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The Most Versatile VoIP Provider: FREE PORTING
JUST RELEASED: Visit the Incredible PBX WikiGame Changer: Hooking Up Facebook with Incredible PBX
There aren’t many VoIP discoveries that get us this excited about the future of telecom. But merging with 1.5 billion users plus Facebook’s enormous talent pool and technology resources is definitely something worthy of your attention. What a Facebook marriage with the VoIP platform could mean for the future of telecommunications is nothing short of earth-shattering. Few people still have home phones. Almost everyone has a Facebook account and a cellphone. If VoIP solutions for businesses fail to take those last two sentences into account, commercial PBX’s days are numbered… and it’s not a big number.
So why integrate Facebook Messenger into your PBX? The screenshot above says it all.
Think of the possibilities. Using Facebook Messenger on your smartphone or desktop PC, you could query a CRM database running on your VoIP server and instantly connect to anyone in the world by making a free call or sending a free text message. Using Facebook Messenger, you or any designated employee could receive instant alerts when a new voicemail or fax arrived on your PBX. Using Facebook Messenger, the Call Center possibilities are virtually endless as documented here. Using Facebook Messenger, you as an administrator could literally manage your entire fleet of PBXs from the convenience of your smartphone… anywhere in the world. While the Facebook Messenger platform does not independently support phone calls between its users today, it’s just a matter of time. Look at the name of the product. Is there any doubt where this project is headed given the fact that Apple already supports free calling with Facetime, Microsoft supports free calling with Skype, Google supports free calling with Google Voice, and Amazon supports free calling with its Echo platform?
Facebook integration is revolutionary in another way as well. It heralds the arrival of chatbots to do the heavy lifting for telecom businesses as well as system administrators. Just as ATMs revolutionized banking, chatbots are poised to do much the same thing for communications and Internet support. Down the road, we’ll document how to take advantage of this chatbot technology using Facebook Messenger.
We need to learn to walk before we can run. So today we’ve developed a Facebook webhooks integration project for Incredible PBX® that is perfect for administrators, whether you manage a home PBX or a dozen PBXs for an organization. We’ll get to some of the other possibilities in future articles. Setting this up is the best way we can think of to get your creative juices flowing to consider what’s possible and to identify where to go next. When we’re finished, you’ll have a Facebook Messenger platform from which you can issue any Linux® or Asterisk® command to your server. And, you’ll be able to send messages from your PBX to Facebook Messenger to identify any events you wish to monitor, whether it’s phone calls, or voicemails, or receipt of faxes, or even VoIP provider outages. In addition, you can even reroute calls by entering simple call forwarding commands in Messenger.
Before we get started, let’s get all of the legal stuff out of the way up front. WE PROVIDE OPEN SOURCE, GPL CODE TO OUR READERS AT NO COST. ALWAYS HAVE. ALWAYS WILL. THE TRADEOFF IS YOU MUST AGREE TO ACCEPT ALL RISKS INHERENT IN USING THE SOFTWARE, WHETHER THOSE RISKS ARE KNOWN OR UNKNOWN TO YOU OR TO US. THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND MAY BE USED AS DELIVERED, OR YOU MAY MODIFY IT TO MEET YOUR OWN NEEDS SUBJECT TO THE TERMS OF THE GPL 2 LICENSE AVAILABLE HERE. IF YOU ARE UNWILLING TO AGREE TO THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS, STOP READING HERE AND MOVE ON TO SOME OTHER WEB SITE. OTHERWISE, LET’S BEGIN WHAT WE PROMISE WILL BE A TERRIFIC ADVENTURE.
Overview of Facebook Messenger Webhooks Project
Here is a thumbnail sketch of what we’ll be covering today. Once you get an SSL certificate installed for your server, the remaining steps are a walk in the park. When we’re finished, you’ll have a Facebook Messenger platform that is seamlessly integrated with your PBX. The current software release supports Incredible PBX 13 with CentOS 6, Incredible PBX for Issabel, and Incredible PBX for Wazo. Minor tweaking required for other Asterisk platforms.
- SSL Certificate – Obtaining and installing an SSL certificate for your web server
- Security – Locking down your server for safe, secure Facebook Messenger access
- Incredible PBX Webhooks App – Installing the server-side webhooks software
- Facebook Integration – Interconnecting Facebook Messenger and Incredible PBX
- Outbound Call Setup – Configuring Incredible PBX to make outbound calls from FB
- Incoming Call Alerts – Configuring Incredible PBX for FB Messenger call alerts
- Webhooks Feature Set – Our tutorial covering all supported webhook commands
- SMS Messaging – Configuring Incredible PBX for SMS Messaging support with FB
- Webhooks Tips & Tricks – Adjusting our code to meet your own requirements
Obtaining and Installing an SSL Certificate
Believe it or not, the hardest part of today’s project was covered in last week’s Nerd Vittles tutorial. It walked you through obtaining and installing an SSL Certificate on any of the major Incredible PBX platforms. This gets your server configured to use secure and encrypted web communications via HTTPS which is both a Facebook requirement and a smart idea. There’s no need to read further until you get your server working properly with an SSL certificate because the Facebook integration component will fail until you get HTTPS access squared away. So start there and return here when you’re finished.
The Most Important Piece of the Puzzle: SECURITY
If you’ve been following Nerd Vittles over the years, you already know that our most important consideration with any PBX deployment is security. A PBX without a secure firewall is an invitation for an astronomical phone bill. Today’s setup assumes you already have deployed Incredible PBX with its Travelin’ Man 3 firewall that provides a whitelist of IP addresses that may access (or even see) your server. By definition, Facebook Messenger is a public platform available to everyone in the world. So how do we safely integrate it into your PBX while preserving the security of your server and its telecom resources? We do it in several ways. First, Facebook Messenger Webhooks are tied to a commercial Facebook page even though you don’t need a business in order to create the page. As the owner of that Facebook Page, you have to authorize users to access the page. DON’T! Make this a page that is solely dedicated to managing your PBX through Messenger. DO NOT USE THIS FACEBOOK PAGE AS THE PUBLIC FACE FOR YOUR BUSINESS! Also make certain that your Facebook credentials include a very secure password… as if the integrity of your PBX depended upon it. IT DOES! So long as you follow these guidelines, Facebook’s own security mechanisms will protect your PBX from intrusion. If this discussion makes you nervous, our last topic today will show you how to remove components from the code to eliminate any functionality you wish to turn off.
As configured, Facebook Messenger Webhooks won’t work at all with Incredible PBX because the firewall should block all web access to your server. This requires a change on the Incredible PBX for Wazo platform which we will cover momentarily. The way we will provide Facebook access is by adding the Facebook server IP addresses to the existing whitelist, and then we’ll run a bash script every night to keep the Facebook IP addresses current.
In the past, we opened TCP port 443 (HTTPS) to public access on the firewall with Incredible PBX for Wazo. Instead, we relied upon web server authentication for access to the Wazo, Telephone Reminders, and AsteriDex services. That needs to be changed before you interconnect with Facebook Messenger, and we’ll include that in the commands to whitelist the Facebook servers below.
1. To secure port 443 in your firewall, be sure that the port is not exposed in /etc/sysconfig/iptables (CentOS) or /etc/iptables/rules.v4 (Debian/Ubuntu/Raspbian). And then restart the Incredible PBX firewall.
sed -i 's|443|450|' /etc/sysconfig/iptables sed -i 's|443|450|' /etc/iptables/rules.v4 iptables-restart
2. Verify your new configuration: iptables -nL. Search for 443 and make certain it is NOT in the whitelist.
3. Verify that the whois package is installed on your server by issuing the command: whois. If you get a file not found error, install the package using the top line for CentOS and the bottom line for Debian/Ubuntu/Raspbian:
yum install whois apt-get install whois
4a. For Issabel and Incredible PBX 13, add to the end of /usr/local/sbin/iptables-restart these lines to whitelist the FB servers. Then restart the firewall: iptables-restart
whois -h whois.radb.net -- '-i origin AS32934' | grep ^route: | sed "s|route: |/usr/sbin/iptables -A INPUT -s |" | sed "s|$| -p tcp -m tcp --dport 443 -j ACCEPT|" > /usr/local/sbin/iptables-facebook chmod +x /usr/local/sbin/iptables-facebook /usr/local/sbin/iptables-facebook
4b. For Incredible PBX for Wazo, add to end of /usr/local/sbin/iptables-restart these lines to whitelist the FB servers. Then restart the firewall: iptables-restart
whois -h whois.radb.net -- '-i origin AS32934' | grep ^route: | sed "s|route: |/sbin/iptables -A INPUT -s |" | sed "s|$| -p tcp -m tcp --dport 443 -j ACCEPT|" > /usr/local/sbin/iptables-facebook chmod +x /usr/local/sbin/iptables-facebook /usr/local/sbin/iptables-facebook
5. Verify your new configuration: iptables -nL. You should see numerous whitelist entries for port 443 at the end of the listing.
6. Add the following command at the bottom of /etc/crontab to assure that the Facebook server IP addresses are kept current:
20 0 * * * root /usr/local/sbin/iptables-restart >/dev/null 2>&1
7a. For Issabel and Incredible PBX 13, create new web directory, set ownership/permissions to house the Facebook Messenger webhooks, and add a sample web page:
mkdir /var/www/html/fb echo "Hello World" > /var/www/html/fb/index2.php chown -R asterisk:asterisk /var/www/html/fb
7b. For Incredible PBX for Wazo, create web directory, set ownership/permissions to house the Facebook Messenger webhooks, and add a sample web page:
mkdir /var/www/html/fb echo "Hello World" > /var/www/html/fb/index2.php chown -R asterisk:www-data /var/www/html/fb chmod -R 775 /var/www/html/fb
8a. For Issabel and Incredible PBX 13, no further configuration is required.
8b. For Incredible PBX for Wazo, we need to enable access to the fb web directory. Edit /etc/nginx/locations/https-available/01_incrediblepbx:
At the top of the file, add the following:
location ~* ^/fb/. *\(?:ico|css|js|gif|jpe?g|png)${
root /var/www/html;
}
At the bottom of the file, add the following:
location ~ /fb/ {
root /var/www/html;
index index.php;
try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
fasstcgi_index index.php;
include fastcgi_params;
fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php5-fpm.sock;
}
Finally, restart the NGINX web server: service nginx restart
9. Using a browser, verify access to sample page: https://SERVER-FQDN/fb/index2.php
Installing Incredible PBX Webhooks Application
Now it’s time to install the Incredible PBX webhooks application on your PBX:
cd /var/www/html/fb wget http://incrediblepbx.com/incrediblewebhooks.tar.gz tar zxvf incrediblewebhooks.tar.gz rm incrediblewebhooks.tar.gz
For Issabel and Incredible PBX 13, adjust the file ownership and permissions like this:
chown -R asterisk:asterisk /var/www/html/fb chmod -R 775 /var/www/html/fb
For Incredible PBX for Wazo, adjust the file ownership and permissions like this:
chown -R asterisk:www-data /var/www/html/fb chmod -R 775 /var/www/html/fb
Hooking Up with Facebook
1. Visit the Facebook Developer’s Page and click Add a New App. Give your app a Display Name and provide your Contact Email. Match the letters in the box to get past the Security Check to display the Facebook Product List.
2. When the Facebook Product List appears, click Messenger and choose Setup.
3. In the Token Generation section, click Create a new Facebook Business Page to open a separate browser tab. Do NOT use a page that you use for other purposes! Company, Organization, or Institution is a good choice because there’s a Telecom Company category. Give your new page a Descriptive Name: incrediblepbx-podunk.
4. Return to your Token Generation browser tab and Select the Page you just created from the pull-down list (see Token Generation section of image below). Click Continue and OK to accept the default settings. Facebook then will generate a Page Access Token.
5. Copy the Page Access Token to your clipboard and paste it into the $access_token variable in the config.inc.php template in /var/www/html/fb. Write it down and keep it in a safe place. You’ll always need it to create new webhooks applications. This is the important link to talk to your Facebook Webhooks.
6. In the Webhooks section, click Setup Webhooks. In the Page Subscription form, enter the callback URL for your page. This is the https address to access your Facebook directory with a browser, e.g. https://YOUR-FQDN/fb. Make up a very secure Verify Token and enter it on the form and in the $verify_token variable in the config.inc.php template. This is the code Facebook will send to initially shake hands with your web page. The two entries must match to successfully set up your webhooks linkage. For Subscription Fields, check the Messages box. Then click Verify and Save. If it worked, you’ll get a Complete checkmark in the Webhooks section (see below). The last step is to again Select your Page in the Webhooks section to interconnect Facebook with your PBX. After choosing your page, be sure to click Subscribe or nothing will work. Here’s what a successful setup looks like:
7. To test things out, open Facebook Messenger on a desktop PC, Mac, or smartphone. Search Messenger for the Facebook page you linked to in the previous step. Then click on it to open it. Type howdy in the Message Box at the bottom of the dialog and click Send.
8. You should get an automated response that looks like this:
Hi there and welcome to BotWorld. SenderID: 13824822489535983
9. Copy the SenderID and paste it into cli-message.php together with Page Access Token from step #5, above.
Outbound Call Setup for Facebook Messenger
Outbound calling with Facebook Messenger works like this. You can connect to a specific number using the dial command. Or you can use the call command to look up an entry in your AsteriDex database. Messenger then will display the matching phone number and give you the option of placing the call. When the call is initiated, Incredible PBX will first call your designated CALL-PICKUP-NUMBER. It could be an extension or ring group of your choice. You could even specify a mobile phone number as the pickup destination provided your PBX supports at least two simultaneous outbound calls. Google Voice and many SIP providers can handle this with a single DID. Our personal preference is to route the pickup call to a trunk on a 3CX server which then sends the call to every 3CX client registered with the 3CX server. No NAT issues ever! Once you pick up the call on your designated phone, Incredible PBX will place the second call to the number you requested in Facebook Messenger. The two calls then are connected as if you had placed the call directly. The brief video below demonstrates how this works and the flexibility of using Acer’s $250 Chromebook Flip with Messenger and a 3CX client as a (free) WiFi-based web communications platform with Google Voice. It lets you place and take calls from anywhere in the world so long as you have Wi-Fi access. It’s a dirt cheap travel companion.
To make all of this work, you need to designate a phone in /var/www/html/fb/.cli-call to take outbound calls initiated from Facebook Messenger. This is either an extension number or a 10-digit CALL-PICKUP-NUMBER in the examples below. To set this up, edit .cli-call and choose one of the following examples. Comment out the other Channel options.
For Issabel and Incredible PBX 13, choose from the following:
#echo "Channel: SIP/701" > /tmp/cli.call #echo "Channel: SIP/vitel-outbound/1CALL-PICKUP-NUMBER" > /tmp/cli-call echo "Channel: Motif/gSOME-GV-NAMEgmailcom/1CALL-PICKUP-NUMBER@voice.google.com" > /tmp/cli.call
For Incredible PBX for Wazo, choose from the following:
echo "Channel: Local/701@default" > /tmp/cli.call #echo "Channel: Local/CALL-PICKUP-NUMBER@default" > /tmp/cli.call
Incoming Call Alerts with Facebook Messenger
If you’ve always wished for screenpops to announce your incoming calls, you’re going to drool at the FB Messenger Webhooks implementation with Incredible PBX. It works (simultaneously) on desktop PCs, Macs, iPhones/iPads, Android devices, and Apple Watch:
To set up incoming call alerts with Facebook Messenger, just issue the commands for your platform as outlined below.
For Incredible PBX 13, add the following to the end of extensions_override_freepbx.conf in /etc/asterisk directory. Then reload Asterisk dialplan: asterisk -rx "dialplan reload"
[cidlookup]
include => cidlookup-custom
exten => cidlookup_1,1,Set(CURLOPT(httptimeout)=7)
exten => cidlookup_1,n,Set(CALLERID(name)=${CURL(https://api.opencnam.com/v2/phone/${CALLERID(num)}?format=pbx&ref=freepbx)})
exten => cidlookup_1,n,Set(current_hour=${STRFTIME(,,%Y-%m-%d %H)})
exten => cidlookup_1,n,Set(last_query_hour=${DB(cidlookup/opencnam_last_query_hour)})
exten => cidlookup_1,n,Set(total_hourly_queries=${DB(cidlookup/opencnam_total_hourly_queries)})
exten => cidlookup_1,n,ExecIf($["${last_query_hour}" != "${current_hour}"]?Set(DB(cidlookup/opencnam_total_hourly_queries)=0))
exten => cidlookup_1,n,ExecIf($["${total_hourly_queries}" = ""]?Set(DB(cidlookup/opencnam_total_hourly_queries)=0))
exten => cidlookup_1,n,Set(DB(cidlookup/opencnam_total_hourly_queries)=${MATH(${DB(cidlookup/opencnam_total_hourly_queries)}+1,i)})
exten => cidlookup_1,n,ExecIf($[${DB(cidlookup/opencnam_total_hourly_queries)} >= 60]?System(${ASTVARLIBDIR}/bin/opencnam-alert.php))
exten => cidlookup_1,n,Set(DB(cidlookup/opencnam_last_query_hour)=${current_hour})
exten => cidlookup_1,n,System(/usr/bin/php /var/www/html/fb/cli-message.php "Incoming call: ${CALLERID(number)} - ${CALLERID(name)}.")
exten => cidlookup_1,n,Return()
exten => cidlookup_return,1,ExecIf($["${DB(cidname/${CALLERID(num)})}" != ""]?Set(CALLERID(name)=${DB(cidname/${CALLERID(num)})}))
exten => cidlookup_return,n,Return()
;--== end of [cidlookup] ==--;
For Incredible PBX for Issabel, add this to the end of extensions_override_issabel.conf in /etc/asterisk directory. Then reload Asterisk dialplan: asterisk -rx "dialplan reload"
[cidlookup]
include => cidlookup-custom
exten => cidlookup_5,1,Set(CURLOPT(httptimeout)=7)
exten => cidlookup_5,n,Set(CALLERID(name)=${CURL(https://api.opencnam.com/v2/phone/${CALLERID(num)}?format=pbx&ref=issabelpbx)})
exten => cidlookup_5,n,Set(current_hour=${STRFTIME(,,%Y-%m-%d %H)})
exten => cidlookup_5,n,Set(last_query_hour=${DB(cidlookup/opencnam_last_query_hour)})
exten => cidlookup_5,n,Set(total_hourly_queries=${DB(cidlookup/opencnam_total_hourly_queries)})
exten => cidlookup_5,n,ExecIf($["${last_query_hour}" != "${current_hour}"]?Set(DB(cidlookup/opencnam_total_hourly_queries)=0))
exten => cidlookup_5,n,ExecIf($["${total_hourly_queries}" = ""]?Set(DB(cidlookup/opencnam_total_hourly_queries)=0))
exten => cidlookup_5,n,Set(DB(cidlookup/opencnam_total_hourly_queries)=${MATH(${DB(cidlookup/opencnam_total_hourly_queries)}+1,i)})
exten => cidlookup_5,n,ExecIf($[${DB(cidlookup/opencnam_total_hourly_queries)} >= 60]?System(${ASTVARLIBDIR}/bin/opencnam-alert.php))
exten => cidlookup_5,n,Set(DB(cidlookup/opencnam_last_query_hour)=${current_hour})
exten => cidlookup_5,n,System(/usr/bin/php /var/www/html/fb/cli-message.php "Incoming call: ${CALLERID(number)} - ${CALLERID(name)}.")
exten => cidlookup_5,n,Return()
exten => cidlookup_return,1,ExecIf($["${DB(cidname/${CALLERID(num)})}" != ""]?Set(CALLERID(name)=${DB(cidname/${CALLERID(num)})}))
exten => cidlookup_return,n,Return()
;--== end of [cidlookup] ==--;
For Incredible PBX for Wazo, edit /etc/asterisk/extensions_extra.d/cid-superfecta.conf. In the [xivo-subrgbl-did] context just below the n(keepon),Gosub(cid-superfecta,s,1) line, insert the following. Then reload the Asterisk dialplan: asterisk -rx "dialplan reload"
same = n,System(/usr/bin/php /var/www/html/fb/cli-message.php "Incoming call: ${XIVO_SRCNUM} - ${CALLERID(name)}.")
Incredible PBX Webhooks Feature Set
Now that we’ve got all the pieces in place and properly configured, let’s briefly walk through the various options that are available. With all commands, you use Facebook Messenger with your designated web page on any platform supported by Messenger.
dial 8005551212 – connects to designated extension and then calls 8005551212
call Delta – looks up Delta in AsteriDex and provides button to place the call
lookup Delta – looks up Delta in AsteriDex and provides button to place the call
!command – executes a Linux command, e.g. !asterisk -rx "sip show registry"
howdy – returns greeting and SENDER ID of your FB page (Hookup, item #9)
help – provides links to phone help as well as PIAF and Asterisk forums
sms 10-digit-SMS-number "Some message" – sends SMS message through GV
update – updates Messenger platform for Incredible PBX to the latest & greatest
anything else – returns whatever you typed as a response (for now)
Configuring Incredible PBX for SMS Messaging
We’ve implemented a traditional SMS messaging function in this build that let’s you send an SMS message to any phone if you have a Google Voice account and assuming you have pygooglevoice functioning properly on your PBX. The Google Voice account need not be registered as a trunk on the PBX. To use the feature, insert your Google Voice credentials including your plain-text password for a working Google Voice account in /var/www/html/fb/.smssend. Then test the SMS functionality by issuing the following command from the Linux CLI:
/var/www/html/fb/.smssend 10-DIGIT-SMS-NUMBER "Hello SMS World"
If an error occurs, the script will tell you what to try to fix it. Begin by Enabling Less Secure Apps. Then follow this link to relax Google Voice security on your account. If it still fails after trying both of these methods, you may have an old build of pygooglevoice. Here are the commands to bring your system up to current specs. Then try again.
cd /root rm -r pygooglevoice git clone https://github.com/wardmundy/pygooglevoice.git cd pygooglevoice python setup.py install cp -p bin/gvoice /usr/bin/.
Once you’ve sent an SMS message successfully using .smssend, you can start sending SMS messages from within Messenger. Syntax: sms 10-digit-SMS-number "Some message"
Incredible PBX Webhooks Tips & Tricks
There’s lots to learn with Facebook Messenger Webhooks. When we started two weeks ago, there were no PHP resources on the web that offered much help. Lucky for you, our pain is your gain. The meat of the coconut is primarily stored in the index.php in your fb directory. Print it out and it will tell you everything you ever wanted to know about coding webhooks with PHP.
Disabling Shell Access. While shell access only provides asterisk or www-data permissions depending upon your platform, we’ve nevertheless heard from more than one source exclaiming what a dumb idea it is to put a webhooks shell command out in the wild. We trust our readers to use it responsibly and to always place it behind a firewall with public access to TCP port 443 blocked. If that design and the Facebook security mechanisms still leave you queasy, the short answer is to remove that block of code on your server or change the access code from ! to something much more obscure, e.g. YuKFoo!. This is easy to do but just be aware that if you change the access code or even remove the block of code, running the update command to load the latest release from Incredible PBX Headquarters will overwrite your changes. So it’s probably a better idea to rename the update command (line 248) as well so you don’t accidentally run it. You’ll find the shell command block of code beginning at line 64 in the 170928 version. If you change the access code to a different string, remember to change the substring "1″ reference in that line and the subsequent line to the actual length of your access code, e.g. YukFoo! is seven characters long so the number 1 would be replaced with 7 in BOTH lines 64 and 65.
Other Security Measures. We don’t trust anybody (and that includes Facebook) when it comes to accessing resources from our paid VoIP providers. We would encourage you to run this application on a dedicated Incredible PBX in the Cloud server that has only a single Google Voice trunk with no funds balance in that particular Google account. In this way, if your server is compromised, the worst thing that can happen is your Google account gets compromised or some stranger makes U.S. and Canadian calls without financial cost to you. Now that Cloud servers are available for less than $2 a month, it makes good sense to separate out applications that pose heightened security issues for you and yours. If you do decide to use a SIP provider rather than a Google Voice trunk, we strongly recommend restricting international calls and keeping a minimal balance in your account with no automatic replenishment enabled.
Getting Rid of Lenny. The help command included in the feature set provided is more of a traditional web page with buttons simulating hot links. We’ve included a nifty telephone option in the help features. It let’s you embed a phone number that is called using client-side integration whenever help is entered and the "Talk to Lenny" option is clicked:
What client-side integration means is the calls use any dialer available on the Messenger client’s platform. They are not sent to your PBX for processing. On a Mac or iPhone, Facetime provides free calls. On Windows, Skype provides paid calls. On Android devices, the Google Hangouts Dialer provides free calls. Facebook basically passes tel: +18005551212 to the client’s browser, and it’s up to the client’s browser to figure out how to process the call. We currently have the feature configured to "Talk to Lenny," but you could change it to Phone Home or Call the Office and enter your own phone number. Here are the commands to do it. Just replace "Phone Home" in the first command below with whatever label desired. Replace "8005551212″ in the second line with the number to be called. Leave the other Lenny entry and phone number as they are since they will be overwritten by these two commands. As noted above, your modifications will be overwritten whenever you execute the update command.
sed -i 's|Talk to Lenny|Phone Home|' /var/www/html/fb/index.php sed -i 's|8436060444|8005551212|' /var/www/html/fb/index.php
Enhanced Calling Option. Beginning with the October 1 update which you can obtain by entering the update command in Messenger, you now have two calling options on some smartphone platforms. The call command still triggers an AsteriDex lookup on your PBX. But now you have a choice in how to place the call. (1) You can click the dial button to place the outbound call through your PBX, or (2) you can click on the retrieved phone number link to place the outbound call using the client-side resource available on your Messenger platform, e.g. Facetime, Skype, or Google Hangouts. In some circumstances, the client-side call may be preferable since it avoids the two-step calling procedure used by Asterisk. The choice is yours and may depend upon the availability and cost of the client-side call when placed from your calling location.
Special Thanks. Our special hat tip to Scott T. Tabor (@ABSGINC) for his pioneering work on Facebook Webhooks. You can visit the PIAF Forum and Scott’s blog to review how far we have come in just two weeks. Thanks, Scott.
Published: Monday, October 2, 2017
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Some Recent Nerd Vittles Articles of Interest…
Free SMS Messaging Returns to Incredible PBX for Wazo
We continue our Wazo adventure today with a few simple additions to the Incredible PBX for Wazo dialplan. We will enable SMS messaging both from SIP phones such as the Yealink T46G and using voice recognition from any phone connected to Wazo including WebRTC. Of course, you still can use the command line to send SMS messages to one or more recipients using SMS Message Blasting which is covered below. To implement SMS messaging, you’ll need at least one Google Voice account configured. To implement the voice recognition option, you’ll also need to first enable voice recognition with Incredible PBX for Wazo.
The prerequisites for SMS Messaging with Incredible PBX for Wazo look like this:
- Incredible PBX for Wazo Server
- Preconfigured Google Voice Trunk
- Activate Google Speech Recognition on your server
Activating Google Speech Recognition on Your Server. If you haven’t previously activated Google Speech Recognition on your Wazo server, you’ll need to complete this step if you want to be able to dictate SMS messages from phones connected to Wazo. Follow this tutorial to obtain a speech recognition API key and activate the Google service on your server. It only takes a couple minutes.
SMS Dictator for Wazo. True to form, Google broke the command-line SMS messaging component a few weeks ago. So let’s get that squared away before we begin. Install the latest Google Voice python scripts and the updated SMS Dictator components by issuing the following commands after logging into your server as root. You’ll need your Google Voice credentials to install the update:
cd /root wget http://incrediblepbx.com/sms-dictator-wazo.tar.gz tar zxvf sms-dictator-wazo.tar.gz rm -f sms-dictator-wazo.tar.gz ./sms-dictator.sh
Wazo SMS Messaging Setup. You may also want to enable your SIP phones to send SMS messages directly. Login to your Wazo PBX using your favorite web browser. We need to review the existing gv.conf file by navigating to IPX Configuration → Configuration Files → gv.conf. Review the first context in the file. It should look like the following. Be sure that the third from the last line below does NOT wrap to a separate line in the Wazo editor! Insert your Google Voice credentials for GVACCT and GVPASS.
;# // BEGIN gv-outcall
[subr-gv-outcall]
exten = s,1,Set(XIVO_CALLOPTIONS=r)
same = n,GotoIf($["${MESSAGE(body)}" = ""]?skipsms)
same = n,Set(GVACCT=yourname@gmail.com)
same = n,Set(GVPASS=yourpassword)
same = n,System(/usr/bin/gvoice -e ${GVACCT} -p ${GVPASS} send_sms ${XIVO_DSTNUM} "${MESSAGE(body)}")
same = n(skipsms),Return()
;# // END gv-outcall
Once you get this set up and since we’ll be using plain text passwords to send the SMS messages through Google Voice, you’ll need to perform these two additional steps after first logging into your Google account with a browser using the same IP address as your Wazo server: (1) Enable Less Secure Apps and (2) Activate the Google Voice Reset Procedure. Now promptly send an SMS message from a phone registered to your Wazo server.
Dial S-M-S (767) from any phone connected to your Wazo PBX to send an SMS message. After dictating your message, you have the choice of keying in a 10-digit phone number for the SMS recipient or you can say the name of anyone in your AsteriDex phone book.
Sending SMS Messages. We obviously can’t cover the SMS messaging methodology for every SIP phone on the market. But here’s how to send an SMS message using Yealink’s T46G. First, configure one of the buttons on the phone as an extension on your Wazo PBX. Next, press the Menu button. Highlight Messages and press OK. Choose Text Message and OK. Choose New Message and OK. Type your SMS message using the keypad and press Send button. For the From: field, use the left and right arrow keys to select your Wazo extension. Press the down arrow and fill in the SMS number of your recipient just as you would do on your smartphone. Press the Send button. "Sending Message" will appear briefly on the T46G’s display. Wazo’s Asterisk CLI also will show transmission of the SMS message.
Interestingly, the same SMS functionality exists on the $29 UTP E-62 (if you can find one). Choose Menu → Applications → SMS → New. Type your SMS message using the keypad and press Send button. For the From: field, use the left and right arrow keys to select your Wazo extension. Press the down arrow and fill in the SMS number of your recipient just as you would do on your smartphone. Press the Send button. "Sending Message" will appear briefly on the UTP’s display. Wazo’s Asterisk CLI also will show the SMS transmission.
For bargain hunters that can’t find a UTP E-62, Yealink’s $50 YEA-SIP-T19P-E2 Entry-level SIP phone also appears to support SMS messaging. As with the UTP phones, you’ll need a $9 power supply unless your network supports POE.
Creating an SMS Message Blast with Wazo. Here’s how to take advantage of SMS Message Blasting using a Google Voice account with Incredible PBX for Wazo. Log into your server as root and do the following:
- Edit /root/smsmsg.txt and insert the text message to be sent
- Edit /root/smslist.txt and create a list of the phone numbers to receive the message
- Edit /root/smsblast and insert your gvoice username and password
- Run /root/smsblast to kick off the SMS Blast
Receiving SMS Messages. Typically reply messages to Google Voice numbers are forwarded either to an email address or to Hangouts. We don’t recommend enabling incoming mail on your Wazo PBX. Instead, add a New Alternate Email Address to your Google Voice account in Settings → Voicemail & Text. After verifying the new email address, set it as your Voicemail Notification email address and Save changes. Go back into Settings → Voicemail & Text and make certain that you have also checked the Text Forwarding checkbox which now should reflect your alternate email address. Now all of your incoming SMS messages will be delivered to this email address.
TIP: Google will no longer let you forward incoming SMS messages directly to another SMS destination, but you can cheat. If you have your own mail server or a non-Gmail account on which you can redirect incoming mail without verification, then simply set up the alternate email address as documented above. Then reroute that email address to point to an SMS-email gateway that forwards incoming messages to SMS, e.g. 8431234567@txt.att.net to send an SMS message to your AT&T cellphone. The complete list of providers is here. Enjoy!
Originally published: Monday, April 3, 2017
Need help with Asterisk? Come join 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…
VoIPtopia: Google Services with Incredible PBX and PIAF5
It’s been a while since we provided a fresh look at Google Voice, Google SMS messaging, and Google’s Speech Recognition labyrinth which have been integral components of Incredible PBX for many years. For those living in the United States, here’s a soup-to-nuts tutorial to get all of the services deployed quickly on any Incredible PBX platform including XiVO and Elastix as well as on the new freeware releases of Ombutel and PBX in a Flash 5 powered by 3CX. On most of the platforms, you can deploy Google Voice services directly; however, with PIAF5, Elastix, and Ombutel you’ll need to set up a SIP trunk using the Simonics SIP to Google Voice gateway to take advantage of free calling in the U.S. and Canada with Google Voice.
Implementing Google Voice with Incredible PBX
Before you can obtain Google Voice service to make free calls in the U.S. and Canada, you’ll need several things: (1) a Google account, (2) access to a computer with an IP address in the United States, and (3) a U.S. phone number to verify your residence for Google Voice.
To get started, sign up for a Gmail account here:
Once your Gmail account is created, click Allow and then Allow and Remember when prompted whether to Allow Gmail to run "Google Talk."
In a separate tab of the same browser, go to Google Voice to sign up for an account. Begin by choosing whether to obtain a new phone number for Google Voice or whether you wish to use an existing mobile phone number that you already own. Next, choose a forwarding phone number which will ring when your Google Voice number is called. NOTE: You do not need to keep this activated on your account once it is completely set up. Be advised that Google also plays games with certain phone numbers such as pretending to ring them when, in fact, they haven’t placed a verification call at all. This usually is because of prior abuse of the number with the Google Voice service or because you’ve gotten greedy and signed up for too many free numbers. If a number doesn’t work for verification, you’ll need to choose another number. And it’s usually a good idea to create additional Google Voice accounts from different IP addresses. Once you complete the verification step, you can choose a phone number in an area code of your choice. Same thing holds for picking phone numbers. If you get error messages saying to "try later," what Google is really telling you is you’re a greedy bastard. Set up additional Google Voice numbers from a different computer using a different IP address and chances are the problem will go away. It did for us. 😉
Once you have your new Google Voice number, Google will drop you into the Voice Inbox. Ignore offers to activate, enable, or do anything else with Hangouts. Otherwise, you may kill the ability to use your new Google Voice number with Asterisk®.
Click on the Settings Gear icon in the upper-right corner of the window. In the Phones tab, make certain that (1) Google Chat is enabled and (2) your forwarding phone number is disabled:
In the Calls tab, make it look like this for proper Google Voice operation with Asterisk:
You now have a basic Google Voice setup on the Google side to support Asterisk calling. But the default setup uses plain-text passwords for your Google Voice account, and this is not only a security issue, but it also will cause problems if you move your Google Voice account to a different computer. For that reason, we strongly recommend setting up OAuth 2 authentication for your Google Voice account.
Obtaining an OAuth 2 Token for Google Voice
To deploy Google Voice with OAuth 2 authentication on the Incredible PBX platforms that support direct connections to Google Voice (Incredible PBX 13 and Incredible PBX for XiVO), you will first need to obtain an OAuth 2 Refresh Token from Google. On the remaining platforms that require a SIP account using the Simonics SIP to Google Voice gateway (PIAF5 powered by 3CX, Ombutel, and Elastix), you can skip this section since the Simonics site will obtain the refresh token for you as part of the signup process.
While you’re still logged into your Google Voice account, you need to obtain a refresh_token which is what you’ll use instead of a password when setting up your Google Voice accounts with Incredible PBX 13 and Incredible PBX for XiVO. Here’s how.
1. Be sure you are still logged into your Google Voice account. If not, log back in at https://www.google.com/voice.
2. Go to the Google OAUTH Playground using your browser while still logged into your Google Voice account.
3. Once logged in to Google OAUTH Playground, click on the Gear icon in upper right corner (as shown below).
3a. Check the box: Use your own OAuth credentials
3b. Enter Incredible PBX OAuth Client ID:
466295438629-prpknsovs0b8gjfcrs0sn04s9hgn8j3d.apps.googleusercontent.com
3c. Enter Incredible PBX OAuth Client secret: 4ewzJaCx275clcT4i4Hfxqo2
3d. Click Close
4. Click Step 1: Select and Authorize APIs (as shown below)
4a. In OAUTH Scope field, enter: https://www.googleapis.com/auth/googletalk
4b. Click Authorize APIs (blue) button.
5. Click Step 2: Exchange authorization code for tokens
5a. Click Exchange authorization code for tokens (blue) button
5b. When the tokens have been generated, Step 2 will close.
6. Reopen Step 2 and copy your Refresh_Token. This is the "password" you will need to enter (together with your Gmail account name and 10-digit GV phone number) when you add your GV trunk in Incredible PBX 13 GUI. On the XiVO platform, log into your server as root and run: /root/add-gvtrunk. Store this refresh_token in a safe place. Google doesn’t permanently store it!
7. Authorization tokens NEVER expire! If you ever need to remove your authorization tokens, go here and delete Incredible PBX Google Voice OAUTH entry by clicking on it and choosing DELETE option.
Switch back to your Gmail account and click on the Phone icon at the bottom of the window to place one test call. Once you successfully place a call, you can log out of Google Voice and Gmail.
Yes, this is a convoluted process. Setting up a secure computing environment often is. Just follow the steps and don’t skip any. It’s easy once you get the hang of it. Sleep well.
Configuring Google Voice Trunks with Incredible PBX
The setup procedure differs a bit with Incredible PBX for XiVO and Incredible PBX 13.
With Incredible PBX for XiVO, log into the Linux CLI with your root credentials and run: /root/add-gvtrunk. Enter your Google email address, refresh token, and 10-digit Google Voice number when prompted. Follow the instructions which appear when the script finishes, and you’ll have a functioning Google Voice trunk in less than a minute.
With Incredible PBX 13, log into the Incredible GUI as admin using a web browser. Choose Connectivity -> Google Voice -> Add Account and fill in your Google Username, Refresh Token, and 10-digit Phone Number. Check the Add Trunk and Add Outbound Route check boxes. Then click Submit. Create an Inbound Route to tell Asterisk how to route incoming calls to your 10-digit DID. Finally, log into the Linux CLI as root and restart Asterisk: amportal restart.
Simonics SIP to Google Voice Gateway Setup
There’s a one-time fee of $4.99 to use the Simonics gateway if you take advantage of the Nerd Vittles signup link. All remaining Google services are free. You obviously can use the Simonics gateway with almost any PBX that supports SIP trunks, but it’s particularly well-suited for PBXs that don’t natively support Google Voice with OAuth 2 authentication such as PIAF5, Ombutel, and Elastix. To get started, you’ll need to set up an account at Simonics using your existing Google Voice credentials.
1. Using your favorite browser, log in to the Google Voice account you wish to associate with the Simonics SIP gateway. Be sure that you’ve enabled Google Chat in your Google Voice setup.
2. Using a separate tab of your browser, connect to the Simonics Google Voice Gateway site.
3. Go through the steps to register your Google Voice account with the Simonics Google Voice gateway and obtain your credentials.
4. For those using PIAF5, Ombutel, or Elastix, use another tab of your browser to open the GUI interface and create a new SIP trunk using your new Simonics SIP login credentials. With Incredible PBX 13, here’s the drill. Replace 8005551212 with your actual Google Voice number and YOUR-SIP-PW with your actual Simonics SIP password in BOTH the PEER Details and Registration String. Add your Google Voice number to the end of the Registration String like this: GV18005551212:YOUR-SIP-PW@gvgw.simonics.com/8005551212
5. Regardless of PBX platform, the next step is to create an Inbound Route for your incoming calls using either your Simonics username or the 10-digit number you entered at the end of the Registration String in step #4a. This obviously depends upon your PBX platform.
6. Create an Outbound Route for outgoing calls that should be handled by your Google Voice trunk. The CallerID number will be your Google Voice number. You cannot change it.
7. If you’d prefer to send incoming calls from the Simonics gateway to a designated SIP URI instead of the server that registered with the Simonics gateway, enter the address in the format: pbx@myserver.xyz. For additional details, read our previous article on SIP URIs.
SMS Messaging with Google Voice
On the Incredible PBX 13 and Incredible PBX for XiVO platforms, the python setup to support SMS messaging through Google Voice is already installed. On the PIAF5, Ombutel, and Elastix platforms, you’ll first need to install it. Here’s how.
Log into your server as root using SSH or Putty and issue the following commands to install the Google Voice CLI tools:
cd /root apt-get -y install python-setuptools wget http://incrediblepbx.com/install-gv-cli chmod +x install-gv-cli ./install-gv-cli
Before the SMS messaging tools will work, there are two preliminary steps that you must complete on every platform. This is because SMS messaging with python uses plain-text passwords for Google Voice, and Google imposes new hoops that you must jump through in order to continue to use such passwords. While logged into your Google Voice account with a browser, click on this link to Enable Less Secure Apps. Next, click on this link to Activate the Google Reset Procedure. You now have a couple of minutes to actually connect to your Google Voice account from your new server using plain text passwords. This will WhiteList the IP address of your server. So let’s send an SMS message quickly so that everything gets squared away.
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 (using your plaintext Google Voice password) in /root/smsblast, and (4) run /root/smsblast to send the message.
Implementing Google’s Speech Recognition API
Speech Recognition currently works with Incredible PBX 13 and Incredible PBX for XiVO only. But we’ll be collaborating with the 3CX folks to bring it to their platform soon. All of the necessary components to use speech recognition for voice dialing from the AsteriDex phonebook (411) and to take advantage of the Siri-like Wolfram Alpha service (4747) already are in place with Incredible PBX 13. While voice dialing works great with XiVO, Wolfram Alpha is just around the corner on the XiVO platform. Before you can actually use voice recognition, you’ll need a Google API key since Google handles the speech-to-text translation on the Asterisk platform thanks to Lefteris Zafiris’ terrific speech-recog AGI script. Here’s a revised step-by-step tutorial to get your API key from Google and activate it on your PBX.
Place a test call by dialing 4-1-1 and saying "Delta Airlines" when prompted. You should be connected to Delta’s reservation system. Enjoy!
Published: Monday, November 14, 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…
Type It or Say It: Asterisk SMS Messaging Returns with Incredible PBX for XiVO
We continue our XiVO adventure today with two simple additions to the Incredible PBX for XiVO dialplan that enable SMS messaging both from SIP phones such as the Yealink T46G and using voice recognition from any XiVO phone. To implement SMS messaging, you’ll need at least one Google Voice account configured. To implement the voice recognition option, you’ll also need to first enable voice recognition on your Incredible PBX for XiVO server.
The prerequisites for SMS Messaging from a SIP phone with XiVO look like this:
- Incredible PBX for XiVO Server
- Preconfigured Google Voice Trunk
- SIP Phone capable of SMS Messaging, e.g. Yealink T46G 1
SIP Phone SMS Messaging. To begin, login to your XiVO PBX using your favorite web browser. We need to edit the existing gv.conf file by navigating to IPX Configuration → Configuration Files → gv.conf. The first context in the file should look like this:
[subr-gv-outcall] exten = s,1,Set(XIVO_CALLOPTIONS=r) same = n,Return()
Replace the entire context by cutting and pasting the following code and substituting your actual Google Voice account name and password for yourname and yourpassword below. Then Save the file changes leaving the Reload Dialplan option checked. Be sure that the third from the last line below does NOT wrap to a separate line in the XiVO editor!
;# // BEGIN gv-outcall
[subr-gv-outcall]
exten = s,1,Set(XIVO_CALLOPTIONS=r)
same = n,GotoIf($["${MESSAGE(body)}" = ""]?skipsms)
same = n,Set(GVACCT=yourname@gmail.com)
same = n,Set(GVPASS=yourpassword)
same = n,System(/usr/bin/gvoice -e ${GVACCT} -p ${GVPASS} send_sms ${XIVO_DSTNUM} "${MESSAGE(body)}")
same = n(skipsms),Return()
;# // END gv-outcall
Once you get this set up and since we’ll be using plain text passwords to send the SMS messages through Google Voice, you’ll need to perform these two additional steps after first logging into your Google account with a browser: (1) Enable Less Secure Apps and (2) Activate the Google Voice Reset Procedure. Now promptly send an SMS message from a phone registered to your XiVO server.
Sending SMS Messages. We obviously can’t cover the SMS messaging methodology for every SIP phone on the market. But here’s how to send an SMS message using Yealink’s T46G. First, configure one of the buttons on the phone as an extension on your XiVO PBX. Next, press the Menu button. Highlight Messages and press OK. Choose Text Message and OK. Choose New Message and OK. Type your SMS message using the keypad and press Send button. For the From: field, use the left and right arrow keys to select your XiVO extension. Press the down arrow and fill in the SMS number of your recipient just as you would do on your smartphone. Press the Send button. "Sending Message" will appear briefly on the T46G’s display. XiVO’s Asterisk CLI also will show transmission of the SMS message.
Interestingly, the same SMS functionality exists on the $29 UTP E-62 (if you can find one). Choose Menu → Applications → SMS → New. Type your SMS message using the keypad and press Send button. For the From: field, use the left and right arrow keys to select your XiVO extension. Press the down arrow and fill in the SMS number of your recipient just as you would do on your smartphone. Press the Send button. "Sending Message" will appear briefly on the UTP’s display. XiVO’s Asterisk CLI also will show the SMS transmission.
For bargain hunters that can’t find a UTP E-62, Yealink’s $50 YEA-SIP-T19P-E2 Entry-level SIP phone also appears to support SMS messaging. As with the UTP phones, you’ll need a $9 power supply unless your network supports POE.
Receiving SMS Messages. Typically reply messages to Google Voice numbers are forwarded either to an email address or to Hangouts. We don’t recommend enabling incoming mail on your XiVO PBX. Instead, add a New Alternate Email Address to your Google Voice account in Settings → Voicemail & Text. After verifying the new email address, set it as your Voicemail Notification email address and Save changes. Go back into Settings → Voicemail & Text and make certain that you have also checked the Text Forwarding checkbox which now should reflect your alternate email address. Now all of your incoming SMS messages will be delivered to this email address.
TIP: Google will no longer let you forward incoming SMS messages directly to another SMS destination, but you can cheat. If you have your own mail server or a non-Gmail account on which you can redirect incoming mail without verification, then simply set up the alternate email address as documented above. Then reroute that email address to point to an SMS-email gateway that forwards incoming messages to SMS, e.g. 8431234567@txt.att.net to send an SMS message to your AT&T cellphone. The complete list of providers is here.
SMS Dictator for XiVO. Okay. We hear you. Yes, typing SMS messages with a 12-button keypad can be tedious especially if your message is sprinkled with S’s. Pressing the 7 key eight times for every "s" in your text message is painful. If you’ve activated voice recognition on your Incredible PBX for XiVO server, then you can simply dictate your SMS messages by first dialing 767 (S-M-S) from any phone connected to your XiVO PBX. After dictating your message, you have the choice of keying in a 10-digit phone number for the SMS recipient or you can say the name of anyone in your AsteriDex phone book.
To install SMS Dictator on your Incredible PBX for XiVO server, issue the following commands and enter your Google Voice account name (with @gmail.com) and password when prompted:
cd /root wget http://incrediblepbx.com/sms-dictator-xivo.tar.gz tar zxvf sms-dictator-xivo.tar.gz rm -f sms-dictator-xivo.tar.gz ./sms-dictator.sh
3/2/2017 Update: A patched version of pygooglevoice to support SMS messaging is now available here.
Now simply dial S-M-S (767) from any phone connected to your XiVO PBX to send an SMS message. Enjoy!
Originally published: Monday, October 3, 2016
Need help with Asterisk? Come join 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…
- Some of our purchase links refer users to Amazon when we find their prices are competitive for the recommended products. Nerd Vittles receives a small referral fee from Amazon to help cover the costs of our blog. We never recommend particular products solely to generate Amazon commissions. However, when pricing is comparable or availability is favorable, we support Amazon because Amazon supports us. [↩]
Raspberry Pi One-Minute Wonder: A Turnkey and Truly Incredible PBX for XiVO
Hard to believe it’s been 4½ years since the introduction of the original Raspberry Pi®. We love half-birthdays, and we’ve got a blockbuster gift for you today as we celebrate the fact that almost 10 million RasPi’s have been shipped. Yes, our love affair with the Raspberry Pi lives on. The sensational Raspberry Pi 3 sports a 1.2GHz 64-bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 CPU with ten times the performance of the original Raspberry Pi. Of particular interest to the VoIP community will be the RasPi 3’s integrated 802.11n wireless LAN and Bluetooth 4.1 hardware. And, of course, the RasPi 3 retains its compatibility with the Raspberry Pi 1 and 2. Did we mention it’s still just $35? Because we like to celebrate half birthdays, too, we’re pleased to introduce a brand new Incredible PBX™ for XiVO image for the Raspberry Pi 3 featuring Raspbian 8, the latest release of Asterisk® 13, and XiVO. This one installs in under a minute. And, yes, it’s still FREE with pure open source GPL code.
Special Thanks. First things first. We want to extend our extra special thanks to Iris-Network for their awesome Raspivo – XiVO build. Without it and their repositories, none of this would have been possible.
Raspberry Pi 3 Performance. Gone are the days of worrying about Raspberry Pi performance. Both the user interface and call quality now match what you’d expect to find on a $300-$500 VoIP server. For best results, we recommend 32GB Class 10 microSD cards which now are plentiful at the $10 price point.1
Raspberry Pi 3 Shopping List. Before you can install Incredible PBX for XiVO, you’ll need a compatible Raspberry Pi 3 platform. Here’s the short list that, when coupled with the Incredible PBX image, turns today’s adventure into kid’s play:
$35* Raspberry Pi 3 from MCM or Newark or Amazon $10 Power Adapter (2.5 amps minimum!) $10 32GB microSDHC Class 10 card (Don’t use SanDisk Ultra!) £12.95 Pibow 3 case or $7.50 Official RasPi 3 case
About That Asterisk. We write about Asterisk® regularly, but the asterisk we’re talking about is the one accompanying the $35* price tag for the Raspberry Pi 3. Yes, that’s the advertised price. And, no, if you want one quickly, you may pay a bit more. Right now you can snag one on Amazon for $35.99 with two-day Prime shipping. We’re assuming you already own a USB keyboard and an HDMI-compatible monitor. If so, today’s going rate for all of our recommended pieces is under $65, not bad for a fully-equipped, quad-core computer. Did we mention that Incredible PBX for XiVO is FREE with NoGotchas!
Incredible PBX Feature Set. Where to begin? Let’s start with the Alphabet Stew: IAX, SIP, SMS, FAX, SRTP, and OAuth functionality. Voice Recognition and Text-to-Speech VoIP application support using Festival and Google. Free calling with Google Voice, Simonics SIP gateway, or RingPlus cellular service. And all of your Nerd Vittles favorites: AsteriDex, Click-to-Dial, News, Weather, Reminders, and even an Alarm Clock. Plus hundreds of features that typically are found in commercial PBXs: Conferencing, IVRs and AutoAttendants, Simultaneous Ringing on your Smartphone, Email Delivery of Voicemail, Voicemail Blasting, Automatic Backups, High Availability Support, Automatic Phone Setups, and much more…
Incredible PBX Network Security Model. Most phone calls cost money. Unlike many of the other "free" VoIP solutions, our most important criteria for VoIP is rock-solid security. If your free server ends up costing you thousands of dollars in phone bills due to fraud, it isn’t free at all. Once you plug in that network cable, you’ve painted a bullseye on your checkbook.
No single network security system can protect you against zero-day vulnerabilities that no one has ever seen. Deploying multiple layers of security is not only smart, it’s essential with today’s Internet topology. It works much like the Bundle of Sticks from Aesop’s Fables. The more sticks there are in your bundle, the more difficult it is to break them apart. If a vulnerability suddenly appears in the Linux kernel, or in Asterisk, or in your web server, or in your favorite web GUI, you can continue to sleep well knowing that other layers of security have your back. No one else in the telecommunications industry has anything close. You can’t hack what you can’t see, and the Incredible PBX automatically configures a WhiteList as part of the one-minute setup. And it’s all open source GPL code that you can share with anybody and everybody unlike the so-called "freeware" products. Freeware with Asterisks is anything but free!
Do your part and do your homework. Comparison shop as if your phone bill matters! 😉 Incredible PBX provides:
- Preconfigured IPtables Linux Firewall
- Preconfigured Travelin’ Man 3 WhiteLists
- Randomized Port Knocker for Remote Access
- Fail2Ban Log Monitoring for SSH, Apache, Asterisk
- Randomized Ultra-Secure Passwords
- Automatic Update Utility for Security & Bug Fixes
- Asterisk Manager Lockdown to localhost
- Security Alerts via the PIAF Forum
Incredible PBX for XiVO Installation & Setup Tutorial
Here’s everything need to know about installation and setup of Incredible PBX for XiVO. "Automatic" means you just watch.
- Download and unzip Incredible PBX for XiVO image from SourceForge (includes GV OAuth support)
- Transfer Incredible PBX image to microSD card
- Boot Raspberry Pi from new microSD card
- Login to RasPi console as root:password to initialize your server (Automatic) and expand image to match SD card
- Reboot after writing down your server IP address (Automatic)
- Login via SSH as root:password to set up passwords (You Pick ’em) & configure firewall (Automatic)
- Enjoy!
Running Incredible PBX for XiVO on the Raspberry Pi
The standard XiVO boot procedure will begin once you insert your microSD card into the Raspberry Pi 3 and apply power. Within a short time, you’ll get the familiar Linux login prompt. Login as root with a password of password.
Once you log in, a startup script will briefly configure a few things and then advise you that it’s time to reboot. Write down the IP address provided because for Phase 2 of the setup, we need to use SSH or Putty on the desktop that you will actually be using to manage your server. The reason for this is that Incredible PBX automatically creates a whitelist of IP addresses that the firewall will allow to access your server. If the IP address isn’t in your whitelist, you may lock yourself out except from the RasPi’s console window.
Once the console window shows that your server has rebooted by displaying the Linux login prompt, switch to SSH or Putty and login as root using the IP address you wrote down. You’ll then be prompted to change your root password for Linux as well as your root password for XiVO GUI access using a web browser. You’ll also need to set a PIN that will be used to authorize access to extension 123 to schedule Telephone Reminders on your server. This completes the configuration. You’ll get a final screen showing the credentials for the preconfigured extension 701 as well as a reminder that your PortKnocker credentials are stored in /root/knock.FAQ in the event you ever lock yourself out of your machine. It’s a good idea to leave this screen displayed while you install and configure a softphone since you can cut-and-paste your extension 701 credentials without having to type anything.
Once you complete the SIP softphone setup below, you can return to the SSH window and press ENTER to finish the install. The Incredible PBX Automatic Update Utility will run, and then you will be presented with the pbxstatus display. You can access the Asterisk CLI by typing: asterisk -rvvvvvvvvvv. Exit from the CLI by typing quit. As mentioned previously, always shut down your server gracefully by typing halt. When prompted for the hostname, type xivo. Once the shutdown procedure finishes, it’s safe to disconnect the power cord from your Raspberry Pi.
Beginning with the September 1 release, many of the log files have been disabled to help prolong the life of microSD cards since XiVO tends to be very chatty. If you are running an earlier release, you can follow this tutorial to disable most logging on your Raspberry Pi.
Enabling WiFi on the Raspberry Pi 3
With the Raspberry Pi 3, wi-fi hardware is included. The next step is configuring it to connect to your WiFi router. Simply open /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf with nano and (1) edit the SSID name and password fields to authorize access to your local, password-protected WiFi router as well as any open WiFi network. (2) Also update the country code for your WiFi region, e.g. country=US. Then (3) save your changes: Ctrl-X, Y, then press ENTER.
network={
ssid="YourSSID"
psk="YourSSIDpassword"
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
scan_ssid=1
priority=5
}
network={
key_mgmt=NONE
priority=1
}
Next, enable automatic startup of the wlan0 network interface:
sed -i 's|#allow-hotplug wlan0|allow-hotplug wlan0|' /etc/network/interfaces
Finally, stop and restart the wlan0 interface, count to 15, and check pbxstatus to decipher the added private IP address for your WiFi connection:
ifdown wlan0 ifup wlan0 pbxstatus
If you want to run your Raspberry Pi exclusively off the WiFi connection going forward, simply unplug the network cable from your RasPi and reboot your server.
Choosing a SIP Softphone for Incredible PBX for XiVO
Softphones tend to be a matter of taste for most folks so we’ll keep our suggestions to a minimum. On the Windows platform, it’s hard to go wrong with X-Lite. It works out of the box by simply plugging in the IP address of your server and your SIP username and password. It also happens to be free. The only downside is that X-Lite has a nasty habit of embedding time bombs in their free software so you may have to reinstall it from time to time. If you know what you’re doing Zoiper is another alternative but be advised that it doesn’t work out of the box on servers behind NAT-based routers.
On the Mac platform, our favorite free softphone is Telephone. It’s a barebones SIP client that just works. As with X-Lite, you plug in your server’s IP address and SIP credentials, and you’re in business.
On the Linux or Solaris platforms, we assume that you know what you’re doing and that you are perfectly capable of choosing and installing a SIP phone that meets your requirements.
Incredible PBX Application Quick Start Guide
We’ve finished the basic Incredible PBX for XiVO setup. You now have a functioning PBX with dozens of applications for Asterisk that work out of the box. It’s probably a good idea to spend a little time getting acquainted with Incredible PBX for XiVO before you add trunks to communicate with the outside world.
Here’s a handy cheat sheet for some of the Incredible PBX applications that have been installed or are available as add-ons. There’s also a link for more information. This remains a work-in-progress so expect more applications in coming weeks.
- Google Voice CLI interface and SMS Message Blasting
- CallerID Superfecta – Match Names to CallerID Numbers
- CallerID Blacklist – Block Calls from Spammers and Old Girlfriends
- CDR Reports in CSV Format
- CDR Reports in SQLite3 Format
- Asteridex – The Poor Man’s Rolodex (SQLite3 version)
- AsteriDex Click-to-Dial with XiVO Phonebook
- NeoRouter VPN for XiVO
- FCC RoboCall BlackList
- CallerID WhiteList Override
- Dial 123 – Telephone Reminders
- Dial 411 – Call by Name from AsteriDex
- Dial 947 – Weather Forecasts by ZIP Code
- Dial 951 – Latest Yahoo News
- Dial 2663 – Conference Call
- Dial 3472 – DISA Access
- Dial 4871 – Allison’s Sample IVR
- Dial *61 – Time of Day
- Dial *65 – Decipher Your Extension #
- Dial 8463 – Time of Day
- Dial *881400 – Schedule an Alarm for 2 p.m. (1400 military time)
- Dial 53669 – Meet Lenny, the Robocaller’s Worst Nightmare
How To Make Easily Compressed Backups of Incredible PBX
MicroSD cards WILL wear out especially on XiVO servers with lots of activity. So it’s important to make regular backups of your media so you don’t get surprised when things come unglued down the road. After considerable discussion on the PIAF Forum, here’s the collective wisdom.
You’ll need another machine (such as a Mac or Linux box) on which to plug in the microSD card in order to make a backup image of it since you can’t back up a card that is actually providing the live platform for your PBX. The recommended methodology goes like this. Before shutting down your PBX and removing the microSD card to make the backup, convert all of the unused space on the card to zeros so that the unused space can be easily compressed when you create the backup image. You do this by issuing the following command after logging into the Linux CLI as root on your RasPi 3. Be sure to do it during a period of inactivity on your PBX as it is processor intensive. Then halt the machine and remove the microSD card.
xivo-service stop cat /dev/zero > wipe.it ; rm wipe.it halt
Insert the card into an SD card slot on the machine you will use to make the backup image and issue the following commands after deciphering the correct device name for your card (/dev/disk4 in this example) using the df utility:
sudo df -h sudo dd bs=1m if=/dev/disk4 | gzip -c > incrediblepbx-xivo.img.gz sudo sync sudo diskutil eject /dev/disk4s1 echo "It's safe to remove the microSD card now."
Now return the microSD card to your Raspberry Pi 3 and boot. Store your backups in a safe place!
Configuring Trunks and Routes with Incredible PBX for XiVO
The next step in your XiVO adventure is connecting your PBX to the outside world so that you can make and receive phone calls from anywhere in the world. For this you’ll need one or more trunks. Unlike the Ma Bell world, there’s no reason to put all your eggs in one basket. You can use one or more trunk providers for incoming calls with separate phone numbers for each. And you can use one or more trunk providers for outgoing calls and save money on calls to certain countries by choosing the best provider for where you want to call. And, of course, if you live in the United States, you can set up one or more Google Voice trunks and make calls to the U.S. and Canada for free. We’ve written a number of tutorials to make it easy to set up these trunks.
To get started, point a web browser to the IP address of your PBX. Login as root with the XiVO GUI password you set up above. If you ever forget your password, you can run /root/admin-pw-change to reconfigure it.
XIVO Trunk Implementation Tutorials
- XiVO Trunks Tutorial: Installing a Vitelity SIP Trunk2
- XiVO Trunks Tutorial: Installing a VoIP.ms SIP Trunk
- XiVO Trunks Tutorial: Installing a RingPlus SIP Trunk
- XiVO Trunks Tutorial: Installing a FreeVoipDeal (Betamax) SIP Trunk
- XiVO Trunks Tutorial: Installing a Google Voice-Simonics SIP Trunk
- XiVO Trunks Tutorial: Deploying Native Google Voice with OAuth Trunks
- XiVO Trunks Tutorial: Installing an Anveo Direct Outbound SIP Trunk
- XiVO Trunks Tutorial: Installing a Skype Connect SIP Trunk
Once you’ve added one or more trunks, you’ll need to tell XiVO how to route outgoing and incoming calls. Here are our step-by-step tutorials on setting up Outbound Calling Routes and Incoming Call Routes:
XIVO Call Routing Tutorials
- XiVO Call Routing Tutorial: Creating Outbound Routes for PSTN Calling
- XiVO Call Routing Tutorial: Creating Inbound Routes for DIDs
Enabling Bluetooth & Proximity Detection on the Raspberry Pi
Implementing Bluetooth Proximity Detection with Smartphone and your #RaspberryPi3 https://t.co/TYFrcqcLux #asterisk pic.twitter.com/QqGNjqG3Ag
— Ward Mundy (@NerdUno) March 4, 2016
Where To Go Next with Incredible PBX for XiVO
Now you’re ready to explore. We recommend you pick up here in our Incredible PBX for XiVO tutorial. And be sure to check out the Last Minute Fixes that didn’t make it into the current build. Enjoy the ride!
Originally published: Monday, August 29, 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…
- Many of our purchase links refer users to Amazon when we find their prices are competitive for the recommended products. Nerd Vittles receives a small referral fee from Amazon to help cover the costs of our blog. We never recommend particular products solely to generate Amazon commissions. However, when pricing is comparable or availability is favorable, we support Amazon because Amazon supports us. [↩]
- Vitelity is a platinum sponsor of Nerd Vittles, and they also happen to be the best in the business. You’ll find a discount coupon to get a great deal on a DID and 4-channel trunk toward the end of this article. [↩]
Hardware Device of the Year: Meet the CuBox-i with Incredible PBX for Ubuntu
It’s been many years since we’ve written back-to-back articles about the same device. That should tell you how really special the CuBox-i is. After two weeks of 14-hour days developing the new Incredible PBX platform for CuBox, we are thrilled to crown this jewel as Nerd Vittles Hardware Device of the Year. Flawless design, incredible performance, tiny size, feature-rich components, minimal power consumption, and completely silent operation are merely the tip of the iceberg with this 2x2x2 cubic zircon. On the $130 CuBox-i4PRO, there’s a Quad Core processor, 2 gigs of RAM, a 10/100/1000 Ethernet port, a 1080p HDMI port, two powered USB 2 ports, an eSATA II port for an external drive, a realtime clock with backup battery, an Optical S/PDIF Audio Out port, a microSD port, an infrared receiver and transmitter, WiFi 11n, and Bluetooth plus a power adapter to match either American or European power sources. Whew! And here’s the best part. Everything works while squeezed in a tiny case that’s a third the size of Rubic’s Cube.
A SOHO Swiss Army Knife That Fits in Your Cupholder: Voice, Fax, SMS, TTS, Email, PBX, Incredible!
Did we mention it’s a near perfect VoIP platform for any home office or small business? Well, it is. And everything we’ve learned about Asterisk® and FreePBX® and Internet security over the past decade is rolled into today’s release of our crown jewel edition of Incredible PBX™ for the CuBox. First, you’ll need to purchase one and we strongly recommend the CuBox-i4PRO with its Quad Core ARM processor and built-in WiFi and Bluetooth. In the U.S, there’s NewEgg or NewEgg (10% off on i4PRO with promo code SW829NE10 = $117 until 9/4). In the U.K, there’s NewIT. For everyone else, you can buy directly from SolidRun, the creator.
Before we dive into Incredible PBX, we want to express our deepest appreciation to Zhando and Josh North of PIAF Forum fame. Zhando’s pioneering efforts with Ubuntu and Incredible PBX on the CuBox platform and Josh North’s morphing of Incredible Fax for deployment with Ubuntu paved the way for everything you’re about to read. It reinforces the spectacular results which can be achieved in the open source community when a talented group of even a few folks put their heads together. The Ubuntu developers and the tens of thousands of open source contributors from around the world also deserve a well-earned tip of the hat for producing a Linux platform that is rock-solid reliable and incredibly versatile. Nearly 1,000 open source packages are included in the latest Incredible PBX build. Click on the link to view the package list in PDF format and prepare to be amazed. We couldn’t have done it without all of you!
Introducing Incredible PBX 11.12.0 for the CuBox-i4PRO
If you’re new to Asterisk and the world of VoIP telephony, let us take a moment and explain how Incredible PBX fits into the puzzle. For lack of a better term, Incredible PBX on the CuBox platform is a turnkey aggregation in a bootable image that is based upon a superset of Ubuntu 14 packages plus Asterisk, the FreePBX GUI, and a sizable collection of applications for the Asterisk platform. You download a tarball, decompress it, write the image file to a microSD card, insert the card into your CuBox-i, and presto! You’ve got a turnkey PBX. Add credentials for a trunk or two to make and receive calls, connect some phones, and your whole office will come alive with a versatile PBX platform that used to cost organizations hundreds of thousands of dollars. What’s included in Incredible PBX? Glad you asked. Here’s a 3-minute video showcasing a few of our favorite Incredible PBX text-to-speech applications:
The Incredible PBX 11 Inventory. Here’s the current feature set on the CuBox platform. It’s the most robust ever! In addition to its superset of nearly 1,000 Ubuntu 14 packages, Asterisk 11, and FreePBX 2.11 with Apache, SendMail, MySQL, PHP, phpMyAdmin, Fail2Ban, WebMin, and the IPtables Linux firewall, check out these additions:
- AsteriDex: The Poor Man’s Rolodex®
- Asterisk Upgrade Utility (/root/upgrade-asterisk-cubox-bt)
- AvantFax Management Utilities (see /root folder)
- Bluetooth Integration turns your cellphone into an Asterisk Trunk
- CallerID Superfecta (FreePBX Module adds Names to CID Numbers)
- CallWho for Asterisk (Dial by Voice from AsteriDex: 411)
- Preconfigured Email That Works with SendMail and Incredible Fax
- OSS Endpoint Manager (Phone Configuration FreePBX module)
- eSATA External Hard Drive Integration
- Extensions (1 preconfigured with voicemail and randomized passwords)
- Fax to PDF Conversion with EMail Delivery (/root/avantfax-email-dest)
- Google Speech Recognition for Incredible PBX apps (follow setup tutorial)
- Flite TTS for Asterisk (text-to-speech with Igor)
- GoogleTTS for Asterisk (Lefteris Zafiris’ state-of-the-art TTS)
- Google Voice (FreePBX GV/Motif Module for free U.S./Canada calls)
- Hotel-Style Wakeup Calls (FreePBX Module to simulate your favorite Holiday Inn)
- Incredible Backups… and Restores (see /root)
- Incredible Fax 11 with HylaFax/AvantFax
- ODBC Database Support (Dial 222 with Employee Number 12345 to see what’s possible)
- Automated Incredible PBX Update Utility
- Lenny: The Telemarketer’s Worst Nightmare (dial L-E-N-N-Y)
- Network Management Utilities for Wired and Wireless Networking (see /root)
- Parking Lot Attendant (dial ## then 70 to simulate key telephones)
- Partition Resizing Tutorial for eSATA external drives
- Partition Resizing Utility for SD card expansion (/root/resize-partition)
- Phone Conference Bridge (Dial C-O-N-F for Private Conferences)
- PortKnocker for Quick Remote Access (cat /root/knock.FAQ)
- PPTP Virtual Private Network (interconnect with other computers in minutes)
- Reminders by Phone and Web (supports recurring reminders and TTS delivery)
- SAMBA Windows Networking (Windows Networking Made Easy)
- SMS Dictator with Google Voice (Dial S-M-S to dictate and send an SMS message)
- Speech-to-Text Directory Assistance (Dial 411)
- Stealth AutoAttendant
- TimeZone Setup Utility (see /root)
- Today in History (Dial T-O-D-A-Y for today’s major events)
- Travelin’ Man 3 (IPtables WhiteList for rock-solid network security)
- Travelin’ Man 4 (Dialup to WhiteList any IP address: 864)
- Voice Dictation by Phone (Dial 5678)
- Weather by ZIP Code (Dial Z-I-P and enter any 5-digit zip code)
- Worldwide Weather by Phone (Dial 949 and say the name of your favorite city)
- Wolfram Alpha by Phone (/root/wolfram to install the world’s best almanac)
- Yahoo News by Phone (Dial 951 for the latest news headlines)
A Few Words About Security. Thanks to its Zero Internet Footprint™ design, Incredible PBX is different. It remains the most secure Asterisk-based PBX around. What this means is Incredible PBX has been engineered to sit anywhere, either behind a NAT-based, hardware firewall or directly on the Internet. No device other than those on your private LAN, a few of the major (trusted) SIP providers around the world, and those that you authorize on your WhiteList can even see your server. Additional IP addresses can be added to the WhiteList in three ways:
- An administrator registers new IP addresses using add-ip or add-fqdn from the Linux CLI
- A remote user sends the (correct) randomized PortKnock code assigned to your CuBox
- A remote user dials in from a standard telephone to register a new remote IP address
Read about this $100,000 VoIP phone bill, and you’ll better appreciate why WhiteList-based server security has become absolutely essential. WhiteList Security means only those devices with a registered IP address in your WhiteList can get to your server’s resources. To the NSA and everyone else, your server doesn’t even show up on the radar. Their only way to contact you is a POTS telephone using your published phone number. Our complete tutorial on Travelin’ Man 3 is available here. With Incredible PBX for CuBox, it’s installed and preconfigured.
Installing Incredible PBX 11.12.0 on the CuBox-i
There are five simple steps to get Incredible PBX up and running on your CuBox:
- Purchase a storage device
- Download Incredible PBX image
- Untar the image on your desktop
- Burn the image to a microSD card
- Insert microSD card in CuBox and boot
Choosing a Storage Platform. Unless you plan to run your server with an external eSATA hard drive (CuBox-i4PRO tutorial here), the first step is to purchase a suitable microSD card. We recommend at least a 32GB Class 10 card from Transcend, SanDisk, or Kingston. All of them are under $20 on Amazon and most include free 2-day shipping for Prime customers. If using an eSATA drive, you still need a microSD card to boot up, but any 4GB or 8GB card will suffice.1
Downloading Incredible PBX for CuBox. From your favorite desktop computer, download the latest build of Incredible PBX from SourceForge. Depending upon your network connection and the SourceForge mirror, it can take awhile. It’s a whopping 1.3GB!
Untarring Incredible PBX for CuBox. Depending upon your desktop platform, untarring incrediblepbx.4.cubox.U14.latest.tar.gz is as simple as double-clicking on it in the Downloads folder (on a Mac). On the Windows platform, here are 3 utilities that will do the job. On a Linux desktop, open a Terminal window and…
tar zxvf incrediblepbx.4.cubox.U14.latest.tar.gz
Burning the Incredible PBX image to microSD. Once you’ve untarred the file, you’ll find two scripts that make burning the image to a microSD card simple if you’re on a Mac or Linux desktop. On a Windows machine, it’s a little more complicated. Most SD cards come preformatted with a DOS partition so your Windows machine should recognize the microSD card when it’s inserted. If not, format the card using a utility such as SD Card Formatter. Next, you’ll need Win32 Disk Imager to burn cubox.img to your card. Once the image has been transferred, gracefully unmount the card from your desktop, and then remove the card from the SD card adapter.
Booting Incredible PBX on the CuBox. Insert the microSD card (electronics side up) into your CuBox-i. Then apply power to the CuBox after connecting a USB keyboard, HDMI monitor, and Ethernet cable to a network with Internet connectivity that can also hand out DHCP addresses. Log into Incredible PBX as root with cubox as your password. Your SSH credentials, Asterisk DUNDI secrets, logs, and network connection options will be initialized and then your server will reboot. You may need to hit the Enter key once or twice during the SSH credentials initialization to move things along. And, with some SD cards, you may find yourself waiting an eternity for the promised reboot. After seeing the "rebooting" message, count to ten. If your server still hasn’t rebooted, remove and reapply power. This quirk goes away after the first reboot.
After the reboot, log in again as root with password: cubox. Your firewall setup will be initialized to lock down your whitelist to your server’s public and private IP addresses AND the IP address of the machine from which you’re logging in. All of your FreePBX passwords will be randomized and your secret PortKnocker codes will be generated. The whole process only takes a few seconds.
When the second pass configuration is complete, you will be greeted by a welcoming message. STOP and read it. It has loads of important information about your server’s configuration and your next steps. Press ENTER to review status:
The Next 10 Steps. Before you do anything else, complete the following steps. It only takes a minute to secure and properly configure your server:
- Change your root password: passwd
- Change your FreePBX admin password: /root/admin-pw-change
- Set your correct time zone: /root/timezone-setup
- Expand partition to match microSD card size: /root/resize-partition
- Add any desired IP addresses to WhiteList: /root/add-ip
- Put PortKnocker credentials in a safe place: cat /root/knock.FAQ
- Change AvantFax admin password: /root/avantfax-pw-change
- Set Email Address for Incoming Faxes: /root/avantfax-email-dest
- Check status to be sure everything is working: status
- If using an eSATA external drive, do the migration drill (note the free disk space in status above)
A Few Important Tips. Every operating system and service provider has their quirks. Ask Bill Gates! Ubuntu and especially Comcast are no different. Fortunately, with Ubuntu, it’s a very short list.
1. Use the following commands (only!) to shutdown and restart your server: halt and reboot. These commands are reworked in Incredible PBX to gracefully shutdown important services so that files don’t get damaged. Please use them!
2. If you ever want to move your server to a different network, complete these three simple steps before you leave your existing network. This will trigger a new Phase I update (outlined above) and set the default network back to wired eth0 using DHCP the next time you boot your server.
touch /etc/update_hostconfig /root/enable-eth0-only # press Ctrl-C when prompted to reboot. then type: halt
3. You really do need email connectivity to get the most out of Incredible PBX. It’s the way you receive important notifications from FreePBX, and it’s also how faxes and voicemail messages are delivered. From the Linux CLI, test your server to be sure you can send emails reliably:
echo "test" | mail -s testmessage yourname@gmail.com
After checking your spam folder, if you really didn’t get the email, it may be that your service provider is blocking downstream SMTP traffic. You can use your provider’s SMTP server as a smarthost to send out mail with SendMail. Just edit /etc/mail/sendmail.cf, search for DS, and add the provider’s SMTP server address immediately after it (no spaces!), e.g. DSsmtp.comcast.net or DSsmtp.knology.net. Then restart SendMail: service sendmail restart.
Once you’ve logged into FreePBX below, be sure to set your default email address in the right margin of Admin -> Module Admin and save your entry. This will assure receipt of timely notifications of FreePBX updates for your server.
4. If you’re sure you’ll never need remote access in an emergency, you can disable PortKnocker at startup and save about 5% of your processing cycles. Our complete PortKnocker tutorial is available here. To disable startup on boot, issue the following command from the Linux CLI:
update-rc.d -f knockd disable
5. The same applies to WebMin. We actually introduced one of the first tutorials for WebMin… over 9 years ago. A word to the wise: WebMin is a terrific tool for looking at stuff about your system. But be very careful making system changes with WebMin. You usually will break some of the customized settings in Incredible PBX. This is particularly true in the case of the IPtables firewall. To access WebMin, use a browser and the actual IP address of your server to go to: https://12.34.56.78:9001. Log in as root with your root password. To disable automatic startup of WebMin on boot:
update-rc.d -f webmin disable
Setting Up WiFi with the CuBox-i4PRO
This may sound simple now, but two weeks ago it was quite a different story. For those with a CuBox-i4Pro, WiFi is built into the hardware. The trick was getting it to work. Well, with Incredible PBX, it does. In the /root folder, you’ll find several self-explanatory scripts to do the heavy lifting for you. For options 2 and 3, you’ll need the SSID of the WiFi network you’ll be using as well as the SSID password.
- enable-eth0-only (the default setting)
- enable-wifi-eth0 (enables both but eth0 works with Asterisk)
- enable-wifi-only (runs your server purely on WiFi)
Getting Started with VoIP and FreePBX
Up to now, all of your time has been spent using the Linux CLI. That will be a rarity once you get this far. Henceforth, 90% of your time setting up Incredible PBX will be done using the FreePBX GUI and your favorite web browser. To access it, just point to the IP address of your server. status will tell you the address if you’ve forgotten it. The main control panel looks like this:
As configured, the default user account for both FreePBX and AvantFax administration is admin. The passwords are whatever you set in steps #2 and #7 above. As configured, email delivery of faxes with AvantFax is automatic so no further setup is required other than setting a delivery mechanism for faxes within FreePBX.
For those new to Asterisk and FreePBX, here’s a brief primer on what needs to happen before you can make and receive calls. If you have an existing Google Voice account or a smartphone that’s less than 2 years old, lucky you. This gets you a phone number for your PBX so people can call you. And it provides a vehicle to place calls to plain old telephones at little or no cost.
If you don’t have a Google Voice account or a shiny new smartphone, then you will need to purchase a SIP trunk from one of the numerous vendors around the world. Our favorite (because they provide terrific service at a modest price AND provide financial support to the Nerd Vittles, PBX in a Flash, and Incredible PBX projects) is Vitelity. Their special rates and a link for a discount are included at the end of today’s article.
Unlike POTS phone service from Ma Bell, the SIP World is a little different. First, you don’t need to put all your eggs in one basket. A trunk that gets you a phone number for incoming calls need not be with the same vendor that provides a trunk to place outbound calls. In fact, you may want multiple trunks for outbound calls just to have some redundancy. A list of our favorites in the U.S. and Canada is available on the PIAF Forum. Of course, there also are providers that offer all-you-can-eat calling plans. Two of our favorites are Vestalink and Future-Nine.
You’ll also need a softphone or SIP phone 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 in FreePBX to work with Incredible PBX. Extensions talk to trunks (like Google Voice) to make and receive calls. FreePBX uses outbound routes to direct outgoing calls from extensions to trunks, and FreePBX uses 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 including voicemail, conferencing, IVRs, autoattendants, paging, intercoms, CallerID lookups, announcements, DISA, call parking and pickup, queues, ring groups, and on and on. And then there’s all of the Incredible PBX applications which are covered separately in this Nerd Vittles article. Once you’re comfortable with one server, you or your company will want some more. This Nerd Vittles article will walk you through interconnecting them into a seamless mesh network so that you can call from one office to another transparently. Yes, those articles were written for the Raspberry Pi. But the beauty of Incredible PBX is that it runs identically on virtually every server platform.
Here’s our 10-Step Checklist to Getting Started with FreePBX:
1. Setting Up Google Voice. If you want free calling in the U.S. and Canada, then you’ll need an existing Google Voice account that includes the Google Chat feature. You’ll need one dedicated to Incredible PBX, or it won’t work. Log out after setting up the new Google Voice account! Also note that Google Voice may cease to function at any time after May 15, 2014. You can read all about it here.
- Log into existing Google Voice account
- Enable Google Chat as Phone Destination
- Configure Google Voice Calls Settings:
- 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
- Place test call in and out using GMail Call Phone
- Log out of your Google Voice account
2. Activating a Google Voice Trunk. To create a Trunk in FreePBX to handle calls to and from Google Voice, you’ll need three pieces of information from the Google Voice account you set up above: the 10-digit Google Voice phone number, your Google Voice account name, and your Google Voice password. Choose Connectivity -> Google Voice (Motif) from the FreePBX GUI. The following form will appear:
Fill in the blanks with your information and check only the top 2 boxes. If your Google Voice account name ends in @gmail.com, leave that out. Otherwise, include the full email address. Then click Submit Changes and Apply Config.
There’s one more step or your Google Voice account won’t work reliably with Incredible PBX! From the Linux command prompt while logged into your server as root, restart Asterisk: amportal restart
3. Setting a Destination for Incoming Calls and Managing Faxes. Now that you’ve created your Google Voice Trunk, we need to tell FreePBX how to process inbound calls when someone dials your Google Voice number. There are any number of choices. You could simply ring an extension. Or you could ring multiple extensions by first creating a Ring Group which is just a list of extension numbers. Or you could direct incoming calls to an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system. By default, Incredible PBX is configured to route all incoming calls to extension 701. You can change the setting whenever you like by choosing Connectivity -> Inbound Routes -> Default. In the Set Destination section of the form, change the target destination from the pull-down lists.
If you want your default inbound route to also handle incoming faxes, then go to the Fax Detect section of the Default inbound route. Change Detect Faxes to Yes. Change Fax Detection Type to SIP. Leave the Detection Time setting at 4. And change the Fax Destination to Custom Destinations: Fax (Hylafax). To Send Faxes, open AvantFax in FreePBX’s Other pulldown menu.
Always click Submit and then click Apply Config to save new settings in FreePBX.
4. Activating a Smartphone Trunk Using Bluetooth. One of the more exotic features of Incredible PBX on the CuBox platform is the ability to add your smartphone as an Asterisk trunk using Bluetooth. We’ve written a short recipe to get things working. So have a look at our Bluetooth tutorial and see if you’re up for the challenge. Moral of the story: the newer the cellphone, the better.
The LG G3 is the best of the lot, at least of the numerous cellphones we tested. Even better is an LG G3 paired with StraightTalk’s (AT&T-hosted) unlimited talk, text, and data plan for $45 a month. With Samsung smartphones older than a Galaxy S4, don’t waste your time. Ditto with Apple iPhones other than perhaps the very latest. Our iPhone 4S failed miserably. We gave up on Apple phones after that. Someday I’ll test my daughter’s 5c and report back.
5. Activating Additional Trunks with FreePBX. As we mentioned, there are lots of SIP providers to choose from. Once you have signed up for service, configuring the trunk is easy. Here is a quick Cheat Sheet courtesy of Kristian Hare, who translated our original setups into a spreadsheet. Just click on the image below to open it in a new window. Then click on the redisplayed image to enlarge it. The left and right cursor keys will move you around in the image. Click on the image again to shrink it.
6. Changing Extension Passwords. From the main FreePBX GUI, choose Applications -> Extensions. Then click on 701 in the Extension List on the right side of your display. You’ll see a form that looks like this:
For now, we only need to make a few changes. First, you need a very secure password for both the extension itself and your voicemail account for this extension. The extension secret needs to be a combination of letters and numbers. The Voicemail Password needs to be all numbers, preferably six or more. Replace the existing password entries with your own (very secure) entries. You also need to lock down this extension so that it is only accessible from devices on your private LAN. You do that with the deny and permit entries which currently are filled with zeroes. Leave the deny entry the way it is which tells Incredible PBX to block everybody except those allowed in the permit entry below. For the permit, we need the first three octets of your private LAN address, e.g. if your LAN is 192.168.0.something then the permit entry will be 192.168.0.0/255.255.255.0.
Finally, you need to plug in your actual email address in the Voicemail section so that voicemails can be delivered to you when someone leaves a message. You can also include a pager email address if you want a text message alert with incoming voicemails. If you want the voicemails to automatically be deleted from the server after they are emailed to you (a good idea considering the disk storage limitations of your microSD card), change the Delete Voicemail option from No to Yes. That’s it. Now save your settings by clicking the Submit button. Then reload the dialplan by clicking on the red prompt when it appears.
In case you’re curious, unless you’ve chosen to automatically delete voicemails after emailing them, you can retrieve your voicemails by dialing *98701 from any extension on your phone system. You’ll be prompted to enter the voicemail password you set up. In addition to managing your voicemails, you’ll also be given the opportunity to either return the call to the number of the person that called or to transfer the voicemail to another extension’s voicemail box. And you can always leave a voicemail for someone by dialing their extension number preceded by an asterisk, e.g. *701 would let someone leave you a voicemail without actually calling you.
7. Eliminating Audio and DTMF Problems. You can avoid one-way audio on calls and touchtones that don’t work with these simple settings in FreePBX: Settings -> Asterisk SIP Settings. Just plug in your public IP address and your private IP subnet. Then set ULAW as the only Audio Codec.
8. Configuring Your YATE Softphone. As we mentioned, the easiest way to get started with Incredible PBX is to set up a free YATE softphone on your Desktop computer. Versions are available at no cost for Macs, PCs, and Linux machines. Just download the appropriate one and install it from this link. Once installed, it’s a simple matter to plug in your extension 701 credentials and start making calls. Run the application and choose Settings -> Accounts and click the New button. Fill in the blanks using the IP address of Incredible PBX, 701 for your account name, and whatever password you created for the extension. Click OK.
Once you are registered to extension 701, close the Account window. Then click on YATE’s Telephony Tab and place your first call. It’s that easy!
9. Configuring CallerID Superfecta. In order to match names with phone numbers, Incredible PBX includes a FreePBX application named CallerID Superfecta. Out of the box, Incredible PBX will work fine if you remember to activate CallerID Superfecta whenever you create a new Inbound Route. The CNAM entries also will be displayed in your CDR reports. For those not in the United States, you may prefer to use a lookup source for your numbers other than the ones preconfigured in CallerID Superfecta. You will find all of the available modules on the POSSA GitHub site. Just download the ones desired into /var/www/html/admin/superfecta/sources and then activate the desired sources in Admin -> CID Superfecta -> Default. You can test your results and the performance using the Debug facility that’s built into the module.
10. Adding Speech Recognition for Incredible Applications. We used to include Google’s Speech-to-Text service in Incredible PBX builds. Unfortunately, Google has changed the rules a bit. Assuming your server still meets the "personal and development" standard, you can obtain an API key from Google and reactivate speech-to-text functionality for many of the Incredible PBX applications including Weather Reports by City (949), AsteriDex Voice Dialing by Name (411), SMS Dictator (767), and Wolfram Alpha for Asterisk (4747). To activate the STT service, just complete the steps in our tutorial. Then sign up for a Wolfram Alpha App ID (tutorial here), and run the following install scripts:
/root/wolfram/wolframalpha-oneclick.sh /root/smsdictator/sms-dictator.sh
Enabling SAMBA Windows Networking with Ubuntu
It only takes a minute to enable SAMBA Windows Networking on your CuBox. We’ve reproduced our quick tutorial to show you how. Just follow the steps below to interconnect Incredible PBX with all the other computers on your LAN.
apt-get -y install samba samba-common python-glade2 system-config-samba cd /etc/samba mv smb.conf smb.orig.conf wget http://incrediblepbx.com/samba-ubuntu.tar.gz tar zxvf samba-ubuntu.tar.gz rm *.tar.gz sed -i '/# End of Trusted Provider Section/r '/etc/samba/smb.iptables'' /etc/iptables/rules.v4 iptables-restart service smbd restart service nmbd restart sed -i 's|/usr/local/sbin/amportal restart|service smbd restart\\nservice nmbd restart\\n/usr/local/sbin/amportal restart|' /etc/rc.local # set up root password for SAMBA access with full RW privileges smbpasswd -a root
Incredible Backup and Restore
Once you have everything configured, it’s time to take a snapshot of your system and store it in a safe place. The new Incredible Backup lets you do that. From the Linux CLI, login as root and run: /root/incrediblebackup. The backup image will be saved to the /tmp folder and can be copied to a different server easily. To restore the backup to another system, you simply bring the other system up to the same version of Asterisk (11) and FreePBX (2.11), and then run /root/incrediblerestore with your backed up image. It’s the cheapest insurance you can buy! For detailed instructions on restoring backups, see this thread on the PIAF Forum.
Don’t forget to List Yourself in Directory Assistance so everyone can find you by dialing 411. And add your new number to the Do Not Call Registry to block telemarketing calls. Or just call 888-382-1222 from your new number.
Originally published: Monday, September 1, 2014
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 Forums. It’s the best Asterisk tech support site in the business, and it’s all free! Please have a look and post your support questions there. Our forum is extremely friendly and is supported by literally hundreds of Asterisk gurus.
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…
- Some of our links refer users to Amazon or other service providers when we find their prices are competitive for the recommended products. Nerd Vittles receives a small referral fee from these providers to help cover the costs of our blog. We never recommend particular products solely to generate commissions. However, when pricing is comparable or availability is favorable, we support these providers because they support us. [↩]
SMS Dictator 2.0: Send SMS Messages Using Your Phonebook with Google Voice
Here’s an update of a terrific Google™ speech-to-text application for your Asterisk® goody bag. SMS Dictator 2.0 lets you pick up any phone on your Asterisk system, dictate a brief message, have it transcribed by Google, and then delivered as an SMS text message by entering either a 10-digit number of your choosing or by saying any name in your AsteriDex phonebook. The installation process on PBX in a Flash™ systems takes only a minute. And you’ll find Asterisk SMS Messaging to be a welcome addition to your VoIP Swiss Army Knife.
Prerequisites. For the installer to work seamlessly, you’ll need a PBX in a Flash 2 server with the PERL gvoice CLI tool. You can test whether this is working by logging into your server as root and issuing the command: gvoice. When prompted for your Google Voice account name, enter it and include @gmail.com. Then enter your password. If you get a gvoice prompt, all is well. Type quit to exit. If you get errors or the gvoice app doesn’t exist, click on the pygooglevoice link in this paragraph to get things squared away.
You’ll also need a Google Voice™ account that can be used to send the SMS messages. Today’s SMS installer will prompt you for your Google Voice account name in the format: myname@gmail.com. Then you’ll be prompted for your Google Voice password. Once you’ve entered your credentials, the rest is automagic. With a little manual tweaking of the installation script, you can get this working on any Asterisk-based server running under Linux.
As configured, SMS Dictator™ uses extension 767 (S-M-S) to generate SMS messages. If this conflicts with an extension on your server, you can edit the extensions_custom.conf dialplan in /etc/asterisk.
Legal Disclaimer. What we’re demonstrating today is how to use a publicly accessible web resource to respond to dictation requests generated by a phone connected to your Asterisk server. We’re assuming that Google has its legal bases covered and has a right to provide the public service they are offering. We are not vouching for Google or the services being offered in any way. By using our tutorial, YOU AGREE TO ASSUME ALL RISKS, LEGAL AND OTHERWISE, ASSOCIATED WITH USE OF THIS FREELY ACCESSIBLE WEB TOOL. NO WARRANTY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED IS BEING PROVIDED BY US INCLUDING ANY IMPLIED WARRANTY OF FITNESS FOR USE OR MERCHANTABILITY. You, of course, have an absolute right not to read our articles or implement our code if you have reservations of any kind or are unwilling to assume all risks associated with such use. Sorry for legalese, but it’s the time in which we live I’m afraid. Plain English: "Don’t Shoot the Messenger!"
Removing Previous SMS Dictator Code. If you installed our earlier version of SMS Dictator, then you have a little housekeeping to do before we begin. Log into your server as root and change to the /etc/asterisk directory. Then edit extensions_custom.conf. Search through the file until you find the lines beginning with exten => 767. Delete all of those lines. If you’re using nano, Ctrl-K will delete a line at a time. Once you’ve deleted all the 767 lines, save the file: Ctrl-X, Y, and press Enter. Now continue on…
Installation. To install SMS Dictator, log into your PBX in a Flash server as root and issue the following commands:
cd /root
wget http://nerdvittles.com/sms-dictator.tgz
tar zxvf sms-dictator.tgz
./sms-dictator.sh
Accept the license agreement and fill in your Google Voice credentials when prompted. In under a minute, you’ll be ready to test things out.
Taking SMS Dictator for a Spin. Now you’re ready to try it. Pick up any phone connected to your Asterisk server. Dial S-M-S (767). When prompted, dictate a brief message and press #. If the transcription played back is correct, press 1. Or hang up and try again. Now press 1 to enter a 10-digit phone number for the SMS recipient or press 2 to speak the name of someone in your AsteriDex database. When prompted, enter the 10-digit number or say the name of the SMS recipient. If the response read back to you is correct, press 1 to send the SMS message. It’s as simple as that.
AsteriDex Integration. If you’re using AsteriDex for your contacts, then it’s pretty simple to look up SMS contact numbers from there instead of having to remember them and manually key them in. The only trick is that you may need to adjust the names slightly if Google has difficulty understanding what you’re saying. For example, Google does not like Ward but is perfectly happy with Uncle Wardy. So are we. Here’s a hint. Multi-syllable words fare better than 3 and 4 letter words.
SMS Message Blasting. The SMS messaging possibilities, of course, are endless. A lively discussion is was underway on the PIAF Forum until The Great Trainwreck of 2013. This could include notifications to Little League teams about schedule changes, or alerts from a school about emergencies, or community alerts about tornados. You can probably think up a dozen more on your own. We’ve now released the first preview of a message blasting utility which you are welcome to download here. Enjoy!
3/2/2017 Update: A patched version of pygooglevoice to support SMS messaging is now available here.
Originally published: Monday, August 13, 2012
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…
GV Call Notifier: Send Jabber and SMS Alerts for Incoming Asterisk Calls
For those using PBX in a Flash or The Incredible PBX with at least one Google Voice trunk configured, there’s a simple way to send Jabber alerts to your Gmail desktop and SMS alerts to your cellphone to notify you of incoming calls to your Asterisk® server. Meet GV Call Notifier. The setup only takes a couple of minutes, and it provides instantaneous Asterisk call notification when new calls arrive on your system.
Prerequisites. You’ll need a PIAF2 server with or without Incredible PBX to use today’s GV Call Notifier. Set up at least one dedicated Google Voice account in PIAF2 using FreePBX. Remember that Google Voice requires that one outbound call be made with your new account using a browser before it will work interactively with PBX in a Flash.
Because we will be using Google’s Chat facility to send alerts, you also will need to interactively enable chat communications between your Google Voice account (used in PIAF2) and whatever Gmail destination(s) you plan to use as the recipient of the Jabber alerts. The easy way to do this is to open two different browsers. Sign in to Gmail on one with your primary Gmail account, and sign into Gmail on the other one with your PIAF2 Google Voice account credentials. Now use the Chat option in Gmail to send a message in both directions between the two accounts. Don’t forget to sign out of the Google Voice account, or it will no longer work to receive incoming calls in PIAF2.
Configuration Steps. To make this work, we need to adjust the context configuration for the trunks you wish to monitor. You may recall that, when you set up a new trunk, one of the entries looked like this: context=from-trunk. That’s the default incoming trunk context for FreePBX® trunks. What we need to do is replace the existing context entry with a custom context. Let’s call it incoming-alert. Here’s what a typical setup looks like. Click here to download a copy to your Desktop for editing because you need to add your own credentials.
[incoming-alert]
exten => 8431234567,1,Goto(s,1)
exten => s,1,Set(GVACCT=acctname) ; your Google Voice account name without @gmail.com
exten => s,2,Set(GVPASS=password) ; your Google Voice account password
exten => s,3,Set(EMAIL_NOTIFY=yourname@gmail.com) ; Gmail address to receive Jabber alerts
exten => s,4,Set(SMS_NOTIFY=6782223344) ; your cellphone number to receive SMS alters
exten => s,n,Playtones(ring)
exten => s,n,JABBERSend(${GVACCT},${EMAIL_NOTIFY},"Incoming call: ${CALLERID(all)}")
exten => s,n,System(gvoice -e ${GVACCT}@gmail.com -p ${GVPASS} send_sms ${SMS_NOTIFY} "Incoming call: ${CALLERID(all)}")
exten => s,n,Goto(from-trunk,${CALLERID(dnid)},1)
exten => s,n,Hangup
You only have to worry about the first five lines in the context. The first one designates the Trunk DID you want to manage. Just enter the 10-digit or 11-digit DID of the trunk you want to monitor. Whether to use a 10-digit or 11-digit DID depends upon how your trunk provider delivers the incoming calls to your PBX. If you want to manage more than one DID, just clone the first line changing the entry for each DID and then insert the new line below [incoming-alert].
Remember we said you must set up at least one Google Voice account in FreePBX for this to work. The reason is we’re going to use Google Voice to deliver the Jabber and SMS messages. Be sure you’ve interactively completed the Google Chat setup steps above before you continue. Otherwise, your alerts will never be delivered.
In [incoming-alert], modify line s,1 by replacing acctname with your actual Google Voice account name minus @gmail.com. In line s,2 replace password with your Google Voice account password. In line s,3 replace yourname with the Gmail address where you want the Jabber alerts delivered. This typically would be your primary Gmail account, not the account you set up for Google Voice in Asterisk. In line s,4 replace 6782223344 with the 10-digit cellphone number to which you want incoming call SMS alerts delivered. As we said, nothing else needs to be changed. Now cut-and-paste the custom [incoming-alert] context to the end of /etc/asterisk/extensions_custom.conf. Then reload your Asterisk dialplan: asterisk -rx "dialplan reload"
Now we’re ready to make the Trunk adjustments in FreePBX. Using your browser, open up FreePBX by pointing your browser to the IP address of your server with /admin as the destination. Edit the Trunk or Trunks that you configured in the [incoming-alert] context. Find the line that begins with "context" and change it to context=incoming-alert.
NOTE: If the existing entry you’re replacing wasn’t context=from-trunk, then be sure to write down what the context actually was. Then replace the from-trunk entry in the next to last line of [incoming-alert] with whatever context you wrote down.
Save your Trunk change and reload FreePBX when prompted. Then try a test call to this DID to make sure you receive the two alerts.
Install Growl. The other piece you’ll probably want is Growl, a pop-up notification system for Mac OS X or Windows. With Growl in place, you’ll see alerts like the one above whenever a new call arrives.
CallerID Superfecta Notifications. If you didn’t already know, there are seven additional call notifier options which are available as part of CallerID Superfecta. Every Data Source that begins with Send To is actually a call notifier. Take advantage of them. They’re all free! CallerID Superfecta is included in every PIAF2 installation and can be accessed through the FreePBX GUI. It is brought to you by the fine folks at POSSA. Enjoy!
Update: For an alternate approach that we actually like better, see the Comments.
Originally published: Thursday, July 26, 2012
Astricon 2012. Astricon 2012 will be in Atlanta at the Sheraton beginning October 23 through October 25. We hope to see many of you there. We called Atlanta home for over 25 years so we’d love to show you around. Be sure to tug on my sleeve and mention you’d like a free PIAF Thumb Drive. We’ll have a bunch of them to pass out to our loyal supporters. Nerd Vittles readers also can save 20% on your registration by using coupon code: AC12VIT.
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Special Thanks to Vitelity. Vitelity is now Voyant Communications and has halted new registrations for the time being. Our special thanks to Vitelity for their unwavering financial support over many years and to the many Nerd Vittles readers who continue to enjoy the benefits of their service offerings. We will keep everyone posted on further developments.
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