AsteriskNow Book by Nir Simionovich
I was excited when I learned that there was a book that just came out on AsteriskNow. As far as I know, this AsteriskNow book is the only one available for the subject matter. For those who may not know, AsteriskNow is an open-source software appliance from Digium. It’s an easy to install, customized Linux distribution that includes Asterisk (the leading open-source telephony engine and tool kit), the AsteriskGUI, and all the other software needed for an Asterisk telephony system. The improvement on the original Asterisk release is that it packaged everything one needs allowing for a quicker and easier way of deploying Asterisk. Surely, it’s a great step towards making Asterisk within reach of small businesses who may not have the technical capabilities necessary in making Asterisk run in their enterprise.
The book starts with an introductory chapter on telephony and Asterisk. In the appendix, it also includes a jargon buster section that will help you become familiar with common telecommunication jargons. It is an easy to read and well-written guide for complete beginners who are interested in setting up their own telephony system. You don’t need any special knowledge about telephony as concepts are pretty much well explained. You will learn everything that you need to set up your own AsteriskNow telephony system. From installing AsteriskNow, configuring an IP softphone, to writing your own applications for Asterisk with the Asterisk Gateway Interface. This is a must have book for those looking on ways to cut their telephony bills. VOIP technology has matured so much that enterprises, especially small businesses shouldn’t rely on the big Telcos for their communication needs. VOIP is the way to go forward.
To learn more about the book, please check its table of content and additional info on this link, AsteriskNow Book TOC. Just for completeness, and if for some reason the link becomes broken. Below is the Table of Content:
Preface
Chapter 1: An Introduction to Telephony and Asterisk
Chapter 2: Building a PBX
Chapter 3: Extensions, Phones, and Others
Chapter 4: Service Providers—Your Connection to the World
Chapter 5: Tentacles of the PBX—The Calling Rules Tables
Chapter 6: “Let me in!”—Inbound Call Routing
Chapter 7: “For Annoyance, Press 1″—Voice Menus and IVR
Chapter 8: Voicemail, Conferencing, and Parking—Advanced PBX Services
Chapter 9: “Please hold, we’ll be with you shortly”—Simple Call Queues
Chapter 10: General AsteriskNOW Management—Monitoring, Backups, and More
Chapter 11: Hard Core AsteriskNOW
Chapter 12: Where to from Here?
Appendix A: Jargon Buster
Appendix B: Free World Dialup (FWD)
Appendix C: AsteriskNOW for Service Providers
Index
This book is a must-read for people trying to understand VOIP, telephony in general and AsteriskNow in particular. As you can see from the table of contents above, you do not need to be knowledgeable on telephony to appreciate it. This book covers the basic and the important. It also offers you jumping off points to explore further if you need to. If you are seriously exploring how you can take advantage of AsteriskNow for your enterprise, I’d suggest you get a hold of this one. The book is published by Packt Publishing and comes in ebook and book format. Go ahead and get this AsteriskNow book. For more info, check it here.
[…] learn more about AsteriskNow. A free chapter is found on their website. Check it my review here at AsteriskNow book. It should help you in the installation and configuration of the software for your enterprise. […]
Interesting. I’m going over to Packt’s site to check it out. Should have been out though when I was playing with Asterisk on my pc. It would have probably made it easier for me. Oh, well .. let me check it out anyway. Thanks.