Minimum implementation of Asterisk for Google Voice?

@twinclouds

> how do you specify in the Linphone? Do you use serverip:port #?
I uninstalled Linphone because the call quality was so bad, but from memory I used hostname:port for the proxy.

> I Sipdroid, I always have the problem say no data network available

Have you checked the following?
Sipdroid > Menu button > Settings > SIP Account > Use WLAN / 3G / Edge

> some more hint on how to register sip phone from internet

By default Asterisk uses 5060 for SIP registration and 10001-20000 (yes 10k ports) for voice data. To get registration and voice to work you need to UDP port forward these ranges to your asterisk server.

To make it easier (and avoid any ISP filtering) I changed the SIP registration to 8024 and the voice port range to 8025-8050 (in rtp.conf). Then I just forward UDP range 8024-8050 to the asterisk server.

There also seems to be an incompatibility between sipdroid PCMA codec and asterisk 1.8 which stops voice working in one direction (outgoing I think). As a work around disable the PCMA codec in sipdroid.

HTH

-PG

Peter:
Thanks for your suggestions. At lease, it appears that the register over the web works. The key is I need to put externhost statement in sip.conf file. I changes the rtp port range but it appears that external sip phone works fine even without open the rtp ports.
I will try the sipdroid again later.

hi all,

i am a newbie in pbx. i recently got a pogoplug and was trying PGs instructions.
Great instructions.
my asterisk log says this:

"loader.c: Module 'res_rtp_asterisk.so' could not be loaded".

when i checked, i did not see this module in the modules folder.
no idea where to get this module.my google searches were in vain.

eagerly waiting to test asterisk.
would appreciate any help.

thanks,
teb

Hi teb, did you follow twinclouds build instructions? Step 8 mentions res_rtp_asterisk.

The modules should end up in /usr/lib/asterisk/modules

# ls -al /usr/lib/asterisk/modules/res_rtp_asterisk.so 
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 315416 Mar  5 12:06 /usr/lib/asterisk/modules/res_rtp_asterisk.so

-PG

Works great.
Awesome.
Kudos, Dude.

TEB

Glad to hear that.

Twinclouds I've been following your posts on several websites. And Peter Gunn has the 6MB install that intriques me. I have spent a couple days looking at many folk's installations. I have no clue about Asterisk but have wanted to try it for 10 years. I have hacked a couple of Vonage D-Link ATAs & a SunRocket ATA by following detailed instructions. I have downloaded the Asterisk Manual that Mazilo linked to but haven't read it yet but expect to in the next few days.

Here is what I have for hardware; Asus 520GU w/Tomato, a new 500GP V2 in the box, and a new Dockstar in the box. Twinclouds I believe you have the same hardware. My thinking is it would be best to use the 520gu because it is already in operation. I have USB sticks that I can bump the memory on the routers although I'm concerned about booting off of it since other folks have boot problems off the stick.

I presently have Google Voice, Sipgate, IPcomms, and Ribbit active and would like to keep them active. I have recently put 10MB down and 700KB up ISP in place. Therefore I have deactivated QoS on the 520gu because I don't do the bit torrent type activity. I might put somebody on hold a few times a year.

I would like to have free CNAM lookups and also have a list of my contacts phone numbers and name looked up that may not be on CNAM so I can see the CID when they call. I have them in Google contacts presently but I suspect it won't transmit the normal CID with name. I also could use music on hold but I rarely use the phone so the odds are that it may only come in handy a few times a year at best.

PeterGunn said to use your method to install but then says he is using Squeeze yet you are using Debian. I liked his idea of not needing a DID to use GV but don't know if that has to do with Squeeze or Asterisk.

So I think I need something very simple with little memory. I see there is Asterisk 1.8.3.3 now also. I also notice that my GV phones webpage list a Google Chat phone yet I see folks talking about signing up for gtalk and gmail to make 1.8 work.

Mario says these are all the packages that are needed: opkg install asterisk18 asterisk18-func-db asterisk18-res-musiconhold asterisk18-chan-gtalk asterisk18-res-rtp-asterisk


Somebody please point me in the right hardware and software direction and give me a few instructions on getting started.

Thanks folks,

Hi,
I am glad you feel that my posts are useful. I hope I will be able to provide help that you need as much as I can. The issue is I am not sure what exactly you need. All of the routers and Dockstar that you have can be used for this purpose. As for Dockstar, what I and Peter Gunn are talking about the same thing. Squeeze he talked about is the latest stable version of Debian and that is what I use. It is not the Squeeze box for other purpose. If you follow my and his procedures, you should have not problem to set the Asterisk up as Peter has demonstrated. As for ASUS 500GP-v2, you can simply follow what Mario did. It has enough RAM and ROM do set up the Asterisk to use with Gtalk. As for ASUS 520GU, it's resources of RAM and ROM are limited. The best thing to do is to install Tomato and then install optware on top of it. You will need external USB drive for extension of ROM and for swapping of RAM. BTW, I learned a lot from davidnewt for the Tomato + Optware approach. All of these approaches will work if this is what you asked for. If you have more specific questions. Please let me know.

deskjockey Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Twinclouds I've been following your posts on
> several websites. And Peter Gunn has the 6MB
> install that intriques me. I have spent a couple
> days looking at many folk's installations. I have
> no clue about Asterisk but have wanted to try it
> for 10 years. I have hacked a couple of Vonage
> D-Link ATAs & a SunRocket ATA by following
> detailed instructions. I have downloaded the
> Asterisk Manual that Mazilo linked to but haven't
> read it yet but expect to in the next few days.
>
> Here is what I have for hardware; Asus 520GU
> w/Tomato, a new 500GP V2 in the box, and a new
> Dockstar in the box. Twinclouds I believe you have
> the same hardware. My thinking is it would be best
> to use the 520gu because it is already in
> operation. I have USB sticks that I can bump the
> memory on the routers although I'm concerned about
> booting off of it since other folks have boot
> problems off the stick.
>
> I presently have Google Voice, Sipgate, IPcomms,
> and Ribbit active and would like to keep them
> active. I have recently put 10MB down and 700KB up
> ISP in place. Therefore I have deactivated QoS on
> the 520gu because I don't do the bit torrent type
> activity. I might put somebody on hold a few times
> a year.
>
> I would like to have free CNAM lookups and also
> have a list of my contacts phone numbers and name
> looked up that may not be on CNAM so I can see the
> CID when they call. I have them in Google contacts
> presently but I suspect it won't transmit the
> normal CID with name. I also could use music on
> hold but I rarely use the phone so the odds are
> that it may only come in handy a few times a year
> at best.
>
> PeterGunn said to use your method to install but
> then says he is using Squeeze yet you are using
> Debian. I liked his idea of not needing a DID to
> use GV but don't know if that has to do with
> Squeeze or Asterisk.
>
> So I think I need something very simple with
> little memory. I see there is Asterisk 1.8.3.3 now
> also. I also notice that my GV phones webpage list
> a Google Chat phone yet I see folks talking about
> signing up for gtalk and gmail to make 1.8 work.
>
>
> Mario says these are all the packages that are
> needed: opkg install asterisk18
> asterisk18-func-db asterisk18-res-musiconhold
> asterisk18-chan-gtalk asterisk18-res-rtp-asterisk
>
>
> Somebody please point me in the right hardware and
> software direction and give me a few instructions
> on getting started.
>
> Thanks folks,

Twinclouds, thanks for your response. I’m selecting the WL-500GP V2 and using Mario’s method. I assume that I’m to download from “downloads.openwrt.org” the Backfire 10.03.01-rc4 > brcm2.4/ > openwrt-brcm-2.4-squashfs.trx Then I should do a restoration to the Asus firmware with that file. Then I’m suppose to download off of Mario’s site asterisk using this command (I assume from my router); src/gz asterisk1.8 http://www.arctangent.net/~superm1/openwrt/brcm-2.4

Then I assume it asks me what modules to include and I pick these:
asterisk18_1.8.2.3-1_brcm-2.4.ipk (assume that is the main program)
asterisk18-func-db_1.8.2.3-1_brcm-2.4.ipk,
asterisk18-res-musiconhold_1.8.2.3-1_brcm-2.4.ipk
asterisk18-chan-gtalk_1.8.2.3-1_brcm-2.4.ipk
asterisk18-codec-ulaw_1.8.2.3-1_brcm-2.4.ipk

And I assume asterisk18-res-rtp-asterisk is no longer needed because it isn’t on his current list.

Well that is a lot of ground for me to digest so let me know if I’m heading in the right direction and picking the right files and sources.

Really appreciate your help.

deskjockey Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Twinclouds, thanks for your response. I’m
> selecting the WL-500GP V2 and using Mario’s
> method. I assume that I’m to download from
> “downloads.openwrt.org” the Backfire
> 10.03.01-rc4 > brcm2.4/ >
I used an older version, i.e., Backfire 10.03. I guess this new version should work also. You just need to experiment.
> openwrt-brcm-2.4-squashfs.trx Then I should do a
> restoration to the Asus firmware with that file.
> Then I’m suppose to download off of Mario’s
> site asterisk using this command (I assume from my
> router); src/gz asterisk1.8
> http://www.arctangent.net/~superm1/openwrt/brcm-2.
> 4
>
> Then I assume it asks me what modules to include
> and I pick these:
> asterisk18_1.8.2.3-1_brcm-2.4.ipk (assume that is
> the main program)
> asterisk18-func-db_1.8.2.3-1_brcm-2.4.ipk,
> asterisk18-res-musiconhold_1.8.2.3-1_brcm-2.4.ipk
> asterisk18-chan-gtalk_1.8.2.3-1_brcm-2.4.ipk
> asterisk18-codec-ulaw_1.8.2.3-1_brcm-2.4.ipk
>
> And I assume asterisk18-res-rtp-asterisk is no
> longer needed because it isn’t on his current
> list.
This is correct. You don't need this file anymore.
>
> Well that is a lot of ground for me to digest so
> let me know if I’m heading in the right
> direction and picking the right files and sources.
>
Just make sure you set up your gtalk credentials correct. Please post your progresses or any problems. Good luck!
>
> Really appreciate your help.

Twinclouds,

I used Backfire 10.03. I don’t see a Backfire command line to download asterisk. Do I SSH directly from the internet to the router or do I first download the files to the computer and then SSH to the router?

Thanks again

Wouldn't backfire questions get better responds if they are posted at openwrt forum?

funtoy,

I'm on a couple other sites with Twinclouds such as DSLreports. I have followed this discussion over the past year and bought hardware anticipating that I'd want to move GV to my own hardware eventually. The gtalk changes recently put me into action. This threads topic was exactly what my goal to achieve was and I apologize that I may now be off topic. I don't have enough knowledge to know one way or the other where is the best place to be.

After spending a week of maybe 5 hours a day on it I decided to move forward on doing what Twinclouds did. His knowledge and rapid learning curve using the same hardware I have available suggested he might easily be able to guide me having done it already. I spent a week giving about 5 hours a day to decide between Dockstar and either router and then what programs. I cranked it up 14 hours Wed. and 18 hours Thur. and settled on one router and flashed Backfire 10.03 because it worked for Twinclouds. After 10 hrs. so far today I now assume that I have to SSH asterisk to the router. Therefore I loaded PUTTY and PUTTYGEN and set up a private keyphrase. However the Putty login gives access denied. Over the last 4 hours I've read a lot on it and it appears solutions are not often achieved. I suspect the best plan would be to find a solution for the password problem or find a way to clean Putty restrictions from the router and use another program to get asterisk into the router. I also have an Ubunto 10.10 computer that maybe would be a better way to work with the router although I just built it and have little/no skills with linux.

If you can point me in the correct direction I'd really appreciate it. A link would be very helpful.

Thanks

deskjockey, I have no say whether any topic is on or off topic for this forum. Just thought there must be a more suitable site about Asterisk on router with openwrt/ddwrt/tomato firmware.

deskjockey:
I see what is your problem. You first need to telnet into the router. Then set root password by doing passwd. After that you can ssh into it.
Once you have a command line prompt with telnet or ssh, you can just do opkg install (for openwrt) as Mario did. It will download and install Asterisk.
I agree with funtoy1001 that you might be able to get more help from other forums, e.g., DSLreports ( http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r25146039-Asterisk-GV-outgoing-calls-with-Asterisk1.8~start=140 ). If you need my input, you can put a post here to point me to where you have posted.
twinclouds.

Thanks to the posts in this thread, I was able to get Asterisk running on my dockstar and it is great!

Next thing I want to do is to get FreePBX running and I am wondering if there is any guides/instruction available? Any pointer will be greatly appreciated!

nnslick

nnslick Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thanks to the posts in this thread, I was able to
> get Asterisk running on my dockstar and it is
> great!
>
> Next thing I want to do is to get FreePBX running
> and I am wondering if there is any
> guides/instruction available? Any pointer will be
> greatly appreciated!
>
> nnslick
The best site for Freebpx on Dockstar is probably this one: http://www.plugpbx.org/. But this is for Debian Linux.

Many thanks for the website, twinclouds! By the way what do you mean "But this is for Debian Linux." ?

Does it exist any step-by-step guide for FreePBX similar to your excellent guide to install Asterisk on dockstar?

nnslick

Twinclouds,

Could you point me in the right direction? Recap, I did your original install of Backfire 10.03 with Asterisk 18.2.3.1-1 (Mario) on the WL500gp router knowing it worked for you. I hear 10% of incoming call’s audio. I’ve tried 2 different brand ATA units and tried all kinds of settings with them and no luck. I tried one call with gmail softphone that worked but only did it once. So I assume it is somewhere in Asterisk or the router configuration and I’ve made hundreds if not more tweaks with Asterisk and I’m sure I’ve probably messed it up somewhere. Here is my load log if any help.


WARNING[707] ccss.c: Could not find valid ccss.conf file. Using cc_max_requests default
NOTICE[707] loader.c: 22 modules will be loaded.
WARNING[707] loader.c: Error loading module 'res_crypto': File not found
WARNING[707] loader.c: Error loading module 'chan_local': File not found
ERROR[707] netsock2.c: getaddrinfo("OpenWrt", "(null)", ...): Name or service not known
WARNING[707] acl.c: Unable to lookup 'OpenWrt'
ERROR[707] acl.c: Cannot create socket
NOTICE[707] chan_sip.c: The 'username' field for sip peers has been deprecated in favor of the term 'defaultuser'
NOTICE[743] res_jabber.c: User 2-lucky@gmail.com/asterisk4BCB8F65 does not support discovery.
ERROR[760] pbx.c: Function MASTER_CHANNEL not registered (Mario says ignore)

I notice res_crypto and I don't think that is in this distro to begin with nor does he have ccss.conf so I was thinking maybe removing Asterisk and then reinstalling it clean and start over seeing it is looking for files that aren’t even loaded or in the distro. If that makes sense is there an easy remove command to clean it out with one command or in WINscp some directory that I can just click and delete out everything or do I have to remove each package and then the program. I don’t think I got those errors early on, (got others now that I don’t get) so I figure that whatever changes I made that I’ll never find them and starting over may make sense. I've done every combination and permutation of the Conf files entries.


If you can point in another direction that would be fine also.

Thanks so much for pointing me in the right direction yet again.

Michael

nnslick Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Many thanks for the website, twinclouds! By the
> way what do you mean "But this is for Debian
> Linux." ?
>
> Does it exist any step-by-step guide for FreePBX
> similar to your excellent guide to install
> Asterisk on dockstar?
>
> nnslick
If you are using Debian on Linux (not using optware or openwrt), then forget what I said. The guide there should be fine.
There is a step by step guild on that forum (http://forums.plugpbx.org/index.php/topic,109.0.html, http://forums.plugpbx.org/index.php/topic,110.0.html). I installed according to the guide and it worked. It is a little old, though. Since Asterisk itself meets all my needs (FreePBX is only a front end for asterisk anyway), I don't have latest experience with the Freepbx. You can also get USB image of FreePBX for Sheevaplug from that Forum. I never tried that on Dockstar. Otherwise, I don't know any other better guide.

Hi, deskjockey:
Actually, I am not using Openwrt any more. (I used it when I don't have any other choice.) Now I use Asterisk on Dockstar with Debian. It didn't work at that time. For ASUS routers, I only using Tomato and Optware. (Thanks to DavidNewt for bringing my attention to this configuration.) The latter one is really very straightforward. I just reinstalled it a couple days ago on another 520gu (500gp will be fine as well) and will be easy to repeat again. If you need more directions, I won't mind to write another "In Twenty Minutes" guide about this configuration. The only issue is that I will also need to prepare a set of neutral config files to facilitate others to use. It will take a couple of days.
This board may not be the most proper place for discussion other than Dockstar. I can use the DSL forum. The problem for that one is it does not have email notice to a thread but on to my own email. Of course, one can always PM me if needed.

Twinclouds,

David is the man and I wouldn’t be running anything without his enormous patience, encouragement and expertise even though Backfire and some of the commands to do things are different. Fortunately Mazilo was able to guide me on the commands. And of course reading all your work on so many sites also helped me to ever start this adventure.

I believe Optware is a bigger program so why did you switch to it? Does it let you access the Teddy Bear GUI?

On my WL500gp can I run Teddy Bear with limited Optware and limited Asterisk without using the USB? What is the best way to remove Asterisk from the router so the RAM is clean and fully available to load Teddy Bear and Optware? Would this take asterisk out; opkg remove Asterisk18 or should I just do some button reset or revert to a previous mode on the router. At this time having set up my password by telnet, I can't actually get into the router GUI anyway because it doesn't recognize my password unless I SSH into it. .

Guides for dummies would be awesome but I can't impose on you for that. I think I can probably piece it together with all the websites I have been learning from and some of the guidance info that David had given me. If I can run it without USB then I'll probably proceed and may ask you about certain packages to download. I noticed on the DD-WRT site, Kate from Cananda downloaded almost nothing and was doing some very brief conf file scripts.

twinclouds Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
....
> This board may not be the most proper place for
> discussion other than Dockstar. I can use the DSL
> forum. The problem for that one is it does not
> have email notice to a thread but on to my own
> email. Of course, one can always PM me if needed.

Maybe the tech support forum at slickdeals is a good place? It does have PM function.

funtoy1001 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ........................
> Maybe the tech support forum at slickdeals is a
> good place? It does have PM function.

Sounds like a good idea.

deskjockey Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> On my WL500gp can I run Teddy Bear with limited
> Optware and limited Asterisk without using the
> USB?

deskjockey: If you flash your WL500gp with Tomato (TeddyBear), it is very easy to install optware with a USB drive. Mango from dslreports forum has a very good instruction on how to install optware and asterisk on Tomato USB router. It takes less than 10 minutes to finish. I think it might be a good starting point for you. This is the easiest way to make asterisk18 work in my opinion, much easier than openwrt. Here is the link:

http://www.toao.net/425-asterisk-on-a-router

The only thing you need to pay attention is that this instruction is to install asterisk1.6. You can simply change "ipkg install asterisk16" command to "ipkg install asterisk18". You also need to install 1 more packages with "ipkg install iksemel" after you install asterisk18 to make GV work.

The same procedure can be used for dockstar with Pogoplug firmware too with optware installed (instruction is below):

http://www.nslu2-linux.org/wiki/Main/PlugComputers

I am not sure if there's anything against using a usb drive. As davidnewton said, attach a USB to the router and install on it is really very simple. If you don't have enough port, it is always easy to use a usb hub.

Yesterday evening, I noticed that outgoing Google Voice calls, using an Asterisk server on my Dockstar which I had put together some months ago using this thread (thanks!), stopped working for me. Incoming calls to my Google Voice number still ring through Asterisk to my Linksys ATA. Outgoing calls placed from my computer still work. But, outgoing calls through Asterisk appear to ring forever on this end, but the called party's phone never rings.

Nothing really has changed on the Dockstar recently. I did do an "apt-get upgrade" this past Monday and this pulled in a lot of updates, but GV over Asterisk continued to work fine until last night.

Has anyone else noticed this? I've gotten to the point I rely on GV a lot here, and would hate to lose the ability to use it via Asterisk. Any ideas?

restamp Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Yesterday evening, I noticed that outgoing Google
> Voice calls, using an Asterisk server on my
> Dockstar which I had put together some months ago
> using this thread (thanks!), stopped working for
> me. Incoming calls to my Google Voice number
> still ring through Asterisk to my Linksys ATA.
> Outgoing calls placed from my computer still work.
> But, outgoing calls through Asterisk appear to
> ring forever on this end, but the called party's
> phone never rings.
>
> Nothing really has changed on the Dockstar
> recently. I did do an "apt-get upgrade" this past
> Monday and this pulled in a lot of updates, but GV
> over Asterisk continued to work fine until last
> night.
>
> Has anyone else noticed this? I've gotten to the
> point I rely on GV a lot here, and would hate to
> lose the ability to use it via Asterisk. Any
> ideas?

I got the same problem. It seems that GV changed something again for outgoing calls.

UPDATE: patch is available now. It is very easy, but needs recompile.

https://issues.asterisk.org/jira/browse/ASTERISK-18301



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/19/2011 08:55PM by davidnewton.

The patch worked like a champ -- Google Voice lives again on my Dockstar! Thanks!

Quote

I got the same problem. It seems that GV changed something again for outgoing calls.

UPDATE: patch is available now. It is very easy, but needs recompile.

https://issues.asterisk.org/jira/browse/ASTERISK-18301

I'm a raw Linux noob, although I was able to get Debian Squeeze and Asterisk and FreePBX running on my Dockstar by carefully following directions in this forum. I'd been running PIAF, so I wasn't doing any recompiling myself.

To that end, could someone post the steps of what I would need to do (literally; the "make" steps, etc.) so as to be able to take advantage of the patch? Extra kudos for explaining what those steps do (although I can look that up in my Linux for Newbies... *heh*)