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The Most Versatile VoIP Provider: FREE PORTING
JUST RELEASED: Visit the Incredible PBX WikiA New Day: Introducing Incredible PBX 2021 Beta for Debian
Shifting gears is never easy, and sometimes it takes an ill-advised corporate blunder to move the needle. But IBM’s decimation of the CentOS project last week was just the motivation we needed to begin exploring alternatives for the Incredible PBX project. We are delighted to introduce the beta release of Incredible PBX 2021 for Debian 10 for those with a pioneering spirit that would like to participate in development of this promising new platform.
Before we get started, a few cautionary notes. This is not production-ready software. It’s been in development for less than a week by a single individual. As much as we believe in miracles, this probably is not one of them. Having said that, many talented individuals on the VoIP-Info.org Forum have taken this for a spin and offered numerous suggestions. You, too, can follow our progress and participate. With a little luck, we’ll have a production-ready release before the end of 2020. We’ve successfully built a fully-functional version of Incredible PBX 2021 with on-premise hardware using VirtualBox and VMware ESXi. And we’ve deployed virtual machines at Vultr and Digital Ocean without a hiccup.
For those that would like to roll up your sleeves and contribute to this open source project, here’s how to get started. If you’re using on-premise hardware, begin by downloading the netinst ISO image of Debian 10.7 for amd64. Follow our previous tutorials for tips on installation with VirtualBox or VMware ESXi. If you’d prefer to experiment in the cloud for about a penny an hour, open an account at Vultr or Digital Ocean using our referral links that support the Nerd Vittles project. You’ll also get some free credit to try out the service. Then create a new $5/month Debian 10, 64-bit instance in your favorite city.
Once your Debian 10 platform is up and running, login as root using SSH or Putty and issue the following commands:
wget http://incrediblepbx.com/IncrediblePBX2021.sh chmod +x IncrediblePBX2021.sh ./IncrediblePBX2021.sh
At about 5 minutes into the install procedure, you’ll be prompted for your telephone country code. It’s 1 for Canada and the United States. Just before the install completes, you’ll be prompted to save your default IPtables setup. Once the installation completes, reboot and you should be good to go. For tips on next steps, review the Incredible PBX 2020 CentOS 7 tutorial.
After you log back in following a reboot, check the version of Debian 10 in the pbxstatus display. If it’s less than 10.7, issue the following commands to bring your server up to Debian 10.7. Do NOT do this before the base install is finished, or Asterisk may fail to install properly.
apt-get update apt-get upgrade -y
Next Steps with Incredible PBX 2021
Before you can manage your PBX through a web browser, you first will need to set the admin passwords for FreePBX, Apache web apps such as Reminders and AsteriDex, and AvantFax (if you are using Incredible Fax). These all can be set by logging into your server as root and issuing the following commands: admin-pw-change, apache-pw-change, and avantfax-pw-change. The AvantFax password can also be reset with a browser by first logging in as admin with a password of password.
Outbound mail functionality needs to be working so that you can receive voicemail messages and faxes by email. To prevent SPAM, most ISPs and ITSPs block messages from downstream mail servers. That would be you. The easiest way to resolve this is to configure SendMail using Gmail as an SMTP Smarthost. You obviously need a Gmail account to implement this and, if you have turned on two-factor authentication for your Gmail account, you also will need to obtain an App password for your Gmail account, and use that in lieu of your regular Gmail password when configuring SendMail. With your Gmail username and password in hand, log into your server as root and run: /root/enable-gmail-smarthost-for-sendmail.
If your Incredible PBX 2021 is hosted with a cloud provider, be advised that many providers do not include a swap file as part of their offering. FreePBX requires a swap file. To add one, issue this command after logging into your server as root: /root/create-swapfile-DO.
To correctly set the time on your PBX, run: /root/timezone-setup.
By default, the voicemail password for each of the configured extensions (701-705) is set to the extension number. This means the user will be prompted to set a voicemail password on the first login to voicemail for each extension. A phone must be registered to the actual extension to access its voicemail account. For example, once a phone is registered to extension 701, the voicemail setup can be accessed by dialing *98701.
If you want to send and receive faxes with Incredible PBX 2021, run the following script while logged into your server as root: /root/incrediblefax2020-debian10.sh. When prompted, accept all the defaults. Once the HylaFax and AvantFax components are installed, reboot your server. To send faxes, click on the AvantFax tab in the FreePBX GUI and enter your login credentials (default: admin/password). To receive incoming faxes once you have configured a trunk and DID for your PBX, login to the FreePBX GUI as admin. Navigate to Connectivity -> Inbound Routes. For each of your DIDs on which you wish to receive faxes, select the inbound route and click the Fax tab. Review the Default Inbound Route Fax settings for proper setup.
NOTE: If you get a database error when you attempt to access AvantFax from a web browser, log into your server as root and reinstall the AvantFax database: ./avantfax-db-replace.
Audio Issues with Incredible PBX 2021
If you experience one-way or no audio on some calls, add your external IP address and LAN subnet in the GUI by navigating to Settings -> Asterisk SIP Settings. In the NAT Settings section, click Detect Network Settings. Click Submit and Apply Settings to save your changes.
Adding Incredible PBX 2021 to an OpenVPN Network
We previously have documented the procedure for creating an OpenVPN server as well as OpenVPN client templates (.ovpn). If you need a refresher, the tutorial is here. To add your Incredible PBX 2021 server to an existing OpenVPN network, begin by creating an incrediblepbx2021.ovpn template on your OpenVPN server. Be sure to comment out or delete the setenv line in the template. Then copy this template to /etc on your Incredible PBX 2021 server. Next, issue the following commands to put the remaining pieces in place:
cp -p /root/openvpn-start /etc/. echo "[Unit] Description=openvpn2021 ConditionPathExists=/etc/openvpn-start After=rclocal.service [Service] Type=forking ExecStart=/etc/openvpn-start /etc/incrediblepbx2021.ovpn TimeoutSec=0 StandardOutput=tty RemainAfterExit=yes PermissionsStartOnly=true SysVStartPriority=99 [Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target" > /etc/systemd/system/openvpn2021.service
Finally, enable the new openvpn2021.service and reboot your server. The OpenVPN IP address should now appear on the LAN line in pbxstatus:
systemctl enable openvpn2021.service reboot
Incredible PBX 2021 Administration
We’ve eased the pain of administering your new PBX with a collection of scripts which you will find in the /root folder after logging in with SSH or Putty. Here’s a quick summary of what each of the scripts does.
add-fqdn is used to whitelist a fully-qualified domain name in the firewall. Because Incredible PBX 2021 blocks all traffic from IP addresses that are not whitelisted, this is what you use to authorize an external user for your PBX. The advantage of an FQDN is that you can use a dynamic DNS service to automatically update the IP address associated with an FQDN so that you never lose connectivity.
add-ip is used to whitelist a public IP address in the firewall. See the add-fqdn explanation as to why this matters.
del-acct is used to remove an IP address or FQDN from the firewall’s whitelist.
admin-pw-change is used to set the admin password for access to the FreePBX/Incredible PBX web GUI using a browser pointed to the local IP address of your server.
apache-pw-change is used to set the admin password for access to Apache/Incredible PBX apps including AsteriDex and Reminders. This provides a password layer of protection for access to these applications.
avantfax-email-change is used to change the destination email address for incoming faxes.
avantfax-pw-change is used to change your admin password for the AvantFax web console.
iaxmodem-restart is used to restart the modems used to send and deliver faxes. The pbxstatus display will tell you whether the IAXmodems are down.
incrediblebackup2021 makes a backup of critical components on your PBX to a tarball saved in /backup. This should be copied to safe location off-site for a rainy day.
incrediblerestore2021 restores a backup file which has been copied to the /backup folder.
ipchecker is a script which deciphers the public IP addresses associated with whitelisted FQDNs created with add-fqdn on your server. If any of the addresses have changed, the firewall is restarted after updating the IP addresses. By default, it is executed every 10 minutes by /etc/crontab.
licenses.sh displays the license associated with each of the FreePBX modules on your server.
logos-b-gone removes proprietary artwork from your PBX and is no longer necessary with the included IncrediblePBX FreePBX module.
mime-construct is a command-line utility to send emails with attachments.
neorouter-login is a script to add your PBX to a NeoRouter VPN. Tutorial here.
odbc-gen.sh is a script that was run to generate the ODBC settings for Asterisk. Do NOT use it.
openvpn-start is a script to add your PBX to an existing OpenVPN network using an .ovpn config file. Tutorial here.
pbxstatus displays status of all major components of Incredible PBX 2021.
pptp-install is a script to create a PPTP network connection for your PBX. Tutorial here.
purge-cdr-cel-records removes all CDR and CEL records from the MySQL database.
reset-conference-pins is a script that automatically and randomly resets the user and admin pins for access to the preconfigured conferencing application. Dial C-O-N-F from any registered SIP phone to connect to the conference.
reset-extension-passwords is a script that automatically and randomly resets ALL of the SIP passwords for extensions 701-705. Be careful using this one, or you may disable existing registered phones and cause Fail2Ban to blacklist the IP addresses of those users. HINT: You can place a call to the Ring Group associated with all five extensions by dialing 777.
reset-reminders-pin is a script that automatically and randomly resets the pin required to access the Telephone Reminders application by dialing 123. It’s important to protect this application because a nefarious user could set up a reminder to call a number anywhere in the world assuming your SIP provider’s account was configured to allow such calls.
show-feature-codes is a cheat sheet for all of the feature codes which can be dialed from any registered SIP phone. It documents how powerful a platform Incredible PBX 2021 actually is. A similar listing is available in the GUI at Admin -> Feature Codes.
show-passwords is a script that displays most of the passwords associated with Incredible PBX 2021. This includes SIP extension passwords, voicemail pins, conference pins, telephone reminders pin, and your Anveo Direct outbound calling pin (if configured). Note that voicemail pins are configured by the user of a SIP extension the first time the user accesses the voicemail system by dialing *97.
sig-fix disables Module Signature Checking in the FreePBX GUI. This should not be necessary unless you have added or edited FreePBX Modules with missing module signatures.
sms-skyetel is a script to send SMS messages using a Skyetel trunk.
sms-voip.ms is a script to send SMS messages using a VoIP.ms trunk.
sms-blast, sms-blaster, and sms-dictator are scripts for message blasting. Tutorial here.
switch-to-php5.6 is a script to disable PHP 7.3 and set PHP 5.6 as the default version for your PBX. PHP 5.6 is required to use AvantFax. It is the default configuration for Incredible PBX 2021. The current default PHP version is displayed in the Apache listing of pbxstatus.
switch-to-php7.3 is a script to disable PHP 5.6 and set PHP 7.3 as the default version for your PBX. You cannot use AvantFax when PHP 7.3 is the default.
timezone-setup is a script to set the timezone for your PBX.
update-IncrediblePBX is a script that runs the Automatic Update Utility whenever you login to your server as root. These updates typically resolve bugs and security issues with your PBX. Do NOT remove it.
wolfram is a script to deploy Wolfram Alpha on your PBX. Tutorial here.
Forwarding Calls to Your Cellphone. Keep in mind that inbound calls to your DIDs automatically ring all five SIP extensions, 701-705. The easiest way to also ring your cellphone is to set one of these five extensions to forward incoming calls to your cellphone. After logging into your PBX as root, issue the following command to forward calls from extension 705 to your cellphone: asterisk -rx "database put CF 705 6781234567"
To remove call forwarding: asterisk -rx "database del CF 705"
Keeping FreePBX 15 Modules Current
We strongly recommend that you periodically update all of your FreePBX modules to eliminate bugs and to reduce security vulnerabilities. From the Linux CLI, log into your server as root and issue the following commands:
rm -f /tmp/* fwconsole ma upgradeall fwconsole reload /root/sig-fix systemctl restart apache2 /root/sig-fix
Originally published: Monday, December 14, 2020
Need help with Asterisk? Visit the VoIP-info Forum.
Special Thanks to Our Generous Sponsors
FULL DISCLOSURE: ClearlyIP, Skyetel, Vitelity, DigitalOcean, Vultr, VoIP.ms, 3CX, Sangoma, TelecomsXchange and VitalPBX have provided financial support to Nerd Vittles and our open source projects through advertising, referral revenue, and/or merchandise. As an Amazon Associate and Best Buy Affiliate, we also earn from qualifying purchases. We’ve chosen these providers not the other way around. Our decisions are based upon their corporate reputation and the quality of their offerings and pricing. Our recommendations regarding technology are reached without regard to financial compensation except in situations in which comparable products at comparable pricing are available from multiple sources. In this limited case, we support our sponsors because our sponsors support us.
BOGO Bonaza: Enjoy state-of-the-art VoIP service with a $10 credit and half-price SIP service on up to $500 of Skyetel trunking with free number porting when you fund your Skyetel account. No limits on number of simultaneous calls. Quadruple data center redundancy. $25 monthly minimum spend required. Tutorial and sign up details are here.
The lynchpin of Incredible PBX 2020 and beyond is ClearlyIP components which bring management of FreePBX modules and SIP phone integration to a level never before available with any other Asterisk distribution. And now you can configure and reconfigure your new Incredible PBX phones from the convenience of the Incredible PBX GUI.
VitalPBX is perhaps the fastest-growing PBX offering based upon Asterisk with an installed presence in more than 100 countries worldwide. VitalPBX has generously provided a customized White Label version of Incredible PBX tailored for use with all Incredible PBX and VitalPBX custom applications. Follow this link for a free test drive!
Special Thanks to Vitelity. Vitelity is now Voyant Communications and has halted new registrations for the time being. Our special thanks to Vitelity for their unwavering financial support over many years and to the many Nerd Vittles readers who continue to enjoy the benefits of their service offerings. We will keep everyone posted on further developments.
Some Fresh CallerID Magic for Incredible PBX 13-13
It’s been more than 10 years since we first introduced CallerID Trifecta for Asterisk® and the FreePBX® platform. A few months later it morphed into CallerID Superfecta and, as they say, the rest is history. Today CallerID Superfecta is used by over a million people around the globe to obtain CallerID Name (CNAM) information from over 70 different lookup sources. WOW! Just call me the Proud Papa. What a journey it has been, and our special thanks to the dozens of contributors.
Unfortunately, for those in the United States, most of the lookup sources now are commercial enterprises much like the original Bell Sisters that monopolized CallerID information by keeping it proprietary instead of forwarding CallerID Name data together with the CallerID number of incoming calls. In fact, for many users, the cost of CallerID lookups now is more expensive than the cost of the VoIP trunks carrying the calls. While we can’t solve the problem, we can make the cost of these CallerID lookup services considerably cheaper using a neat little trick with CallerID Superfecta.
Here’s the problem. Many cell phone users don’t subscribe to any service that keeps track of the caller’s identity. The same is true for those using services such as Google Voice. When you receive a call from one of these users, the CNAM provided for the caller will either show something like "Mobile Phone User" or the city and state of the caller’s cellphone provider. This doesn’t keep the commercial CNAM providers from dinging you every time you receive one of these calls. And if your girlfriend calls you a hundred times a month, the commercial CNAM providers charge you for a hundred lookups even when the calls are from the same caller. That ends today. Once you implement this new CallerID add-on, you’ll only get billed for a single CNAM lookup regardless of how many times that person calls your PBX. Better yet, with a little effort, you can quickly replace the CNAM entries of the mystery cellphone and Google Voice callers by inserting their actual names into your Asterisk phonebook using either the FreePBX GUI or the Asterisk CLI. We’ll show you how.
Here’s the trick. CallerID Superfecta lets you prioritize source lookups when incoming calls hit your PBX. For example, you can lookup the CallerID number in AsteriDex and the Asterisk Phonebook in a fraction of a second at no cost. Once there’s a match on the CallerID number of the caller, additional lookups stop. So what we want to do is prioritize the lookups so that the free sources are used before any commercial lookup service is triggered. For the commercial CNAM source in the U.S., we’re going to use OpenCNAM in our examples because their service is one of the easiest and least expensive to implement. All OpenCNAM lookup options are less than a half a cent per lookup. By placing OpenCNAM third in the Default Superfecta lookup sequence, it will only be used when there is no match in either AsteriDex or the Asterisk Phonebook.
Getting Started. It would obviously be a hassle to have to add every caller to one of these phonebooks every time a call arrives on your PBX. So the other half of today’s magic is to automatically add an entry to the Asterisk Phonebook every time a call hits your PBX. Then, the next time you receive a call from that same number, CallerID Superfecta will be able to find it in your free databases instead of querying OpenCNAM for yet another commercial lookup. As a general rule, in the United States, phonebook data is not copyrightable. However, you should consult an attorney for questions regarding the legality of this methodology as it applies to any particular CNAM lookup service.
We’re aware that CallerID Superfecta has had a caching option which provides similar functionality; however, users have reported mixed results and data corruption with that feature so we’ll be implementing a slightly different solution that relies on Asterisk’s extremely reliable SQLite3 database. This also provides the flexibility to customize the entries after completion of a call for more accurate CNAM information on subsequent calls. Unfortunately, a CNAM entry of ATLANTA, GA doesn’t tell you much about the caller even though you paid for the lookup. By inserting these call entries in the Asterisk Phonebook, you then have the option of easily customizing them in multiple ways. Not only will this provide better CNAM data on subsequent inbound calls, but the phonebook can also be used to make outgoing calls and to produce an alphabetized phonebook listing as well.
cd /var/lib/asterisk sqlite3 astdb.sqlite3 "select key,value from astdb where key LIKE '%cidname/%' order by value"
Upgrading Asterisk Phonebook Module. Before we get too deep in the weeds, let’s get your Asterisk Phonebook module in FreePBX upgraded to resolve a bug in the version that ships with Incredible PBX which won’t let you edit phonebook entries without also adding a speed dial number for each entry. For generic FreePBX platforms, you can use Module Admin to upgrade the Phonebook module. For Incredible PBX platforms, log into your server as root and issue these commands:
cd /root ./gpl-install-fpbx phonebook
Activating CallerID Superfecta. There are three steps in activating CallerID Superfecta. First, configure the Default Scheme for CallerID Superfecta in Admin:CID Superfecta using the settings we previously displayed. Use the Arrow keys to properly order the three lookup sources: AsteriDex, Asterisk Phonebook, and OpenCNAM.
Be advised that there is a credentials mismatch in the Default setup for AsteriDex. To correct this, open the Default configuration for Superfecta and click on the Tool icon to the left of AsteriDex. The username must be root, and the password is passw0rd with a zero. Save your settings.
Next, you need to create and fund an account at OpenCNAM.com. Once your account is established, copy your credentials and insert them into the OpenCNAM lookup source by clicking on OpenCNAM’s tool icon 
:
Once you have saved the Default Scheme, then you need to enable CallerID Superfecta for each of your Inbound Routes under the Other tab in Connectivity:Inbound Routes:
Adding Hook for Inbound Call Processing. One of the decade-old shortcomings of FreePBX has always been the inability to insert dialplan code into the Inbound Call process without forever damaging your ability to add additional DIDs moving forward. While extensions_override_freepbx.conf lets you extract and manipulate large chunks of FreePBX code, the drawback is that once you do that, the flexibility provided by the GUI goes up in smoke unless you remember to always move the newly generated dialplan code back into the override context.
We much prefer a simpler way of inserting custom dialplan code into the Inbound Call processing routine, but it requires a change in the FreePBX Core module. We would caution you about using this except on Incredible PBX 13-13 servers running under CentOS 6 or 7 or Ubuntu 18.04 with Signature Checking Disabled. It will trigger nasty signature checking errors on the FreePBX Dashboard. See the next section for a workaround on generic FreePBX 13 platforms. On Incredible PBX 13 servers, login as root and issue the following commands making sure that you expand the last two lines into a single command before executing it:
cd /var/www/html/admin/modules/core
sed -i "s|new ext_noop('CallerID Entry Point')|new ext_gosub('1','s','sub-log-caller')|" \\
functions.inc.php
mysql -u root -ppassw0rd asterisk -e "update admin set value='true' \\
where variable='need_reload'"
amportal a r
Next, we need to add some supplemental dialplan code to extensions_custom.conf. This code actually populates the Asterisk Phonebook with the new call entries each time a call is received by your PBX:
cd /tmp wget http://incrediblepbx.com/sub-log-caller.tar.gz tar zxvf sub-log-caller.tar.gz rm -f sub-log-caller.tar.gz cd /etc/asterisk cat /tmp/sub-log-caller.txt >> extensions_custom.conf fwconsole reload amportal restart
Disabling Module Signature Checking. If you’re running FreePBX 13 behind a secure firewall that blocks web access to FreePBX for anonymous users, then here’s a simple way that you can apply the patch above and take advantage of the sub-log-caller functionality without having to endure module signature errors within FreePBX. Simply disable Module Signature Checking. Here’s how:
cd /var/www/html/admin/libraries sed -i 's|"SIGNATURECHECK", true|"SIGNATURECHECK", false|' modulefunctions.class.php mysql -u root -ppassw0rd asterisk -e "UPDATE notifications SET candelete = '1' WHERE true;" mysql -u root -ppassw0rd asterisk -e "DELETE FROM notifications WHERE true;" mysql -u root -ppassw0rd asterisk -e "UPDATE freepbx_settings SET value='0' WHERE \\ keyword='SIGNATURECHECK';" amportal restart
Adding CNAM data to CDR Listings. One of our concerns with the current CDR implementation in FreePBX is the lack of display of CNAM data for most entries in CDR listings. Currently, the only way to decipher the CNAM information is to use your mouse to hover over each of the CallerID numbers. We much prefer displaying both CallerID Name and Number in the CallerID column of CDR Reports. Here’s how to fix it:
cd /var/www/html/admin/modules/cdr sed -i "s|cdr_formatSrc(\$row\['src'], \$row\['clid']);|cdr_formatSrc(\$row\['clid'], \\ \$row\['clid']);|" page.cdr.php amportal a r
Managing Your Asterisk Phonebook. As we mentioned, there are a couple of ways to display and/or update entries in your Asterisk Phonebook that have been populated with OpenCNAM lookups. From the Asterisk CLI, you can display entries like this: database show cidname.
You also can add or update entries using the Asterisk CLI like this:
database put cidname 8431234567 "Mundy, Ward"
The simplest method to manage your Asterisk Phonebook is from within the FreePBX GUI. Simply navigate to Admin:Asterisk Phonebook. There you can edit individual entries and replace generic CNAM entries such as Atlanta, GA within something more descriptive of the caller’d identity. You also have the ability to export the data and even create speed dial entries for frequently called parties. Once Speed Dial numbers have been created, you can reach the party from any phone connected to your PBX by dialing *0 plus the speed dial number.
Finally, you need to complete some additional steps to implement the Spam Call Blocker as documented in this tutorial. Enjoy!
Originally published: Wednesday, May 30, 2018 Updated: Monday, November 26, 2018
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. Unlike some forums, ours is extremely friendly and is supported by literally hundreds of Asterisk gurus and thousands of users just like you. You won’t have to wait long for an answer to your question.
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…
Pioneers, Start Your Engines: Introducing Incredible PBX for CuBox-i with Ubuntu
In our never-ending quest for better, faster, and cooler VoIP technology, we bit the bullet last week and purchased the $130 top-of-the line CuBox-i4Pro, a state-of-the-art Quad-Core, all-in-one computer that’s 2x2x2 inches small. If you hurry, NewEggFlash has the i4PRO on sale for $119 with free shipping until Tuesday, August 26. If you’re not feeling especially wealthy this week, the $85 Dual-Core CuBoX-i2 should work just well minus WiFi and Bluetooth. And there are a few other specs worth writing home about:
Did we mention it’s based on Ubuntu® 14? And runs Asterisk® 11? And FreePBX® 2.11? And Incredible PBX™ 11? Well, it’s all true. And we’ve got the preview production-ready edition of this rocket ship ready and waiting for you on SourceForge. We owe an extra special thanks to @zhando from the PIAF Forum for his initial work in getting Ubuntu 14 ported to the CuBox-i and also for the many hours he invested getting the basic components of Incredible PBX loaded. We spent a few more. 😉
There’s some good news and some bad news. Let’s start with the bad news. This is prerelease software, and a few things are still works in progress. It’s a short list and the top item is GoogleTTS which you may recall was also broken on the BeagleBone Black platform originally. We’re hopeful that Lefteris Zafiris will again work his magic, but it’s not soup yet. Also on the dead list is WiFi. The top-of-the-line CuBox-i comes with a WiFi adapter built in, but it’s not working with the current kernel, and it now works perfectly. We had to use a very new kernel to get IPtables and Fail2Ban functioning, and that caused some initial issues with WiFi, but that’s all history now. Because this is new technology, there always is a chance that some other gotcha is lurking under the covers. We’ll post updates below as new discoveries and fixes are made.
FYI #1: Ubuntu can be a little finicky with shutdowns and reboots. We’ve added our own scripts which should eliminate the (frequent) system hangs. Use halt and reboot to shutdown and restart your server, and these issues should be a thing of the past.
FYI #2: Thanks to @zhando, wireless networking is now available for the CuBox-i4PRO. Just log in as root to get the automatic update. Then run one of the /root/enable-wifi-* scripts with your SSID and password, and you’re all set.
FYI #3: The August 20 build and the August 21 patch from Lefteris Zafiris resolve the GoogleTTS problem with MPG123. Thanks as always to our selfless TTS hero. Applications such as Yahoo News (dial 951) work flawlessly. With some microSD cards, there remains a minor wrinkle with reboots during the initial install procedure. If your monitor shows "restarting" and it doesn’t after you count to 10, just remove the power cord and plug it back in. This issue resolves itself once you’ve run /root/resize-partition to expand the image to fill all the space on your chosen microSD card.
FYI #4: The August 24 build now supports Bluetooth calling with a smartphone and Bluetooth proximity detection. See this PIAF Forum thread for setup instructions.
FYI #5: Add a beefy eSATA hard drive to run Incredible PBX with your CuBox-i4PRO. Here’s how.
FYI #6: And now Incredible PBX for CuBox includes Incredible Fax, the ultimate fax machine with HylaFax and AvantFax. Two-minute setup instructions available here.
The really good news is that Asterisk 11 and FreePBX 2.11 and virtually all of the Incredible PBX stable of applications run swimmingly… and FAST! This is NOT a Raspberry Pi when it comes to performance. The installation drill is almost identical to the Raspberry Pi platform. Download and untar the latest image from SourceForge. Then burn it to a microSD card1 of your favorite size (at least 8GB recommended). Boot up the CuBox-i with your new card after connecting to a network with a DHCP server. That gets you to the Internet. Log into your new server as root with the password: cubox. The initial setup is automatic but requires a reboot. Once it finishes, change the password by running passwd. Change the FreePBX password by running /root/admin-pw-change. Set your correct timezone by running /root/timezone-setup. Expand the image on your SD card to match the size of the card by running /root/resize-partition. After you’ve completed these initial steps, you’re all set. If Incredible PBX is new territory for you, read the latest Raspberry Pi tutorial. It’ll walk you through the basics of configuring your server. Other than what’s been mentioned, all remaining commands and apps are the same on the CuBox-i platform. To restore the functionality of Google’s speech recognition service for many of the Incredible PBX apps, follow the steps in the tutorial posted here.
Anyone looking for a perfectly-sized, perfectly-priced Asterisk server platform for a small to medium-sized business, This Bud’s for You. For the latest tips & tricks for the CuBox-i, see this thread on the PIAF Forum. Enjoy!
Performance. We’ve received some inquiries about the performance of a QuadCore ARM chip compared to one of the Foxconn dual-core Atom machines that have been our long-time favorite for small business VoIP implementations. See this thread on the PIAF Forum for a quick comparison.
Originally published: Monday, August 18, 2014
Support Issues. With any application as sophisticated as Incredible PBX, 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. Unlike some forums, ours is extremely friendly and is supported by literally hundreds of Asterisk gurus and thousands of ordinary users just like you. You won’t have to wait long for an answer to your question.
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.
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