It may be a while before Internet telephony with VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) reaches critical mass, but there's already tremendous movement in that direction. A lot of organizations are not only attracted to VoIP's promise of cost savings, but its ability to move data, images, and voice traffic over the same connection. Think of it: a single Internet phone call can take information sharing to a whole new level.

That's why many IT administrators and developers are actively looking to set up VoIP-based private telephone switching systems within the enterprise. The efficiency that network users can reach with it is almost mind-boggling. And cheap, if the system is built with open source software like Asterisk. There are commercial VoIP options out there, but many are expensive systems running old, complicated code on obsolete hardware. Asterisk runs on Linux and can interoperate with almost all standards-based telephony equipment. And you can program it to your liking.

Asterisk's flexibility comes at a price, however: it's not a simple system to learn, and the documentation is lacking. Asterisk: The Future of Telephony solves that problem by offering a complete roadmap for installing, configuring, and integrating Asterisk with existing phone systems. Our guide walks you through a basic dial plan step by step, and gives you enough working knowledge to set up a simple but complete system.

What you end up with is largely up to you. Asterisk embraces the concept of standards-compliance, but also gives you freedom to choose how to implement your system. Asterisk: The Future of Telephony outlines all the options, and shows you how to set up voicemail services, call conferencing, interactive voice response, call waiting, caller ID, and more. You'll also learn how Asterisk merges voice and data traffic seamlessly across disparate networks. And you won't need additional hardware. For interconnection with digital and analog telephone equipment, Asterisk supports a number of hardware devices.

Ready for the future of telephony? We'll help you hook it up.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 30 Ratings

Bleah - 2007-01-17
Reviewer Rating:
This book really isn't all that great and leaves many a stone unturned for novice and professional alike, but I'll give it three stars anyway just because you can legally download an electronic copy for free right from the "Support" section of the main Asterisk website.

If you want a book that's going to explain how to configure VoIP hardware that isn't sold by Digium, try "Switching to VoIP" and just stick to the online docs and sample config comments for Asterisk.

Dated. Rambling. - 2007-05-08
Reviewer Rating:
The asterisk software has progressed substantially, but worse, the organization of what's important and what's not makes this book hold the distinct honor of being in the top five worst books by O'Reilly Press.

great for the initiated - 2007-04-14
Reviewer Rating:
Its a great book to learn Asterisk from the very beging, it goes trought the concept of telephony to creating a campaign.

Its a great book for understanding, setting up and administration of Asterisk as a PBX, it doesnt go futher this.

The down side is for the very very beginners, you should at least know the basics of telephony systems and to be a linux administrator.

But its a must if you are planning to install an Asterisk system.

Good overview - 2007-08-23
Reviewer Rating:
I was looking to this book to gain an overview of Asterisk. As is usually the case with O' Reilly books, this one did not disappoint. I would definitely recommend this to anybody who is starting to explore Asterisk.

Additionally, there are references and details useful for continuing your understanding of this wonderful platform. There is a lot of information that can get you started with a hands-on Asterisk experience.

Very good book - 2007-06-08
Reviewer Rating:
This is a very good book well suitable to even beginners. contents are explained very well. I made my asterisk system work by referring this book.

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