friend in Any of Them https://t.co/wMfmlhiQ9y #asterisk #freepbx pic.twitter.com/TPFGZbqWB6
— Ward Mundy (@NerdUno) April 22, 2016
Need help with Asterisk? Visit the PBX in a Flash 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.
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The lynchpin of Incredible PBX 2020 and beyond is ClearlyIP components which bring management of FreePBX modules and SIP phone integration to a level never before available with any other Asterisk distribution. And now you can configure and reconfigure your new Incredible PBX phones from the convenience of the Incredible PBX GUI.
VitalPBX is perhaps the fastest-growing PBX offering based upon Asterisk with an installed presence in more than 100 countries worldwide. VitalPBX has generously provided a customized White Label version of Incredible PBX tailored for use with all Incredible PBX and VitalPBX custom applications. Follow this link for a free test drive!
Special Thanks to Vitelity. Vitelity is now Voyant Communications and has halted new registrations for the time being. Our special thanks to Vitelity for their unwavering financial support over many years and to the many Nerd Vittles readers who continue to enjoy the benefits of their service offerings. We will keep everyone posted on further developments.
Some Recent Nerd Vittles Articles of Interest…
The Ultimate Linux Sandbox in the Cloud for Less Than a $35 Raspberry Pi 2
Every few years we like to drop back and take a fresh look at the best way to get started with Linux. For those coming from the Windows World, it can be a painful process. Learning with a Cloud-based server can be especially dangerous because of the security risks. And then there’s the cost factor. Not everyone has several hundred dollars to buy hardware and, frankly, learning about Linux on a $35 Raspberry Pi can drive most newbies to drink. So today we’ll show you another way. It’s not necessarily a better way. But it’s different, and it’s loads of fun for not much money. Today’s project only takes 30 minutes.
There’s lots to hate at Cloud At Cost, a Canadian provider that offers virtual machines in the cloud for a one-time fee with no recurring charges. For $35 or less, you get a virtual machine with 512MB of RAM, 10GB of storage, and a gigabit Internet connection FOR LIFE. We haven’t seen a week go by when Cloud at Cost didn’t offer some sort of discount. Today it’s 70% off with coupon code TAKE70 which brings the total cost down to $10.50. That’s less than a burger at Five Guys. That’s the good news. But, if security, 99.999% reliability, performance, and excellent customer support are your must-haves, then look elsewhere. So why would anyone in their right mind sign up for a cloud solution that didn’t offer those four things? Did we mention it’s $10.50 for a lifetime cloud server?
If you take our recommendation and plunk down your Alexander Hamilton, you’ll need to go into this with the right attitude. It’s not going to be flawless perfection computing. It’s a sandbox on which to experiment with Linux and Cloud Computing. Will your virtual machine disintegrate at some juncture? Probably. Our experience is that the first couple days are critical. If you start seeing sluggish performance which degenerates to zero, don’t waste your time. Take good notes as you go along, delete the virtual machine, and rebuild a new one. It won’t cost you a dime, and it’ll save you hours of frustration. We suspect that bad folks get onto some of the servers and delight in bringing the machines to their knees. So the quicker you cut your losses, the better off you will be. Is CloudAtCost a good solution for production use? Absolutely not so don’t try to fit a square peg in the round hole. It’s not gonna work, and you WILL be disappointed. You’ve been warned. Let’s get started. ENJOY THE RIDE!
Our objective today is to show you how to build a rock-solid, secure Linux server in the Cloud with all the bells and whistles that make Linux the server platform of choice for almost every organization in the world. We’ll finish up by showing you how to embellish the platform with WordPress to do something that’s special for you whether it’s your own blog like Nerd Vittles, or a school newspaper, or an on-line shopping site to sell comic books. The basic foundation for most Linux platforms is called a LAMP server which stands for Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP. Linux is an open source operating system that includes contributions from thousands of developers around the world. Apache is the web server platform on which most commercial businesses stake their reputation. MySQL is the open source database management system now owned by Oracle. If it’s good enough for Facebook, it’s good enough for you. And PHP is THE web-based programming language that will let you build almost any application using Linux, Apache, and MySQL.
So what’s the big deal? There are thousands of online tutorials that will show you how to build a LAMP server. For long time readers of Nerd Vittles, you already know that the component we continually stress is security. Without that, the rest really doesn’t matter. You’ll be building a platform for someone else to hijack and use for nefarious purposes. When we’re finished today, you’ll have a cloud-based server that is totally invisible to the rest of the world with the exception of its web interface. And we’ll show you a simple way to reduce the exposure of your web interface to some of its most likely attackers. Will it be 100% secure? Nope. If you have a web server on the public Internet, it’s never going to be 100% secure because there’s always the chance of a software bug that nobody has yet discovered and corrected. THAT’S WHAT BACKUPS ARE FOR!
Creating Your Virtual Machine Platform in the Cloud
To get started, you’ve got to plunk down your $10.50 at Cloud at Cost using coupon code TAKE70. Once you’ve paid the piper, they will send you credentials to log into the Cloud at Cost Management Portal. Change your password IMMEDIATELY after logging in. Just go to SETTINGS and follow your nose.
To create your virtual machine, click on the CLOUDPRO button and click Add New Server. If you’ve only purchased the $10.50 CloudPRO 1 platform, then you’ll need all of the available resources shown in the pick list. Leave CentOS 6.7 64bit selected as the OS Type and click Complete. Depending upon the type of special pricing that Cloud at Cost is offering when you sign up, the time to build your virtual machine can take anywhere from a minute to the better part of a day. We’ve learned to build new virtual machines at night, and they’re usually available for use by the next morning. Luckily, this slow performance does not impact existing virtual machines that already are running in their hosting facility.
Initial Configuration of Your CentOS 6.7 Virtual Machine
With a little luck, your virtual machine soon will appear in your Cloud at Cost Management Portal and look something like what’s shown above. The red arrow points to the i button you’ll need to click to decipher the password for your new virtual machine. You’ll need both the IP address and the password for your new virtual machine in order to log into the server which is now up and running with a barebones CentOS 6.7 operating system. Note the yellow caution flag. That’s telling you that Cloud at Cost will automatically shut down your server in a week to save (them) computing resources. You can change the setting to keep your server running 24/7. Click Modify, Change Run Mode, and select Normal – Leave Powered On. Click Continue and OK to save your new settings.
Finally, you’ll want to change the Host Name for your server to something more descriptive than c7…cloudpro.92… Click the Modify button again and click Rename Server to make the change. Your management portal then will show the new server name as shown above.
Logging into Your CentOS 6.7 Virtual Machine
In order to configure and manage your new CentOS 6.7 virtual machine, you’ll need to log into the new server using either SSH or, for Windows users, Putty. After installing Putty, run it and log in to the IP address of your VM with username root and the password you deciphered above. On a Mac, open a Terminal session and issue a command like this using the actual IP address of your new virtual machine:
ssh root@12.34.56.78
Before you do anything else, reset your root password to something very secure: passwd
Installing the LAMP Server Basics with CentOS 6.7
Now we’re ready to build your LAMP server platform. We’ve chopped this up into lots of little steps so we can explain what’s happening as we go along. There’s nothing hard about this, but we want to document the process so you can repeat it at any time. As we go along, just cut-and-paste each clump of code into your SSH or Putty session and review the results to make sure nothing comes unglued. If something does, the beauty of virtual machines is you can delete them instantly within your management portal and just start over whenever you like. So here we go…
We’ll begin by permanently turning off SELINUX which causes more problems than it solves. The first command turns it off instantly. The second line assures that it’ll stay off whenever you reboot your virtual machine.
setenforce 0 sed -i s/SELINUX=enforcing/SELINUX=disabled/g /etc/selinux/config
Now let’s bring CentOS 6.7 up to current specs and add a few important applications:
yum -y update yum -y install nano wget expect net-tools dialog git xz yum -y install kernel-headers yum -y install kernel-devel reboot
After reboot, log back in as root. Now we’ll set up your Apache web server and configure it to start whenever you reboot your server:
yum -y install httpd service httpd start chkconfig httpd on
Now let’s set up your MySQL server, bring it on line, and make sure it restarts after server reboots. Unless you plan to add Asterisk® and FreePBX® to your server down the road, you’ll want to uncomment the two commands that begin with # by removing the # symbol and replacing new-password with a very secure password for your root user account in MySQL. Be sure to run the last command to secure your server. After logging in, the correct answers are n,Y,Y,Y,Y.
yum -y install mysql mysql-server service mysqld start chkconfig mysqld on #/usr/bin/mysqladmin -u root password 'new-password' #/usr/bin/mysqladmin -u root -p -h localhost.localdomain password 'new-password' mysql_secure_installation
Next, we’ll set up PHP and configure it to work with MySQL:
yum -y install php yum -y install php-mysql service httpd restart
Finally let’s get SendMail installed and configured. Insert your actual email address in the last line and send yourself a test message to be sure it’s working. Be sure to check your spam folder since the message will show a sender address of localhost which many email systems including Gmail automatically identify as spam.
yum -y install sendmail rpm -e postfix service sendmail restart yum -y install mailx echo "test" | mail -s testmessage youracctname@yourmailserver.com
Installing Supplemental Repositories for CentOS 6.7
One of the beauties of Linux is not being totally dependent upon CentOS for all of your packaged applications. Let’s add a few other repositories that can be used when you need to add a special package that is not in the CentOS repository. Let’s start with EPEL. We’ll disable it by default and only use it when we need it.
yum -y install http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/6/x86_64/epel-release-6-8.noarch.rpm sed -i 's|enabled=1|enabled=0|' /etc/yum.repos.d/epel.repo
We actually need the EPEL repo to install Fail2Ban for monitoring of attacks on certain Linux services such as SSH:
yum --enablerepo=epel install fail2ban -y cd /etc wget http://incrediblepbx.com/fail2ban-lamp.tar.gz tar zxvf fail2ban-lamp.tar.gz
We also need the EPEL repo to install ipset, a terrific addition to the IPtables Linux firewall that lets you quickly block entire countries from accessing your server:
yum --enablerepo=epel install ipset -y
Next, we’ll add a sample script that documents how the country blocking mechanism works with ipset.1 For a complete list of countries that can be blocked, go here. If you need a decoder badge to match abbreviations against country names, you’ll find it here. To add other countries, simply edit the shell script and clone lines 4-7 using the names of the countries and country zone files that you wish to add. Be sure to insert the new lines before the commands to restart iptables and fail2ban. This script will need to be run each time your server reboots and before IPtables is brought on line. We’ll handle that a little later.
echo "#\\!/bin/bash" > /etc/block-china.sh echo " " >> /etc/block-china.sh echo "cd /etc" >> /etc/block-china.sh echo "ipset -N china hash:net" >> /etc/block-china.sh echo "rm cn.zone" >> /etc/block-china.sh echo "wget -P . http://www.ipdeny.com/ipblocks/data/countries/cn.zone" >> /etc/block-china.sh echo "for i in $(cat /etc/cn.zone ); do ipset -A china $i; done" >> /etc/block-china.sh echo "service iptables restart" >> /etc/block-china.sh echo "service fail2ban restart" >> /etc/block-china.sh sed -i 's|\\\\||' /etc/block-china.sh chmod +x /etc/block-china.sh
Another important repository is REMI. It is especially helpful if you decide to upgrade PHP from the default version 5.3 to one of the newer releases: 5.5 or 5.6. In this case, you’ll want to activate the specific repository to support the release you choose in /etc/yum.repos.d/remi-safe.repo.
yum -y install http://rpms.famillecollet.com/enterprise/remi-release-6.rpm sed -i 's|enabled=1|enabled=0|' /etc/yum.repos.d/remi-safe.repo
One final repository to have on hand is RPMForge, now renamed RepoForge. We’ll use it in a bit to install a dynamic DNS update utility which you actually won’t need at CloudAtCost since your server is assigned a static IP address. But it’s handy to have in the event you wish to assign a free FQDN to your server anyway.
yum -y install http://incrediblepbx.com/rpmforge-release-0.5.3-1.el6.rf.x86_64.rpm sed -i 's|enabled = 1|enabled = 0|' /etc/yum.repos.d/rpmforge.repo
Adding a Few Utilities to Round Out Your LAMP Server Deployment
If you’re like us, you’ll want to test the speed of your Internet connection from time to time. Let’s install a free script that you can run at any time by logging into your server as root and issuing the command: /root/speedtest-cli
cd /root wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sivel/speedtest-cli/master/speedtest.py chmod +x speedtest.py
Next, let’s put in place a simple status display which will quickly tell you what’s running and what’s not. We’ve borrowed some GPL code from Incredible PBX to help you out. Run status-lamp at any time for a snapshot of your server.
cd /usr/local/sbin wget http://incrediblepbx.com/status-lamp.tar.gz tar zxvf status-lamp.tar.gz rm -f status-lamp.tar.gz sed -i 's|myip.pbxinaflash.com|myip.incrediblepbx.com|' /usr/local/sbin/status-lamp
Now we’ll put the Linux Swiss Army Knife in place. It’s called WebMin, and it provides a GUI to configure almost everything in Linux. Pick up a good WebMin book from your public library to get started. Once installed, you access WebMin from your browser at the IP address of your server on the default port of 10000: https://serverIPaddress:10000. It’s probably a good idea to change this port number and the commented out line shows how to do it with the new port being 9001 in the example. The way in which we typically configure the Linux firewall will block all access to WebMin except from an IP address which you have whitelisted, e.g. your home computer’s public IP address.
cd /root yum -y install perl perl-Net-SSLeay openssl perl-IO-Tty yum -y install http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/webadmin/webmin-1.780-1.noarch.rpm #sed -i 's|10000|9001|g' /etc/webmin/miniserv.conf service webmin restart chkconfig webmin on
Tweaking Your CloudAtCost Setup Improves Performance and Improves Security
Finally, let’s address a couple of CloudAtCost quirks that may cause problems down the road. CloudAtCost has a nasty habit of not cleaning up after itself with fresh installs. The net result is your root password gets reset every time you reboot.
killall plymouthd echo killall plymouthd >> /etc/rc.local rm -f /etc/rc3.d/S97*
With the exception of firewall configuration, which is so important that we’re covering it separately below, you now have completed the LAMP server installation. After completing the firewall steps in the next section, simply reboot your server and you’re ready to go.
The Most Important Step: Configuring the Linux IPtables Firewall
RULE #1: DON’T BUILD SERVERS EXPOSED TO THE INTERNET WITHOUT ROCK-SOLID SECURITY!
As installed by CloudAtCost, your server provides ping and SSH access from a remote computer and nothing else. The good news: it’s pretty safe. The bad news: it can’t do anything useful for anybody because all web access to the server is blocked. We want to fix that, tighten up SSH access to restrict it to your IP address, and deploy country blocking to show you how.
As we implement the firewall changes, you need to be extremely careful in your typing so that you don’t accidentally lock yourself out of your own server. A typo in an IP address is all it takes. The good news is that, if you do lock yourself out, you still can gain access via the CloudAtCost Management Portal by clicking the Console button of your virtual machine. Because the console is on the physical machine and the lo interface is whitelisted, you can log in and disable the firewall temporarily: service iptables stop
. Then fix the typo and restart the firewall: service iptables start
.
First, let’s download the new IPtables config file into your root folder and take a look at it.
cd /root wget http://incrediblepbx.com/iptables-lamp.tar.gz tar zxvf iptables-lamp.tar.gz
Now edit the /root/iptables-lamp file by issuing the command: nano -w /root/iptables-lamp
You can scroll up and down through the file with Ctl-V and Ctl-Y. Cursor keys work as well. Once you make changes, save your work: Ctl-X, Y, ENTER
. You’re now an expert with the nano text editor, an absolutely essential Linux tool.
Here’s what that file actually looks like:
*filter :INPUT DROP [0:0] :FORWARD ACCEPT [0:0] :OUTPUT ACCEPT [0:0] -A INPUT -p tcp -m tcp --tcp-flags ACK ACK -j ACCEPT -A INPUT -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT -A INPUT -p icmp -j DROP -A INPUT -i lo -j ACCEPT -A INPUT -p tcp ! --syn -m state --state NEW -j DROP -A INPUT -m state --state INVALID -j DROP -A INPUT -p tcp -m tcp --tcp-flags FIN,SYN,RST,PSH,ACK,URG NONE -j DROP -A INPUT -p tcp -m tcp --tcp-flags SYN,FIN SYN,FIN -j DROP -A INPUT -p tcp -m tcp --tcp-flags SYN,RST SYN,RST -j DROP -A INPUT -p tcp -m tcp --tcp-flags FIN,RST FIN,RST -j DROP -A INPUT -p tcp -m tcp --tcp-flags ACK,FIN FIN -j DROP -A INPUT -p tcp -m tcp --tcp-flags ACK,URG URG -j DROP -A INPUT -p tcp -m set --match-set china src -j DROP -A INPUT -p udp -m udp --dport 53 -j ACCEPT -A INPUT -p tcp -m tcp --dport 53 -j ACCEPT -A INPUT -p tcp -m tcp --dport 113 -j ACCEPT -A INPUT -p udp -m udp --dport 123 -j ACCEPT -A INPUT -p tcp -m tcp --dport 123 -j ACCEPT -A INPUT -m state --state NEW -m tcp -p tcp --dport 22 -j ACCEPT #-A INPUT -s 12.34.56.78 -j ACCEPT #-A INPUT -s yourFQDN.dyndns.org -j ACCEPT -A INPUT -p tcp -m tcp --dport 80 -j ACCEPT -A INPUT -j REJECT --reject-with icmp-host-prohibited -A FORWARD -j REJECT --reject-with icmp-host-prohibited COMMIT
Reminder: If you add another country to your block-china script, don’t forget to add a corresponding new country entry to your iptables file. See line 17 above that includes the word "china" for the syntax. There’s nothing much else to tweak except the two commented out (brown) lines that begin with #. First, remove the # symbol by moving the cursor to the right of the first one and hitting the backspace/delete key on your keyboard. Replace 12.34.56.78
with the public IP address of the computer from which you will be accessing your virtual machine. If you need multiple entries for multiple computers at different addresses, clone the line by pressing Ctrl-K and then Ctrl-U twice. Yes, we know. Some folks IP addresses change from time to time. In the next section, we’ll show you how to set up a Dynamic DNS entry with a utility that will keep track of your current IP address. In this case, uncomment the second commented line and replace yourFQDN.dyndns.org
with your dynamic DNS address. Be very careful to assure that your FQDN is always on line. If the firewall cannot verify your DNS entry when it starts, the IPtables firewall will not start which means your server will be left unprotected. HINT: IP addresses are much safer because they are never verified.
Once you have your addresses configured, save the file: Ctl-X, Y, ENTER
. Then issue the following commands to copy everything into place and restart the firewall.
mv /etc/sysconfig/iptables /etc/sysconfig/iptables.orig cp -p /root/iptables-lamp /etc/sysconfig/iptables echo "/etc/block-china.sh" >> /etc/rc.local /etc/block-china.sh
Always, always, always check to be sure your firewall is functioning: iptables -nL
. If you don’t see your desktop computer’s public IP address near the end of the listing, then the firewall is dead. status-lamp should also show IPtables down. Check for an error message which will tell you the problematic line so you can correct it.
Implementing Dynamic DNS Service on Your Virtual Machine
There are a number of free and paid Dynamic DNS providers. The way this works is you choose a fully-qualified domain name (FQDN) to identify your computer. Then you run a dynamic DNS update utility periodically from that computer. It reports back the current public IP address of your computer and your provider updates the IP address assigned to your FQDN if it has changed. In addition to supporting sites with ever changing IP addresses, it also allows you to permanently assign an FQDN to your computer or server so that it can be accessed without using a cryptic IP address.
If that computer happens to be an Incredible PBX server or a LAMP server that you’ve set up using this tutorial, then the following will get the DNS client update utility loaded using the RPM Forge repository that we previously installed:
yum --enablerepo=rpmforge install ddclient -y
Similar DNS update clients are available for Windows, Mac OS X, and many residential routers. Then it’s just a matter of plugging in the credentials for your dynamic DNS provider and your FQDN. In the case of the CentOS client, the config file is /etc/ddclient/ddclient.conf
. Now reboot your server and pick up a good book on Linux to begin your adventure.
Now For Some Fun…
First, let’s check things out and make sure everything is working as it should. With your favorite web browser, visit the IP address of your new server. You should see the default Apache page:
Next, let’s be sure that PHP is working as it should. While still logged into your server as root using SSH or Putty, issue the following commands and make up some file name to replace test4567 in both lines. Be sure to keep the .php file name extension. Note to gurus: Yes, we know the second line below is unnecessary if you remove the space after the less than symbol in the first line. Unfortunately, WordPress forces the space into the display which left us no alternative.
echo "< ?php phpinfo(); ?>" > /var/www/html/test4567.php sed -i 's|< |<|' /var/www/html/test4567.php
Now jump back to your web browser and access the new page you just created using the IP address of your server and the file name you made up: http://12.34.56.78/test4567.php
The PHPinfo listing will tell you everything you ever wanted to know about your web server setup including all of the PHP functions that have been enabled. That's why you want an obscure file name for the page. You obviously don't want to share that information with every bad guy on the planet. Remember. This is a public-facing web site that anyone on the Internet can access if they know or guess your IP address.
When you're ready to set up your own web site, just name it index.php and store the file in the /var/www/html directory of your server. In the meantime, issuing the following command will assure that anyone accessing your site gets a blank page until you're ready to begin your adventure:
echo " " > /var/www/html/index.php
Ready to learn PHP programming? There's no shortage of books to get you started.
Adding WordPress to Your LAMP Server
Where to begin with WordPress? What used to be a simple platform for bloggers has morphed into an all-purpose tool that makes building virtually any type of web site child's play. If you want to see what's possible, take a look at the templates and sample sites shown on WPZOOM. Unless you're an art major and savvy web designer, this will be the best $70 you ever spent. One of these templates will have your site up and running in minutes once we put the WordPress pieces in place. For the big spenders, $149 will give you access to over 50 gorgeous templates which you can download and use to your heart's content on multiple sites. And, no, your sites don't blow up after a year. You just can't download any additional templates or updates unless you renew your subscription. The other alternative is choose from thousands of templates that are provided across the Internet as well as in the WordPress application itself.
WordPress templates run the gamut from blogs to newsletters to photographer sites to e-commerce to business portfolios to video to travel to magazines to newspapers to education to food to recipes to restaurants and more. Whew! There literally is nothing you can't put together in minutes using a WordPress template. But, before you can begin, we need to get WordPress installed on your server. This is optional, of course. And, if you follow along and add WordPress, we've set it up in such a way that WordPress becomes the primary application for your site. Stated differently, when people use a browser to access your site, your WordPress template will immediately display. When we finish the basic WordPress setup and once you upload an image or two, you'll have a site that looks something like this:
Before you begin, we strongly recommend that you acquire a domain for your site if you plan to use it for anything but experimentation. The reason is because it can be complicated to migrate a WordPress site from one location to another.2 Once you've acquired your domain, point the domain to the IP address of your new server. With a dirt cheap registrar such as Omnis.com, it's easy:
Now let's get started. To begin, we need to load the WordPress application onto your server:
cd /root mkdir wordpress cd wordpress wget http://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz tar -xvzf latest.tar.gz -C /var/www/html
Next, we'll configure MySQL to support WordPress. We're assuming that you have NOT already created root passwords for MySQL. If you have, you'll need to add -pYourPassword to the various commands below immediately after root. There is no space between -p and your root password. Also edit the first line and make up a new password (replacing XYZ below) for the wordpress user account that will manage WordPress on your server before you cut and paste the code:
mysql -u root -e 'CREATE USER wordpress@localhost IDENTIFIED BY "XYZ";' mysql -u root -e 'CREATE DATABASE wordpress;' mysql -u root -e 'GRANT ALL ON wordpress.* TO wordpress@localhost;' mysql -u root -e 'FLUSH PRIVILEGES;'
Next, we need to configure WordPress with your new MySQL credentials. Before you cut and paste, replace XYZ in the fourth line with the password you assigned in the preceding MySQL step:
cp /var/www/html/wordpress/wp-config-sample.php /var/www/html/wordpress/wp-config.php sed -i 's|database_name_here|wordpress|' /var/www/html/wordpress/wp-config.php sed -i 's|username_here|wordpress|' /var/www/html/wordpress/wp-config.php sed -i 's|password_here|XYZ|' /var/www/html/wordpress/wp-config.php chown -R apache:apache /var/www/html/wordpress
Before you forget, take a moment and create a very secure password for your MySQL root user accounts. Here are the commands. Just replace new-password with your new password before you cut and paste. Note that you also will be prompted for this password when you execute the second command because you will now have a root user password in place from executing the first command.
/usr/bin/mysqladmin -u root password 'new-password' /usr/bin/mysqladmin -u root -p -h localhost.localdomain password 'new-password'
Finally, we need to modify your Apache web server to support WordPress as the primary application. Be sure to enter your actual email address in the third line before you cut and paste the code below:
echo " " >> /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf echo "" >> /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf echo 'ServerAdmin somebody@somedomain.com' >> /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf echo "DocumentRoot /var/www/html/wordpress" >> /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf echo "ServerName wordpress" >> /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf echo "ErrorLog /var/log/httpd/wordpress-error-log" >> /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf echo "CustomLog /var/log/httpd/wordpress-acces-log common" >> /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf echo " " >> /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf echo " " >> /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf service httpd restart
That should do it. Open a browser and navigate to the IP address of your server. You should be greeted with the following form. Fill in the blanks as desired. The account you're setting up will be the credentials you use to add and modify content on your WordPress site when you click Log In (as shown above). Make the username obscure and the password even more so. Remember, it's a public web site accessible worldwide! When you click Install WordPress, you'll be off to the races.
After your server whirs away for a minute or two, you will be greeted with the WordPress login prompt. With the username and password you entered above, you'll be ready to start configuring your WordPress site.
Once you're logged in, navigate to Appearance -> Themes and click Add New Theme. There's you will find literally hundreds of free WordPress templates that can be installed in a matter of seconds if WPZOOM is too rich for your blood. For a terrific all-purpose (free) theme, try Atahualpa. We'll leave our actual demo site running for a bit in case you want to explore and check out its performance. Installing and configuring the new theme took less than a minute:
A Final Word to the Wise. WordPress is relatively secure but new vulnerabilities are discovered regularly. Keep your templates, plug-ins, AND the WordPress application up to date at all times! The WordFence plug-in is a must-have. And we strongly recommend adding the following lines to your WordPress config file which then will let WordPress update everything automatically. Microsoft has given automatic updates a bad name, but in the case of WordPress, they work well.
echo "define('WP_AUTO_UPDATE_CORE', true);" >> /var/www/html/wordpress/wp-config.php echo "add_filter( 'auto_update_plugin', '__return_true' );" >> /var/www/html/wordpress/wp-config.php echo "add_filter( 'auto_update_theme', '__return_true' );" >> /var/www/html/wordpress/wp-config.php
Special Thanks: Our special tip of the hat goes to a few web sites that we found helpful in putting this article together especially Unixmen and Matt Wilcox & friends and Programming-Review.
Wondering What to Build Next with your new $10.50 Server in the Sky? Check out the latest Nerd Vittles tutorial. Turn it into a VoIP server FOR LIFE with free calling to/from the U.S. and Canada. Call for free demo:
TAKE70: Build a VoIP Server in the Cloud FOR LIFE w/ Free US/CAN calling https://t.co/l9It2xq14S #asterisk #freepbx pic.twitter.com/UYuCMcfEn8
— Ward Mundy (@NerdUno) January 31, 2016
Originally published: Monday, January 25, 2016
9 Countries Have Never Visited Nerd Vittles. Got a Friend in Any of Them https://t.co/wMfmlhiQ9y #asterisk #freepbx pic.twitter.com/TPFGZbqWB6
— Ward Mundy (@NerdUno) April 22, 2016
Need help with Asterisk? Visit the PBX in a Flash Forum.
Special Thanks to Our Generous Sponsors
FULL DISCLOSURE: ClearlyIP, Skyetel, Vitelity, DigitalOcean, Vultr, VoIP.ms, 3CX, Sangoma, TelecomsXchange and VitalPBX have provided financial support to Nerd Vittles and our open source projects through advertising, referral revenue, and/or merchandise. As an Amazon Associate and Best Buy Affiliate, we also earn from qualifying purchases. We’ve chosen these providers not the other way around. Our decisions are based upon their corporate reputation and the quality of their offerings and pricing. Our recommendations regarding technology are reached without regard to financial compensation except in situations in which comparable products at comparable pricing are available from multiple sources. In this limited case, we support our sponsors because our sponsors support us.
BOGO Bonaza: Enjoy state-of-the-art VoIP service with a $10 credit and half-price SIP service on up to $500 of Skyetel trunking with free number porting when you fund your Skyetel account. No limits on number of simultaneous calls. Quadruple data center redundancy. $25 monthly minimum spend required. Tutorial and sign up details are here.
The lynchpin of Incredible PBX 2020 and beyond is ClearlyIP components which bring management of FreePBX modules and SIP phone integration to a level never before available with any other Asterisk distribution. And now you can configure and reconfigure your new Incredible PBX phones from the convenience of the Incredible PBX GUI.
VitalPBX is perhaps the fastest-growing PBX offering based upon Asterisk with an installed presence in more than 100 countries worldwide. VitalPBX has generously provided a customized White Label version of Incredible PBX tailored for use with all Incredible PBX and VitalPBX custom applications. Follow this link for a free test drive!
Special Thanks to Vitelity. Vitelity is now Voyant Communications and has halted new registrations for the time being. Our special thanks to Vitelity for their unwavering financial support over many years and to the many Nerd Vittles readers who continue to enjoy the benefits of their service offerings. We will keep everyone posted on further developments.
Some Recent Nerd Vittles Articles of Interest...
- It doesn't take long for the probing to begin. So watch your logs, look up the IP addresses to identify the countries, and block them unless you happen to be expecting visitors from that part of the world:
[Sun Jan 24 00:36:12 2016] [error] [client 40.114.202.60] File does not exist: /var/www/html/wordpress/w00tw00t.at.blackhats.romanian.anti-sec:)
[↩]
[Sun Jan 24 00:36:12 2016] [error] [client 40.114.202.60] File does not exist: /var/www/html/wordpress/phpMyAdmin
[Sun Jan 24 00:36:13 2016] [error] [client 40.114.202.60] File does not exist: /var/www/html/wordpress/phpmyadmin
[Sun Jan 24 00:36:13 2016] [error] [client 40.114.202.60] File does not exist: /var/www/html/wordpress/pma
[Sun Jan 24 00:36:13 2016] [error] [client 40.114.202.60] File does not exist: /var/www/html/wordpress/myadmin
[Sun Jan 24 00:36:14 2016] [error] [client 40.114.202.60] File does not exist: /var/www/html/wordpress/MyAdmin
[Mon Jan 25 00:29:29 2016] [error] [client 137.116.220.182] File does not exist: /var/www/html/wordpress/w00tw00t.at.blackhats.romanian.anti-sec:)
[Mon Jan 25 00:29:29 2016] [error] [client 137.116.220.182] File does not exist: /var/www/html/wordpress/phpMyAdmin
[Mon Jan 25 00:29:29 2016] [error] [client 137.116.220.182] File does not exist: /var/www/html/wordpress/phpmyadmin
[Mon Jan 25 00:29:30 2016] [error] [client 137.116.220.182] File does not exist: /var/www/html/wordpress/pma
[Mon Jan 25 00:29:30 2016] [error] [client 137.116.220.182] File does not exist: /var/www/html/wordpress/myadmin
[Mon Jan 25 00:29:30 2016] [error] [client 137.116.220.182] File does not exist: /var/www/html/wordpress/MyAdmin
- Should you ever have to migrate your WordPress site from one domain to another, here are two helpful tools to consider: the Automatic Domain Name Changer Plugin and the one we use, WordPress-Domain-Changer. [↩]
View from the Trenches: A Fresh Look at VoIP Project Development in the Cloud
The world of cloud-based computing has profoundly changed over the past year. And today we want to take a fresh look at the cloud landscape for those of you that spend considerable time experimenting or tweaking software applications either for customers or for your own organization.
First, a brief paragraph of history. We began our cloud experiments almost seven years ago when Amazon S3 was still in its infancy. At the time, Amazon S3 was a real bargain even with all its development quirks. The adventure continued when we moved some production level systems to Amazon’s EC2 cloud in early 2013. What we quickly learned was just how expensive cloud computing could be once you reached the end of your "free year" with Amazon. As the cloud options continued to bloom, RentPBX began providing technical and financial assistance to our projects while also offering inexpensive, production-quality VoIP services in the cloud at truly bargain basement prices: $15 a month. That barely covers the electric bill for many folks hosting their own local servers. And RentPBX servers are unique. They don’t commingle other processor-intensive applications on their servers. All of their servers are pure VoIP which makes for an incredibly reliable cloud-based platform. Our special pricing still is available for those using PBX in a Flash and Incredible PBX. Just sign up with the coupon code: NOGOTCHAS. So that’s a little background.
But there are many of us that develop systems and experiment with new offerings as part of our daily routine. We build systems. We tweak systems. We blow up systems. And we start over, sometimes dozens (hopefully not hundreds) of times. To give you an example, our typical Incredible PBX build to support a new platform goes through twenty to thirty iterations before all of the kinks are worked out of the code. And that’s before the software development teams for CentOS, Ubuntu, Asterisk, Apache, SendMail, MySQL, and the Raspberry Pi "improve" anything. A production-quality cloud service really isn’t flexible enough to support this type of activity, and an affordable local server lacks the horsepower to keep setup times reasonable. On occasion, we use a high performance iMac coupled with VirtualBox for development, but that introduces some quirks that typically aren’t found on real world servers.
The good news is that there are two relatively new cloud offerings that fit very well with the requirements needed for rapid application development. We use both of them in slightly different ways so let us share our experience in hopes that it will save many of you some time experimenting.
We can’t say enough good things about Digital Ocean. Despite a few growing pains from time to time, Digital Ocean provides a vast assortment of cloud-based servers scattered all around the world. There are servers in New York, San Francisco, Amsterdam, London, Frankfurt, and even Singapore. You can size your development platform to meet almost any requirement with prices starting at about 5¢ for a 7-hour day of development. That buys you a speedy 512MB/single-CPU platform with 20 gigs of storage and a terabyte of monthly bandwidth. Add a (free) 1GB cache to your build, and it’s the performance equivalent of our $3,000 standalone Dell servers. You can scale up from there to a platform with 64GB of RAM, 20 CPUs, 640GB SSD drive, and 9 terabytes of monthly data transfer for less than $1 an hour. The difference with this platform is you can create a CentOS, Ubuntu, Fedora, FreeBSD, or Debian server of any recent vintage in about one minute. There’s also a vast array of preconfigured applications for the specialists of the world:
Using our referral code, you get $10 of free service while we get a little spiff down the road to keep the Nerd Vittles lights on. Tear down of servers is almost instantaneous, and you simply pay for the time you used. Using the small platform for 90 minutes will set you back a whole penny. Some of our PBX in a Flash users are actually running production-level servers on this platform (which we don’t recommend), and the monthly cost is capped at $5. One of the best kept secrets at Digital Ocean is that you can take snapshots of your builds and store them at little to no cost. We have a dozen of them and have never paid a penny in storage fees. You also have the option of off-site backups for production platforms.
The new kid on the block is CloudAtCost.com. If you’re not into bleeding edge, this probably isn’t the offering for you. But it is dirt cheap. While you can pay by the month, CloudAtCost also has a revolutionary marketing strategy. You can pay for your virtual machine once (almost always at a substantial discount off the listed prices), and you get to use "your server" forever at no additional cost… at least as long as CloudAtCost stays in business. If this sounds like a pyramid scheme, you probably wouldn’t be the first to suggest that. Suffice it to say, their business has grown geometrically over the past year. And they recently announced CloudPRO which lets you pool resources from servers you previously have bought, and use them in much the same way as Digital Ocean but with no additional charges. So here’s today’s pricing:
To put things in perspective, the virtual machine equivalent of Digital Ocean’s smallest setup costs $17.50, ONE TIME! The Big Dog 3 platform with a one-time fee of $560 migrated to CloudPRO would provide you with the capability to create 8 smaller systems (1 CPU, 1GB RAM, and 10GB storage) as desired with no bandwidth limitations forever.1 Download and upload performance is fairly impressive using speedtest-cli:
So what’s the catch. Well, there are some. First, as you might imagine, these folks are much like the fella laying track in front of the steaming locomotive. Will that ever end? You’d better hope not because, when it does, the entire house of cards may come down. While Digital Ocean typically builds virtual machines in under a minute, CloudAtCost turnaround times are close to a day. Once your server is actually working, we’ve had a pretty good experience with the performance quality although there can be rough spots that usually are resolved within a day. The promise, of course, is to get build times down to a minute or two. But, frankly, we’re not holding our breath. As for platform support, there are plenty of options just like with Digital Ocean:
What is this platform good for? In our case, it’s almost perfect for off-site backups. You can judge the web performance for yourself by visiting the backup site for Nerd Vittles, or the PIAF Forum, or Incredible PBX, or PBX in a Flash. Would we use CloudAtCost for production? Not a chance. But for backups and demo servers, it’s AWESOME and CHEAP! If you’re a Nerd Vittles early bird, you can use our coupon code for an additional 20% off: Zu2eXYDYtU.
DEMO SERVER. We’ve actually set up an Incredible PBX server with Google Voice and an IVR of sample applications so you can judge the CloudAtCost performance for yourself. You can even try hacking the IP address if that’s your thing. We always love to test our firewall: nmap -sT -O 162.252.242.229
. To try out Allison’s IVR, enter your 10-digit callback number below and then click the Click Here button once. Count to 10 and your phone should be ringing. After you answer the call and press 1, you’ll be connected to the IVR Demo in Canada. Don’t be shy.
Nerd Vittles IVR Demo Options
1 – Call by Name (say “Delta Airlines” or “American Airlines” to try it out)
2 – MeetMe Conference (password is 1234)
3 – Wolfram Alpha (say “What planes are overhead?”)
4 – Lenny (The Telemarketer’s Worst Nightmare)
5 – Today’s News Headlines
6 – Weather Forecast (say the city and state, province, or country)
7 – Today in History
8 – Speak to a Real Person (or maybe just Lenny if we’re out)
Originally published: Cinco de Mayo, 2015
Need help with Asterisk? Visit the PBX in a Flash Forum.
Special Thanks to Our Generous Sponsors
FULL DISCLOSURE: ClearlyIP, Skyetel, Vitelity, DigitalOcean, Vultr, VoIP.ms, 3CX, Sangoma, TelecomsXchange and VitalPBX have provided financial support to Nerd Vittles and our open source projects through advertising, referral revenue, and/or merchandise. As an Amazon Associate and Best Buy Affiliate, we also earn from qualifying purchases. We’ve chosen these providers not the other way around. Our decisions are based upon their corporate reputation and the quality of their offerings and pricing. Our recommendations regarding technology are reached without regard to financial compensation except in situations in which comparable products at comparable pricing are available from multiple sources. In this limited case, we support our sponsors because our sponsors support us.
BOGO Bonaza: Enjoy state-of-the-art VoIP service with a $10 credit and half-price SIP service on up to $500 of Skyetel trunking with free number porting when you fund your Skyetel account. No limits on number of simultaneous calls. Quadruple data center redundancy. $25 monthly minimum spend required. Tutorial and sign up details are here.
The lynchpin of Incredible PBX 2020 and beyond is ClearlyIP components which bring management of FreePBX modules and SIP phone integration to a level never before available with any other Asterisk distribution. And now you can configure and reconfigure your new Incredible PBX phones from the convenience of the Incredible PBX GUI.
VitalPBX is perhaps the fastest-growing PBX offering based upon Asterisk with an installed presence in more than 100 countries worldwide. VitalPBX has generously provided a customized White Label version of Incredible PBX tailored for use with all Incredible PBX and VitalPBX custom applications. Follow this link for a free test drive!
Special Thanks to Vitelity. Vitelity is now Voyant Communications and has halted new registrations for the time being. Our special thanks to Vitelity for their unwavering financial support over many years and to the many Nerd Vittles readers who continue to enjoy the benefits of their service offerings. We will keep everyone posted on further developments.
Some Recent Nerd Vittles Articles of Interest…
- forever: as long as CloudAtCost.com stays in business [↩]
The Next Plateau: VoIP Communications with Asterisk in Amazon’s EC2 Cloud
We’ve spent considerable effort exploring and enhancing the VoIP cloud offerings for our followers, and today we’re delighted to introduce another terrific service: Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). This is one of several Amazon Web Service (AWS) offerings that provides resizable compute capacity in the cloud and is designed to make web-scale computing easier for developers. That’s the Amazon pitch for their service. Ours is a bit different. For anyone with mission-critical operations or that has ever given a moment’s thought to business continuity planning (THINK: hurricanes, tornados, earthquakes, blizzards, fires, floods, bombs), you need an EC2 backup plan for VoIP communications. It really doesn’t matter whether your organization uses a proprietary phone system, or Asterisk®, or good ol’ black telephones, the point is simply this. When your lights go out and you still need a communications system for your employees and your customers, what’s your plan? Staying home in bed isn’t a choice for most folks. So our focus is not to persuade anybody to move their primary communications platform to Amazon EC2 although it’s certainly worth considering. For today, let’s tackle emergency planning and Disaster Recovery 101 for that dreadful day when you really don’t have a choice. And D-Day is a really bad day to start thinking about communications alternatives. You’ll have plenty of other things to do.
We’re going to make this fun today and provide all the tools you’ll need to set up shop in Amazon’s EC2 Cloud. The good news is that EC2 is almost free for your first year so getting started isn’t going to be a financial burden. Once you have everything built, you can turn it off and hope you never have to use it. On the other hand, it’s dirt cheap for an entire year so enjoy yourself and learn why VoIP communications can revolutionize your business at a fraction of the cost of a proprietary communications system. For our Asterisk aficionados that have already discovered the beauty of free VoIP communications, we’ve got some additional goodies today, Incredible Backup and Incredible Restore, that will let you quickly move your communications platform back and forth between EC2 and a local server or virtual machine effortlessly.
For those just getting started, the real beauty of VoIP communications is that, once your server platform is operational, you can bring up communications services for your employees without any hardware investment. A notebook computer and a free SIP softphone will let you make and receive calls through your EC2 communications system. By adding trunks from Google Voice or any SIP service provider, you complete the communications circle to connect to any phone in the world. We do this for a living so, if your business needs some hand-holding to get started, drop us a note. We like to travel.
The Choice is Yours: PIAF-Purple with Asterisk 1.8 or PIAF-Green with Asterisk 11
Getting Started. For your communications platform, we’ve built two new versions of PBX in a Flash™ for Amazon EC2: PIAF-Purple and PIAF-Green. You can’t beat the price. Both are free! These two builds are based upon the two long-term support (LTS) releases of Asterisk: 1.8 and 11. In our testing, both are rock solid and production-ready. If tried and true is your cup of tea, then PIAF-Purple with Asterisk 1.8 and FreePBX 2.10 is your baby. If you want to get a jump on the future, then PIAF-Green with Asterisk 11 and FreePBX 2.11 is worth a careful look. But, to use either one, you first need to get set up with an Amazon EC2 account. So head over to Amazon and click on Sign Up Now. A word to the wise here. You don’t want the bad guys breaking into your account unless you have an unlimited budget. There are lots of non-free Amazon EC2 services that could max out your credit card quickly. So, in addition to signing up for your Amazon account, also activate Multi-Factor Authentication. It’s your bank account!
Once your account is activated, sign in to the Amazon Management Console. After entering both your passwords, the AWS Management Console will appear. Click on EC2 to bring up the EC2 Dashboard (shown above). This is home base in EC2. The Launch Instance button is used to start a new virtual machine. We’ll walk you through that process in a minute. In the left margin are the functions you’ll be using most often. Instances displays your existing virtual machines, both running and stopped. Volumes are the virtual hard disks associated with your virtual machines or instances in Amazon-speak. A volume gets created as part of the VM launching process. When you delete instances, it’s important to also delete the associated volume, or you get billed for it separately. Elastic IPs lets you assign an IP address to an Instance using Amazon’s DHCP servers. You access your virtual machines using SSH and, without an IP address, you can’t gain access. For SSH security, EC2 uses Key Pairs. As part of launching a new virtual machine, we’ll walk you through creating one. Amazon EC2 also has its own firewalls called Security Groups. Basically, all services are blocked until you open them up. We’ll also walk you through that process as well. Once you’ve created your Key Pair and Security Group, you can use them with multiple instances. Now you’re an expert so let’s Launch a New Instance.
Creating a New Virtual Machine. Click on the blue Launch Instance button in the EC2 Dashboard to begin. Choose Classic Wizard. You build a new instance by starting with one that someone else has already built. Be careful here. There are literally thousands to choose from and, unless you know the creator, use Name Brand, trusted instances only. Anybody can hide anything in an instance that they’ve made publicly available. Think of your worst Trojan Horse horror story, and there’s probably a public Amazon instance to match it. For our purposes, the magic number you need to know is 399149154715. That’s our Amazon EC2 account number, and it means any instances prefixed with that number or our mugshot were created by us. So click on the Cloud Market and search for PIAF. In about a minute, both PIAF2 AMIs will appear. Pick your favorite but be sure the file name displays our smiling face. Then click Select. For the Instance Type, make sure T1 Micro is chosen. That’s the only free option during your first year. Leave the Availability Zone at No Preference and Number of Instances set to 1. Click Continue. In Advanced Instance Options, accept all of the defaults and click Continue. For Storage Device Configuration, accept the defaults by clicking Continue. Next, you’ll be prompted to add Tags to your Instance. This is a short-hand description to help you distinguish one instance from another. For the Name Value, enter something like PIAF-Purple-64 or PIAF-Green-64 and click Continue. Next, you’ll be prompted to create a Key Pair to use with the instance. If you don’t already have one, click Create New Key Pair and Continue. Once the key pair is created, the .pem file will be downloaded to your desktop computer. Change the permissions on the .pem file to what SSH requires: chmod 700 mykey.pem. You’ll need this key file to log into your instance with SSH so move it to a safe place. Next, you’ll create or use an existing Security Group. This sets up the firewall rules to use with your instance. For PBX in a Flash, you’ll need at least the following Inbound Rules in your Security Group: TCP 22 (SSH), TCP 80 (Web), TCP 1723 (for PPTP VPN only), and TCP 9001 (for WebMin access). For VoIP services, you’ll need UDP 5060 (SIP), UDP 10000-20000 (RTP), UDP 4569 (IAX), and UDP 69 (TFTP, if desired). EC2 lets you lock down Security Group entries to individual IP addresses. We strongly recommend this for SSH, Web, SIP, IAX, and TFTP services. If you need access from multiple IP addresses, just add additional Security Group rules for each address and service. Finally, you’ll be shown a summary of all your selections. If everything looks OK, click Launch to start the instance. While it’s starting up, click Elastic IPs from the left column of the EC2 Dashboard. Choose Allocate New Address and then Associate Address to connect it with the instance that just launched. Write down the IP address. You’ll need it for SSH access. Finally, click Instances and wait for your virtual machine to come on line with a green check mark.
Your First Login. Now you can log into your EC2 instance via SSH using your key file and the IP address associated with the instance: ssh -i mykey.pem -v ec2-user@54.235.12.34. If you’re using a Windows machine with Putty, use PuttyGen.exe to convert your .pem key into something Putty can understand before attempting to log in. Once you’re logged in, you need to immediately change all the default passwords:
- sudo passwd (to change your ec2-user password)
- sudo passwd root (to change your root password)
- su root (to switch to the root account with your new password)
- passwd-master (to change your FreePBX and web passwords)
- cd /root (to switch to the /root directory)
Keep in mind that PBX in a Flash is a little different than a standard Linux install. It has been designed for use as the root user only. So, whenever you log into a PIAF instance in EC2, always execute the following command: su root && cd /root. Most Linux and PBX in a Flash utilities will not work properly if you attempt to execute them as the ec2-user! For web access and management of your server, point your browser to the IP address of your EC2 instance. If you’re new to PBX in a Flash, stop here and read the PBX in a Flash 2.0.6.3 Quick Start Guide. It’ll tell you everything you need to know to get started with PBX in a Flash.
Installing Incredible PBX. We’ve got a few more surprises for you today. First, there are new, GPL2-licensed releases of Incredible PBX: version 10 for FreePBX 2.10 and version 11 for FreePBX 2.11. If you’re new to all of this, Incredible PBX provides some additional layers of security for your server while also giving you dozens of turnkey Asterisk applications including text-to-speech, speech-to-text, SMS messaging, news, weather, stocks, and tide reports, and much more. You can read the Incredible PBX tutorial here. To install Incredible PBX while logged into your EC2 instance as root, issue the following commands and plug in your passwd-master password when prompted. If you’re using the PIAF-Green AMI, replace incrediblepbx10 with incrediblepbx11 below.
cd /root
wget http://incrediblepbx.com/incrediblepbx10.gz
gunzip incrediblepbx10.gz
chmod +x incrediblepbx10
./incrediblepbx10
Installing Incredible Fax. Yes, there’s more. Incredible Fax also works just fine on the EC2 platform. If you want the added convenience of having your Incredible PBX double as a free fax machine, run install-incredfax2 after the Incredible PBX 10 install completes. For Incredible PBX 11, run /root/incrediblefax11.sh. Plug in your email address for delivery of incoming faxes and enter your home area code when prompted. For every other prompt, just press the Enter key. If you’d like to also add the optional OCR utility, just choose it when prompted. For complete documentation, see this Nerd Vittles article. Don’t forget that a REBOOT OF YOUR SERVER is required when the install is finished, or faxing won’t work! Then log in to AvantFax through the PBX in a Flash GUI using maint:password. Be sure to change your password!
Also be sure to set up a second, dedicated Google Voice number if you want support for inbound faxing. Once the Google Voice credentials are configured in FreePBX for the additional Google Voice line, simply add an Inbound Route for this DID to point to the fax destination. Just plug in your 10-digit Google Voice number and other entries shown in the form below. Save your setup and reload FreePBX. Done!
Introducing Incredible Backup and Restore. Last, but not least, we have new GPL2-licensed backup and restore utilities to simplify the task of moving PBX in a Flash setups between Amazon EC2 and other standalone or virtual machine platforms. To complement these new utilities, we’ve also released a new 64-bit PIAF-Purple Virtual Machine image for VirtualBox. PIAF-Purple-64.ova is a free download from SourceForge and will run under VirtualBox on any Windows, Mac, Linux, or Solaris desktop computer. Our VirtualBox tutorial is available here. You also have the option of downloading the current 64-bit PIAF-20631 ISO from SourceForge and building your own server or virtual machine. All three platforms (Amazon EC2 AMI, VirtualBox OVA, or PIAF 64-bit ISO) are 100% compatible with Incredible PBX, Incredible Fax, and the new Incredible Backup. Once you have matching platforms, you can backup your PIAF or Incredible PBX setup on one platform and then restore it to a different platform by simply copying the backup image to the new platform and running Incredible Restore. The entire procedure takes only a couple of minutes.
To install the backup and restore utilities on either of the platforms, simply issue the following commands:
cd /usr/local/sbin
wget http://incrediblepbx.com/incrediblebackup10.tar.gz
tar zxvf incrediblebackup10.tar.gz
rm incrediblebackup10.tar.gz
Because Incredible Backup shuts down Asterisk, MySQL, and Apache, do NOT run this when folks are using your PBX! To make a backup, log into your server as root and type: incrediblebackup.
The restore procedure essentially erases ALL of your existing FreePBX, Asterisk, TFTP, and web data. To restore a backup, copy the backup file to be restored to /tmp on the new server. Make sure the new server has Asterisk, FreePBX, and Incredible PBX versions that match what’s shown in the backup filename. There is NO error checking presently. To restore, log into your server as root, write down the filename of the backup file, and type: incrediblerestore /tmp/filename.tar.gz. If this is a new server and you’re still using your old one as well, then remove the DUNDI secret and secretexpiry entries from the Asterisk DB and restart Asterisk once the restore is completed:
asterisk -rx "database del dundi secret"
asterisk -rx "database del dundi secretexpiry"
amportal restart
For additional usage instructions and tips, see this thread on the PIAF Forum. Enjoy!
Originally published: Monday, February 11, 2013 Updated: Thursday, February 14, 2013
Support Issues. With any application as sophisticated as this one, you’re bound to have questions. Blog comments are a terrible place to handle support issues although we welcome general comments about our articles and software. If you have particular support issues, we encourage you to get actively involved in the PBX in a Flash Forum. It’s the best Asterisk tech support site in the business, and it’s all free! Unlike some forums, ours is extremely friendly and is supported by literally hundreds of Asterisk gurus and thousands of users just like you.
Need help with Asterisk? Visit the PBX in a Flash Forum.
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VitalPBX is perhaps the fastest-growing PBX offering based upon Asterisk with an installed presence in more than 100 countries worldwide. VitalPBX has generously provided a customized White Label version of Incredible PBX tailored for use with all Incredible PBX and VitalPBX custom applications. Follow this link for a free test drive!
Special Thanks to Vitelity. Vitelity is now Voyant Communications and has halted new registrations for the time being. Our special thanks to Vitelity for their unwavering financial support over many years and to the many Nerd Vittles readers who continue to enjoy the benefits of their service offerings. We will keep everyone posted on further developments.
Some Recent Nerd Vittles Articles of Interest…
Travelin’ Man 3: Securing a PBX in a Flash or VoIP in the Cloud Server
UPDATE: Be sure to read about the latest enhancement to Travelin' Man 3 here.
We're big fans of playing with our own VoIP hardware. It has the advantage of allowing the installation of everything behind a secure, hardware-based firewall thereby eliminating almost all of the security issues associated with VoIP telephony. With PBX in a Flash™ and its Zero Internet Footprint™, you can run a secure VoIP server in your home or office with no port exposure to the Internet. This setup, of course, assumes that you have the necessary bandwidth to support Internet telephony and that you possess the necessary skill set to maintain your own Linux® server running Asterisk®, FreePBX®, Apache®, SendMail®, PHP®, and on and on. Not everyone does. And, of course, there are thousands of organizations in which employees and their phones are not colocated with the home office VoIP communications server. And, believe it or not, there are folks that run their VoIP server on the public Internet without any firewall protection. For all of you, today's your lucky day.
Lest you think that we've bitten off more than we can chew, we want to acknowledge the dozens of thought-provoking comments on the PIAF Forums that ultimately led to today's new release. That is the hidden beauty of open source development. So, thank you dad311, atsak, tbrummell, Hyksos, markieb, Ramblin, darmock, lowno, blanchae, bmore, vcallaway, jroper, mag, briankelly63, mbellot, phonebuff, The Deacon, Astrosmurfer, frontline, ou812, LostTrunk, lgaetz, kh40s, rossiv, and all of our other gurus that make the PIAF Forums a great place to learn something new every day.
Thanks to our good friends at RentPBX, who provide terrific technical and financial support to both Nerd Vittles and the PBX in a Flash project, you don't have to roll your own. And your phones can be anywhere because your communications server sits on the public Internet. If cost is a factor or for those outside the United States that need a U.S. presence to take advantage of services such as Google Voice, the $15 a month price point using the PIAF2012 coupon code makes RentPBX more than competitive with what it would cost you in electricity, Internet bandwidth, and hardware resources to do it yourself... minus the headaches. You get a stable PBX in a Flash or Incredible PBX platform from the git-go. In addition, issues of jitter and latency all but disappear from the VoIP equation because you can choose the site of your hosted PBX from a worldwide list of Internet POPs including five regions in the U.S. as well as Canada and Europe. Many sit within a few milliseconds of the Internet backbone.
What you don't have with a hosted PBX solution is a hardware-based firewall sitting between your server and the Big, Bad Internet. With PBX in a Flash, the risk is lessened because the IPtables Linux Firewall is baked into the fabric of PBX in a Flash. For a comprehensive overview of how IPtables works, read this article. It explains IPtables better than any book you could buy.
Today we're pleased to introduce Travelin' Man 3™, a completely new security methodology based upon FQDN Whitelists and DDNS. In a nutshell, you get set-it-and-forget-it convenience and rock-solid VoIP security for your Cloud-based PBX or any PBX in a Flash server that's lacking a hardware-based firewall and you get both transparent connectivity and security for your mobile or remote workforce. We'll quickly cover the mechanics of this new IPtables methodology that allows you to secure your hosted PBX without compromising flexibility. The nitty gritty details of IPtables and firewalls we'll leave for you to explore at your leisure.
And, speaking of leisure, we always get the question: "Have you tested it?" For frequent readers of Nerd Vittles, you already know the answer. We eat our own dog food! In the case of Travelin' Man 3, we gave it a healthy workout just last week from the deck of the Carnival Fantasy as we passed by Cape Canaveral and in Key West with 4G service, and finally in several ports with WiFi access in the Bahamas. The beauty of the new design is you'll know instantly if it's not working because you'll never get your VoIP SIP phone to connect back to your VoIP server. We had zero problems using nothing more than an Android phone for both DynDNS updates and Bria SIP phone service. Being a pioneer isn't always easy, but... Somebody's gotta do it™. 😉
Unlike previous iterations of Travelin' Man, version 3 lets you configure remote phone access from the server and keep one or hundreds of phones in sync even with changing IP addresses using dynamic DNS update software at the sites of the remote phones. Whether the site is a remote office or a floating hotel room, any PC or Mac whether it's a desktop or netbook can automatically manage the dynamic DNS updates while keeping all of the local phones securely connected to the VoIP Cloud. And any jail-broken iPhone can manage the updates as well. With Android phones, it's even better. You have your pick of several great apps: DynDNS Client, Dynamic DNS Client, or Dynamic DNS Updater. We've found the DynDNS Client to be nearly perfect. As we'll explain in a minute, this version of Travelin' Man is not compatible with prior versions so you'll need to choose either the manual methodology of previous iterations or version 3 which does it automagically.
A New Approach to WhiteLists. Our new approach to IPtables is to lock down your server using a WhiteList of safe IP addresses and fully-qualified domain names (FQDNs) that should be given access to your hosted VoIP server. Then we'll periodically check to see if the IP addresses associated with the FQDNs have changed and make the necessary adjustments automatically. If any intruder attempts to access any port on your PBX, their packets are simply discarded by IPtables so the bad guys never know your server exists.
We've experimented with BlackLists for VoIP security, and the bottom line is they just don't work because of inherent problems with reliability and completeness. You spend your entire day updating lists of the bad guys only to discover that they've morphed to thousands of new IP addresses. Think Whack-A-Mole. IP addresses can easily be changed, and zombies have made attacks from third-party PCs a daily occurrence. Earlier this month, Nerd Vittles was hit with a denial of service attack from 30,000+ zombie PCs. This was in spite of the fact that we already block well over 100,000 IP addresses with the world's finest blacklists. Now it's 130,000. 🙄 Of course, none of the owners of these PCs had any idea how their computers were being used. I'm reminded of a famous judge's secretary who received a knock at her door one Sunday morning from the FBI. They informed her that she was using her computer to host porno movie downloads. I won't offend your tender sensibilities by repeating what she actually told those "young men."
There's also the problem of dynamic IP addresses which means an address that was used by a bad guy yesterday may be handed out by the same ISP to your grandma tomorrow. And it didn't take the bad guys long to poison blacklists with IP addresses that you actually need for services such as DNS or network time services. If you've ever had an IP address that ended up on one of the major blacklists, you know what a hassle it is to get your IP address unBlacklisted. The Soup Nazi has nothing on these folks.
Bottom Line: Public web sites are pretty much forced to use BlackLists because they want their sites to be generally accessible. With a VoIP server, we have the luxury of choice, and WhiteLists are much more effective for server security.
Overview. Our recommended design works like this. Block everything. Then permit packets from known hosts and non-routable IP addresses only, and limit known hosts to only the services they actually need. For example, a VoIP provider such as Vitelity that is providing a DID for your inbound calls doesn't need web access to your server. They need SIP and RTP access. Nothing more. The same goes for a remote user: SIP and RTP access so their SIP phone works. Nothing more. You, as Administrator, need complete access to the server but only from a specific, defined IP address. We, of course, don't want IPtables to have to inspect and filter every single packet flowing into and out of your server because that would bog things down. And we don't want users on your private LAN and remote users with dynamic IP addresses to have to wrestle with updating their phones just to stay connected. So, we've opened up all non-routable IP addresses and, once we've verified that a remote site is authorized access, then subsequent packets flowing into and out of the server for that IP address will be passed along without additional packet inspection. And once we set up the FQDN for a remote user, local dynamic DNS update clients can be used to automate the process of keeping IP addresses current. Then, every few minutes, we'll let your server check whether there's been a change in any users' dynamic IP addresses. If so, we'll simply refresh the IP addresses of all FQDNs using an IPtables restart to bring the phones back to life. To end users, The Phones Just Work™.
Finally, a word about security for VoIP in the Cloud servers. If you run a virtual machine from any hosting provider with wide open access to SIP, IAX, and web services, it's just a matter of time before your server is going to be compromised, period! If you foolishly use credit card auto-replenishment for one or more of your hosting providers then you might as well mail a blank check to the bad guys and wait for them to cash it. Today's tools will take you less than a minute to permanently lock down your server. So... JUST DO IT™.
To give you some idea of how far the Android platform has come, here are a couple screenshots of our Samsung 4G Skyrocket smartphone running three simultaneous VoIP apps all day, every day: Bria SIP extension to our PIAF2 server in Charleston, CSipSimple extension to our RentPBX VM in California, and GrooveIP session with Google Voice. Try that on your 3G iPhone 4S. 😉
We're officially releasing this for RentPBX users running PBX in a Flash or Incredible PBX 3™. These folks have been our pioneers for a very long time, and we like to take care of them first. Properly installed, Travelin' Man 3 should work fine on any PIAF™ or Incredible PBX system. We'll make a backup of /etc/sysconfig/iptables before replacing your IPtables setup with the PIAF default setup. It assumes ALL of your traffic is flowing on eth0. If that's not the case, don't use it without major modifications! We would hasten to add that Travelin' Man 3 is licensed as GPL2 open source software. So it's available NOW to everyone to use or to embellish as they see fit. We hope every provider of VoIP services offering virtual machines in the cloud as well as those without a hardware-based firewall to protect your Asterisk server will take advantage of the opportunity to customize and deploy this code for their particular IPtables environment. To paraphrase Bill Clinton: "It's your phone bill, stupid!"
Deploying Travelin' Man 3. Here's how to deploy Travelin' Man 3 on your server. In Step #1, we run secure-iptables. This locks down virtually all IP ports and services in the original IPtables configuration for PBX in a Flash to either the IP address or the FQDN of the administrator. Be advised that this setup uses the default ports for all PIAF services, e.g. SSH, WebMin, HTTP, etc. If you use custom ports, you'll need to modify the script accordingly. If the administrator is on the move or has a dynamic IP address on his or her desktop or notebook PC/Mac that will be used to administer the cloud server, then use an FQDN, not a static IP address, when you run secure-iptables.
Step #2 is automatic and is part of secure-iptables. It opens SIP and IAX port access for "trusted providers" such as Google, Vitelity, etc. This is covered in detail below. We also open accessibility from non-routable IP addresses. You obviously can close or limit private LAN access, if desired. We included it for the benefit of those running and administering PBX in a Flash on private LANs where internal security is not a concern.
In Step #3, we'll let you set up additional access for other providers, users, and phones. You get your choice of up to 9 separate services in addition to the whole enchilada, and each account gets a name and a file to keep track of the latest IP address entry: somename.iptables. These are stored in /root. Don't delete them! New accounts can be added using either a static IP address (add-ip) or an FQDN (add-fqdn). These accounts also can be deleted whenever necessary (del-acct). You can rerun secure-iptables whenever you like, but it automatically deletes all custom user accounts. Here's the list of services from which to choose. Mix and match as desired to meet your own requirements.
0 - All Services
1 - SIP (UDP)
2 - SIP (TCP)
3 - IAX
4 - Web
5 - WebMin
6 - FTP
7 - TFTP
8 - SSH
9 - FOP
Just a word of caution. IPtables stores its setup in /etc/sysconfig/iptables, but it actually runs from an image in memory on your Linux server. As part of the load process, IPtables converts all FQDNs stored on disk to static IP addresses. This speeds up firewall processing enormously. While it's possible to add IPtables rules in memory without writing them to disk (as in the original Travelin' Man design), don't do it with Travelin' Man 3! You will lose these settings whenever IPtables is restarted by running any of the above scripts or whenever a refresh of FQDN IP addresses becomes necessary. Whatever you do, never ever run the command: service iptables save. This command is used to write the IPtables entries in memory to disk. In doing so it writes only static IP addresses to disk. This will erase (a.k.a. ruin) your Travelin' Man 3 FQDN setup and force you to start over with Step #1. Otherwise, none of your FQDN's would ever get refreshed because they've all disappeared and become static IP addresses.
IPtables also has a major shortcoming IMHO. We support FQDNs in IPtables to make it more flexible. However, a failed FQDN during an IPtables restart will cause IPtables not to load at all. We have worked around this by adding our own restart command which you should always use: iptables-restart. You've been warned.
Locking Down Your Server. While there's still time, let's spend a minute and lock down your server to the public IP address of the PC that you use to administer the system. If you don't know the public IP address of the desktop machine you use to manage your server, then click on this link using a browser on that machine, and our web site will tell you the IP address.
Now log into your virtual machine as root using SSH and issue the following commands:
cd /root
wget http://incrediblepbx.com/travelinman3.tar.gz
tar zxvf travelinman3.tar.gz
yum -y install bind-utils
./secure-iptables
When prompted for the FQDN or IP address of your Administrator PC, use the FQDN if you have one. Otherwise, type in the IP address and press the Enter key. Agree to the terms of service and license agreement by pressing Enter. When the IPtables file displays, verify that you have typed your FQDN or IP address correctly, or you will lock yourself out of your own server. Press Ctrl-X to exit the editor, and then press Enter to update IPtables and save your new configuration.
NOTE: If you are running PBX in a Flash in a cloud environment, be sure to add an entry to Travelin' Man 3 with the IP address of your cloud server. ifconfig will tell you what the IP address is. To add the entry, issue the command: /root/add-ip cloud 12.34.56.78 using your actual cloud IP address.
WARNING: If you use an FQDN for your Administrator PC and it points to a dynamic IP address, be sure to also add this same FQDN using add-fqdn. Otherwise, IP address changes will not be detected, and you may lock yourself out of your own server.
Nobody can access your server except someone seated at your PC or on your private LAN with your login credentials. You can repeat this process as often as you like because each time the script is run, it automatically restores your original IPtables configuration. Now let's grant access to your SIP providers and those using remote SIP or IAX phones.
Using DynDNS to Manage FQDNs. The key ingredient with Travelin' Man 3 is automatic management of dynamic IP addresses. When a user or even the administrator moves to a different location or IP address, we don't want to have to manually adjust anything. So what you'll first need is a DynDNS account. For $20 a year, you can set up 30 FQDNs and keep the IP addresses for these hostnames current 24-7. For $30 a year, you can manage 75 hostnames using your own domain and execute up to 600,000 queries a month. That's more than ample for almost any small business but, if you need more horsepower, DynDNS.com can handle it. What we recommend is setting up a separate FQDN for each phone on your system that uses a dynamic IP address. This can include the administrator account if desired because it works in exactly the same way. When the administrator extension drops off the radar, a refresh of IPtables will bring all FQDNs back to life including the administrator's account. Sounds simple? It is.
Preparation. Before we make further modifications to IPtables in Step #3, let's make a list of all the folks that will need access to your VoIP Server in the Cloud. For each entry, write down the name of the person, server, or phone as well as the type of entity which needs server access. Then provide either the static IP address or FQDN for each entry. If one or more of your IP addresses are dynamic (meaning the ISP changes them from time to time), we'll cover managing dynamic IP addresses in a minute. For now, just make up a fully-qualified domain name (FQDN) for each dynamic IP address using one of the available DynDNS domains. For static IP addresses, use the FQDN or the IP address. HINT: FQDNs make it easy to remember which entry goes with which provider.
Make a list of your providers NOT in this list: Vitelity (outbound1.vitelity.net and inbound1.vitelity.net), Google Voice (talk.google.com), VoIP.ms (city.voip.ms), DIDforsale (209.216.2.211), CallCentric (callcentric.com), and also VoIPStreet.com (chi-out.voipstreet.com plus chi-in.voipstreet.com), Les.net (did.voip.les.net), Future-Nine, AxVoice (magnum.axvoice.com), SIP2SIP (proxy.sipthor.net), VoIPMyWay (sip.voipwelcome.com), Obivoice/Vestalink (sms.intelafone.com), Teliax, and IPkall. The providers listed above are already enabled in the secure-iptables setup script. We call them Trusted Providers only because we trust them and have personally used all of them. We consider them reliable folks with whom to do business. It doesn't mean others aren't. It simply means these are ones we have tested with good results over the years. The only providers you'll need to add are ones we haven't provided. Also be sure to check whether the FQDNs of the providers above cover the server for your account. If not, you'll need to manually add those FQDNs as well. Keep in mind that trusted providers will have full SIP and IAX access to your server so stick with tried-and-true providers for your own safety. The PBX in a Flash Forum and DSL Reports are good sources of information on The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.
Finally, list with a name each phone that will be connected to an extension on your server. If you have 10 traveling salesmen, then you might want to name them all by last name and also provide FQDNs with their last names, e.g. smith.dyndns.org and jones.dyndns.org. No spaces or punctuation in names or FQDNs! We strongly recommend using FQDNs wherever you can because it means zero work for you when a provider changes an IP address. Here's the table we use:
Name
Type: Person, Provider, Server, Phone
IP Address Type: Static or Dynamic
FQDN or IP Address
Services Desired: SIP, IAX, Web, FTP, SSH, etc.
Step #3: Adding Authorized Users. Now take your list and add each account to your server while logged in as root and positioned in the /root directory. For static IP addresses, use add-ip. For dynamic IP addresses and FQDNs, run add-fqdn and plug in the FQDN for each account. When one of your accounts needs to be removed, just run del-acct from the /root folder on your server and plug in the name of the account to delete. If a user changes from a static IP address to a dynamic IP address or vice versa, just delete the user and then add them again with the new IP address or FQDN. All of the accounts are stored in /root and have names like this: name.iptables.
Step #4: Setting Up DynDNS Client Updates. There are actually two pieces in the Dynamic DNS update puzzle. At the end-user side, you need to deploy a DynDNS update client on the same subnet as the phone of your user. See the links above to download the update software you prefer. In the case of cellphones with SIP phone capability, this could be as simple as installing the DynDNS update client directly on the phone itself. Plug in your DynDNS credentials as well as the FQDN associated with the particular phone, and the rest is automatic.
Step #5: Setting Up IPtables Auto-Refresh. Finally, we need a way for your server to discover when a refresh of FQDNs becomes necessary because someone's IP address has changed. The simplest way to do this is to automatically run a simple script (ipchecker) that polls the DNS authoritative server to determine whether the dynamic IP address associated with an FQDN has changed. If so, we'll update the account.iptables file to reflect the new IP address and then restart IPtables. This will refresh all IP addresses associated with FQDNs. If all or most of your users spend time sleeping each day, you may wish to run the script only during certain (waking) hours of the day so your server has less of a load. The other consideration is how often to check. The guideline here is how long can any user live without their SIP phone being connected to your server. 10 minutes may be reasonable for some. 60 minutes may suffice for others. For us, it's 3 minutes. It's your choice. The way Travelin' Man 3 works is, whenever at least one account has an IP address change, it will trigger a restart of IPtables to do an IP address refresh for all of the FQDNs.
The top of the ipchecker script in /root looks like this:
#!/bin/bash
# Insert the account filenames to be checked below
# Remember to increment the account[#] for new entriesaccount[0]=larry.iptables
account[1]=curly.iptables
account[2]=moe.iptables
# ipchecker (c) Copyright 2012, Ward Mundy & Associates LLC.
You'll need to edit the script (nano -w /root/ipchecker) and modify the section in bold to reflect the actual FQDN account names you've created on your server that are associated with dynamic IP addresses only. You don't want to monitor accounts with static IP addresses or FQDNs that never get updated. When those extensions are off-line, it's not because their IP address changed, and restarting IPtables won't really help to improve the situation. Be sure to increment the account[n] array for each new account that you want to monitor and use the exact format shown in the example above. Before you enter an account in the script, display the contents of the file using cat /root/accountname.iptables. Make certain that the file includes BOTH an FQDN, then a space, and then an IP address. If not, delete the account (del-acct) and add it again using add-fqdn.
Once you've entered all of your accounts with dynamic IP addresses, save the script: Ctl-X, Y, then Enter. Run the script manually now to be sure it works as you intended: /root/ipchecker. Be advised that typos that list accounts that don't exist will cause problems. Error checking consumes processing cycles by requiring additional queries so we've left it out. That means it's solely up to you to check your account names for accuracy. And, remember, only include accounts that have dynamic IP addresses with FQDNs.
Step #6: Automating FQDN Refreshes with Cron. Finally, you'll need to add an entry to the bottom of /etc/crontab using nano. If you wanted the script to run 24 hours a day at 10 minute intervals, here's the command:
If you wanted the script to only run between the hours of 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. (server time zone) at 10 minute intervals, then you'd use something like this:
On our RentPBX complimentary account which we use while traveling, we actually set the interval to 3 minutes. Since the DNS lookups use dig, changes on Android phones using the DynDNS client are almost instantaneous even with automatic switching between WiFi and cellular service. Finally, be sure to type date on your server and verify which time zone your cloud server thinks it's in! Adjust the times in /etc/crontab accordingly.
Be sure to check back here periodically for updates and follow the latest happenings about Travelin' Man 3 in this thread on the PIAF Forums. Enjoy!
Originally published: Thursday, March 29, 2012 Updated: April 19, 2014
UNLESS YOU DISCONTINUE USING FQDN'S WITH IPTABLES, IT IS ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL THAT YOU MONITOR YOUR SERVER DAILY IF YOU ARE RELYING EXCLUSIVELY UPON IPTABLES AS YOUR FIREWALL PROTECTION MECHANISM AND YOU ARE USING FQDN'S AS PART OF YOUR CENTOS SECURITY METHODOLOGY!
Need help with Asterisk? Visit the NEW PBX in a Flash Forum.
whos.amung.us If you're wondering what your fellow man is reading on Nerd Vittles these days, wonder no more. Visit our new whos.amung.us statistical web site and check out what's happening. It's a terrific resource both for us and for you.
Special Thanks to Our Generous Sponsors
FULL DISCLOSURE: ClearlyIP, Skyetel, Vitelity, DigitalOcean, Vultr, VoIP.ms, 3CX, Sangoma, TelecomsXchange and VitalPBX have provided financial support to Nerd Vittles and our open source projects through advertising, referral revenue, and/or merchandise. As an Amazon Associate and Best Buy Affiliate, we also earn from qualifying purchases. We’ve chosen these providers not the other way around. Our decisions are based upon their corporate reputation and the quality of their offerings and pricing. Our recommendations regarding technology are reached without regard to financial compensation except in situations in which comparable products at comparable pricing are available from multiple sources. In this limited case, we support our sponsors because our sponsors support us.
BOGO Bonaza: Enjoy state-of-the-art VoIP service with a $10 credit and half-price SIP service on up to $500 of Skyetel trunking with free number porting when you fund your Skyetel account. No limits on number of simultaneous calls. Quadruple data center redundancy. $25 monthly minimum spend required. Tutorial and sign up details are here.
The lynchpin of Incredible PBX 2020 and beyond is ClearlyIP components which bring management of FreePBX modules and SIP phone integration to a level never before available with any other Asterisk distribution. And now you can configure and reconfigure your new Incredible PBX phones from the convenience of the Incredible PBX GUI.
VitalPBX is perhaps the fastest-growing PBX offering based upon Asterisk with an installed presence in more than 100 countries worldwide. VitalPBX has generously provided a customized White Label version of Incredible PBX tailored for use with all Incredible PBX and VitalPBX custom applications. Follow this link for a free test drive!
Special Thanks to Vitelity. Vitelity is now Voyant Communications and has halted new registrations for the time being. Our special thanks to Vitelity for their unwavering financial support over many years and to the many Nerd Vittles readers who continue to enjoy the benefits of their service offerings. We will keep everyone posted on further developments.
Some Recent Nerd Vittles Articles of Interest...
Coming to a Cloud Near You: Incredible PBX in the Cloud
Cloud Computing is all the rage today. And we’ve scoured the Earth looking for the best deal over or under the rainbow to host Incredible PBX in the Cloud. Here it is! For $14.99 a month with RentPBX.com, say goodbye to dedicated hardware, expensive Internet service, and a hefty electricity bill each month just to host your own Asterisk®-based VoIP server. After signing up for a free Google Voice account, just run the Incredible PBX installer on your custom configured PBX in a Flash virtual machine at RentPBX, and you’re ready to go with a free local phone number in your choice of U.S. area codes plus free long distance calling in the U.S. and Canada. Now plug in a SIP phone or softphone of your choice and start making calls. We insisted that all of the cloud savings be passed on directly to you. There’s no middleman and no commission. In fact, we don’t make a nickel, just the satisfaction of knowing you’ll be using our baby. Now that’s incredible! For those outside the U.S., it’s an ideal way to take advantage of free Google Voice calling. Here’s the $14.99 coupon code: PIAF2011.
News Flash: Be sure to read our latest article introducing Travelin’ Man 3, a completely new security methodology based upon FQDN Whitelists and DDNS. In a nutshell, you get set-it-and-forget-it convenience and rock-solid VoIP security for your Cloud-based PBX or any PBX in a Flash server that’s lacking a hardware-based firewall and you get both transparent connectivity and security for your mobile or remote workforce.
Of course, price is only part of the story. RentPBX also assures you the lowest possible latency for your VoIP calls. The RentPBX cloud gives you a choice of server locations including New Jersey, Baltimore, Atlanta, Tampa, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, and Seattle. So you can set up your Incredible PBX within milliseconds of your favorite VoIP provider. For example, the Tampa cloud is less than a millisecond away from VoIP.ms. Under 10 millisecond connectivity is available to numerous hosts from almost all RentPBX cloud locations. You’ll also get the best support in the industry. And RentPBX also happens to be one of the very finest contributors on the PIAF Forum! There are no long-term contracts so check out this incredible offer before it’s gone. RentPBX does most of the heavy lifting for you by setting up your PBX in a Flash virtual machine with Asterisk 1.8 so it’s ready to go. Your part takes less than 10 minutes, and you’ll be making your first call. In the VoIP World, it doesn’t get any easier than that.
The Incredible PBX Inventory. For those that have never heard of The Incredible PBX, here’s a feature list of components you get in addition to the base install of PBX in a Flash the latest CentOS 5.x, Asterisk 1.8, FreePBX 2.8, and Apache, SendMail, MySQL, PHP, phpMyAdmin, IPtables Linux firewall, Fail2Ban, and WebMin. Cepstral TTS, Fax, Hamachi VPN, and Mondo Backups are just one command away and may be installed using some of the PBX in a Flash-provided scripts.
- Amazon S3 Cloud Computing
- AsteriDex
- Asternic CDR Reports
- Baseball Scores & Schedules
- CallerID Superfecta (FreePBX Module adds Names to CID Numbers)
- SIP Color Videophone Support
- CallWho for Asterisk
- Cepstral TTS for 32-bit, Asterisk 1.8 (/root/nv/install-cepstral)
- Preconfigured Email That Works with SendMail
- PIAF Endpoint Manager
- ENUMPLUS (Use FreePBX to configure)
- Extensions (16 preconfigured with random passwords)
- FAX with HylaFax & AvantFax (/root/incrediblefax.sh)
- FAX on Demand Server (Dial F-O-D)
- Festival Server and Festival TTS for Asterisk (festival –server &)
- Flite TTS for Asterisk
- FONmail
- FreePBX Backups
- Google Voice (preconfigured)
- Free Hamachi VPN (install-hamachi)
- Hotel-Style Wakeup Calls (FreePBX Module)
- Incredible Backups… and Restores
- ISN: FreeNum SIP Calling from Any Phone
- MeetMe Conference Bridge (just dial C-O-N-F)
- Mondo Full System Backups (install-diskbackup)
- Incremental Daily Backups (install-dailybackup)
- Munin Reports (install-munin)
- NewsClips from Yahoo
- ODBC Database Support
- New PBX in a Flash Registry (show-registry)
- PogoPlug Cloud Computing
- Reminders by Phone and Web
- SAMBA Windows Networking (setup-samba)
- SIP URI Outbound Calling (call any SIP URI worldwide for free)
- Free Skype Inbound & Outbound Calling (for personal use)
- SMS Messaging with Google Voice
- Stealth AutoAttendant
- TeleYapper
- TFTP Server (setup-tftp)
- Tide Reports with xTide
- Trunk Lister Script (/root/nv/trunks.sh)
- Trunks (Vitelity, Gtalk, SIPgate, IPkall, VoIP.ms, and ENUM)
- Twitter Interface (Make Free Calls and Send SMS Messages)
- Weather by Airport Code
- Weather by ZIP Code
- Worldwide Weather
Installing Incredible PBX in the Cloud. To get everything working today, there are only three quick steps:
1. Set Up Your Google Voice Account
2. Create Your New Account on RentPBX.com
3. Run the Incredible PBX in the Cloud Installer
Then you’ll be ready to configure a softphone or SIP phone and start making free calls.
Google Voice Setup. You’ll need a dedicated Google Voice account to support The Incredible PBX. The more obscure the username (with some embedded numbers), the better off you will be. This will keep folks from bombarding you with unsolicited Gtalk chat messages, and who knows what nefarious scheme will be discovered using Google messaging six months from now. So why take the chance. Keep this account a secret!
We’ve also attempted setting this up using an existing Gmail account, and what we found was that inbound calls never ring through to Asterisk unless you sign out of Google Chat inside Gmail and leave it that way. The reason is because Google always delivers inbound calls exclusively to your Gmail Chat client if there are multiple registrations from the same IP address. So, be reasonable. Do it our way! Set up a dedicated Gmail and Google Voice account, and use it exclusively with The Incredible PBX. Google Voice no longer is by invitation only so, if you’re in the U.S. or have a friend that is, head over to the Google Voice site and register. If you’re living on another continent, see MisterQ’s posting for some tips on getting set up.
You must choose a telephone number (aka DID) for your new account, or Google Voice calling will not work… in either direction. Google used to permit outbound Gtalk calls using a fake CallerID, but that obviously led to abuse so it’s over! You also have to tie your Google Voice account to at least one working phone number as part of the initial setup process. Your cellphone number will work just fine. Don’t skip this step either. Just enter the provided 2-digit confirmation code when you tell Google to place the test call to the phone number you entered. Once the number is registered, you can disable it if you’d like in Settings, Voice Setting, Phones. But…
IMPORTANT: Be sure to enable the Google Chat option as one of your phone destinations in Settings, Voice Setting, Phones. That’s the destination we need for The Incredible PBX to work its magic! Otherwise, all inbound and outbound calls will fail. If you don’t see this option, you may need to call up Gmail and enable Google Chat there first. Then go back to the Google Voice Settings.
While you’re still in Google Voice Settings, click on the Calls tab. Make sure your settings match these:
- Call Screening – OFF
- Call Presentation – OFF
- Caller ID (In) – Display Caller’s Number
- Caller ID (Out) – Don’t Change Anything
- Do Not Disturb – OFF
Click Save Changes once you adjust your settings. Under the Voicemail tab, plug in your email address so you get notified of new voicemails. Down the road, receipt of a Google Voice voicemail will be a big hint that something has come unglued on your PBX.
RentPBX Setup. Once you have your Google Voice credentials, you’re ready to get your virtual machine at RentPBX set up. First, you’ll need an account. So visit RentPBX.com and sign up for an account using the coupon code above to get your discount. Pick a cloud server to host your new system, choose the PIAF-Purple 1.7.5.6 install option, set up a username and very secure password, and you’re done. Once your account is established and you receive your credentials, here’s the 5-minute procedure to install the special RentPBX-edition of Incredible PBX to begin making free calls in the U.S. and Canada through Google Voice.
Log into your RentPBX account using SSH and the port assigned to your account. For Windows users, download Putty from here. The SSH command will look something like this:
ssh -p 21422 root@209.249.149.108
Running The Incredible PBX in the Cloud Installer. While logged into your virtual machine as root, issue the following commands to set up Incredible PBX in the Cloud:
cd /root
wget http://incrediblepbx.com/incrediblepbx18-rentpbx.x
chmod +x incredible*
./incrediblepbx18-rentpbx.x
When the install begins, accept the license agreement and you’ll be prompted for the following:
Google Voice Account Name
Google Voice Password
Google Voice 10-digit Phone Number
Gmail Notification Address
FreePBX maint Password
The Google Voice Account Name is the Gmail address for your new dedicated account, e.g. joeschmo@gmail.com. Don’t forget @gmail.com! The Google Voice Password is the password for this dedicated account. The Google Voice Phone Number is the 10-digit DID for this dedicated account. We need this if we ever need to go back to the return call methodology for outbound calling. For now, it’s not necessary. But who knows what the future holds. 🙄 The Gmail Notification Address is the email address where you wish to receive alerts when incoming and outgoing Google Voice calls are placed using The Incredible PBX. And your FreePBX maint Password is the very secure password you want to use to access FreePBX using a web browser. We need this password to properly configure the CallerID Superfecta for you. By the way, none of this confidential information ever leaves your machine… just in case you were wondering.
Now have another 5-minute cup of coffee, and consider a modest donation to Nerd Vittles… for all of our hard work. 😉 You’ll find a link at the top of the page. When the installer finishes, READ THE SCREEN just for grins.
Remember that Incredible PBX in the Cloud is sitting directly on the Internet! So choose very strong passwords for everything including your extensions and trunks. Incredible PBX automatically randomizes extension passwords and locks access to the extensions down to the subnet of your cloud server. You’ll have to adjust this IP address to make connections from any external phone.
Here’s a short 4-minute video demonstration of the Incredible PBX installer process. Yes, even a monkey could do it…
One final word of caution is in order regardless of your choice of providers: Do NOT use special characters in any provider passwords, or nothing will work!
Securing Your RentPBX Server. The WhiteList application is not yet supported in the cloud. So you’ll need to secure your system to avoid endless hack attempts on your SIP resources. Here’s how. First, write down the IP addresses of your RentPBX server and your home network. Second, print out your existing IPtables configuration. The file to print is /etc/sysconfig/iptables. Third, make a backup copy of the file. While logged into your server with SSH, the easiest way is like this:
cd /etc/sysconfig
cp iptables iptables.bak
Now we need to edit the iptables file itself: nano -w iptables. Then search for the line that contains 5060: Ctrl-W, 5060, Enter. At the beginning of this line, add # to comment out the line. With the cursor still on this line, press Ctrl-K then Ctrl-U twice. This will duplicate the line. Move to the second commented line and remove #. Use the right cursor to move across the line to –dport. Then insert the following using the IP address of your RentPBX server, e.g.
-s 229.149.129.248
Be sure there’s at least one space before and after the new text. Now duplicate that line with Ctrl-K and Ctrl-U twice. Change the IP address on the second line to the public IP address of your home or office network. Repeat this process for every IP address where you intend to use a SIP phone connected to your RentPBX server. Make additional entries for your SIP providers as well. If you want to sleep better, you can make similar changes to the SSH port entry to restrict it to your home/office IP address. It’s the line immediately above the 5060 entry. Ditto for port 80 which is web access. Be very careful here. A typo will lock you out of your own server! When you’re finished, save the changes: Ctrl-X, Y, Enter. Then restart IPtables: service iptables restart.
As always, we strongly recommend that you not put all of your VoIP eggs in one basket. Google Voice does go down from time to time. Vitelity is a perfect complement because the costs are low and you only pay for the service you use. A discount sign up link is below. And Vitelity has contributed generously to both the Nerd Vittles and PBX in a Flash projects. So please support them.
Logging in to FreePBX. Using a web browser, you access the FreePBX GUI by pointing your browser to the IP address of Incredible PBX in the Cloud. Click on the Admin tab and choose FreePBX. When prompted for a username, it’s maint. When prompted for the password, it’s whatever you set up as your maint password when you installed Incredible PBX in the Cloud. If you forget it, you can always reset it by logging into your server as root and running passwd-master.
Extension Security Setup. For each remote phone you wish to set up, there are two preliminary steps before you can connect to your virtual machine from the remote phone. First, you must authorize the remote IP address of your phone in IPtables as we outlined above. Second, you must authorize the same remote IP address in FreePBX for the extension to which you will connect. Once you access the FreePBX GUI with your browser, choose Setup, Extensions, and click on the extension number you plan to use with the phone. Make a note of the secret which is the password for this extension. Also write down the Voicemail Password which you’ll need to retrieve your voicemail. Finally, move down to the permit field and change the entry to the public IP address of your remote phone followed by /255.255.255.255. Submit your changes and reload FreePBX when promoted. A typical entry would look like this:
permit: 123.456.123.456/255.255.255.255
Configuring a SIP Phone. There are hundreds of terrific SIP telephones and softphones for Asterisk-based systems. Once you get things humming along, you’ll want a real SIP telephone such as the $50 Nortel color videophone we’ve recommended previously. You’ll also find lots of additional recommendations on Nerd Vittles and in the PBX in a Flash Forum. If you’re like us, we want to make damn sure this stuff works before you shell out any more money. So, for today, let’s download a terrific (free) softphone to get you started. We recommend X-Lite because there are versions for Windows, Mac, and Linux. So download your favorite from this link. Install and run X-Lite on your Desktop. At the top of the phone, click on the Down Arrow and choose SIP Account Settings, Add. Enter the following information using your actual password for extension 701 (or whatever extension you plan to use) and the actual IP address of your Incredible PBX in the Cloud server instead of 192.168.0.251. Click OK when finished. Your softphone should now show: Available.
Astricon 2011. Astricon 2011 will be in the Denver area beginning Tuesday, October 25, through Thursday, October 27. We hope to see many of you there. Be sure to mention you’d like a free PIAF thumb drive. We hope to have a bunch of them to pass out to our loyal supporters. Nerd Vittles readers also can save 15% on your registration by using this coupon code. Register by July 10 to save an additional $170.
Originally published: Monday, June 27, 2011
Need help with Asterisk? Visit the PBX in a Flash Forum.
Or Try the New, Free PBX in a Flash Conference Bridge.
whos.amung.us If you’re wondering what your fellow man is reading on Nerd Vittles these days, wonder no more. Visit our new whos.amung.us statistical web site and check out what’s happening. It’s a terrific resource both for us and for you.
Special Thanks to Our Generous Sponsors
FULL DISCLOSURE: ClearlyIP, Skyetel, Vitelity, DigitalOcean, Vultr, VoIP.ms, 3CX, Sangoma, TelecomsXchange and VitalPBX have provided financial support to Nerd Vittles and our open source projects through advertising, referral revenue, and/or merchandise. As an Amazon Associate and Best Buy Affiliate, we also earn from qualifying purchases. We’ve chosen these providers not the other way around. Our decisions are based upon their corporate reputation and the quality of their offerings and pricing. Our recommendations regarding technology are reached without regard to financial compensation except in situations in which comparable products at comparable pricing are available from multiple sources. In this limited case, we support our sponsors because our sponsors support us.
BOGO Bonaza: Enjoy state-of-the-art VoIP service with a $10 credit and half-price SIP service on up to $500 of Skyetel trunking with free number porting when you fund your Skyetel account. No limits on number of simultaneous calls. Quadruple data center redundancy. $25 monthly minimum spend required. Tutorial and sign up details are here.
The lynchpin of Incredible PBX 2020 and beyond is ClearlyIP components which bring management of FreePBX modules and SIP phone integration to a level never before available with any other Asterisk distribution. And now you can configure and reconfigure your new Incredible PBX phones from the convenience of the Incredible PBX GUI.
VitalPBX is perhaps the fastest-growing PBX offering based upon Asterisk with an installed presence in more than 100 countries worldwide. VitalPBX has generously provided a customized White Label version of Incredible PBX tailored for use with all Incredible PBX and VitalPBX custom applications. Follow this link for a free test drive!
Special Thanks to Vitelity. Vitelity is now Voyant Communications and has halted new registrations for the time being. Our special thanks to Vitelity for their unwavering financial support over many years and to the many Nerd Vittles readers who continue to enjoy the benefits of their service offerings. We will keep everyone posted on further developments.
Some Recent Nerd Vittles Articles of Interest…