VoIPonCD

VoIPonCD is an easy to configure Voice over IP PBX VMware appliance.

VoIPonCD is a software PBX for connecting Voice over IP telephones to it based on the Asterisk VoIP PBX. Normally you need much time knowing how Asterisk works, especially when you want to connect more than up to 10 users. In big environments you will go a special way when using Asterisk named as the realtime mode which means that you put all your data into a database rather than using files. For somebody who just wants to use a PBX but doesn't want to read a big book about how to accomplish this he can insert VoIPonCD and everything is done with just a few mouse clicks due to the easy to use webinterface in combination with the underlying scripts. I just finished VoIPonCD as a thesis for my degree (Dipl.-Ing. like Master) whilst at university in Cologne, Germany.

In a simple case you use VoIPonCD as your home VoIP PBX with an easy to use webinterface. In an enhanced, professional environment you can use this appliance for getting multiple instances of VoIPonCD to get a hosted PBX for every customer (like virtual servers but in this case a virtual PBX). The customer can connect his telephones to one appliance running at at big system which is capable of using many instances of this appliance for serving the customers each with his own fully configurable PBX.

The appliance is based on the Debian Linux appliance. I added all the scripts, servers and the webinterface to it, shut the server down and compressed the directory to the zip file. I've done this in a few easy steps by just getting the original VoIPonCD installation script from my server which has downloaded the programs like apache webserver, MySQL database (apt-get in debian style) and copied all the scripts to the right places. Changes to the Debian appliance were not necessary, it just worked from the beginning.

How to start:
You do not need to get into the shell of the server, but if you want to, the root password is voiponcd. The easy way is to direct a browser to the IP address of this appliance e.g. like http://192.168.121.120/admin. If you go just to http://192.168.121.120 you will be asked for completing the configuration and you get directed to the /admin menu. In the admin menu the username is admin and the password is rowi.net as told at the upper box. It is recommended to immediately change at least the password when in production use. As a main administrator you can do everything, as a regular admin you aren't allowed to change deeper system settings. But in this case you are a main administrator with all privileges. If you clik on user administration in the left upper box you can register a new user or a new telephone depending on the environment you use the appliance.

Equipped with a username, password and a chosen number from the number pool you are ready to connect the first phone. Please be aware that the login credentials for the telephone are given by the system and are not equal to the one you just entered. After clicking the send button you follow the shown link, click on the i for information on the right side and you see the details of the telephone like the login credentials (may be the number 7001 and a password starting with rw for the first user) and the balance of the account (which is not needed if you don't want it - in this case just ignore it). Put the login credentials into your SIP capable telephone (which hopefully exists or download a software telephone for the SIP protocol). This registration step will be repeated for every telephone you want to connect to the PBX. If you see a green telephone symbol in the details screen for a user this means the phone is connected properly. Next step is to decide for a provider to take calls to the PSTN.

There are many providers, just choose the one which is cheap and reliable or connect to another instance of VoIPonCD (satellite mode, interesting for companies having branch offices). In carrier administration you configure the connection to your carrier. If you just want to make phone calls between some telephones connected to this appliance you are done and can dial 7001 to 7009 depending on the numbers you assigned to the phones. Nevertheless you are able to add any number to the pool but I'd like to describe the most easy way. Once typed in the login credentials for your provider to the PSTN the system will recognise that you haven't set up any route and will direct all calls to the provider which are not handled by the appliance itself, means if you dial any other number than e.g. 7001 to 7009 the system knows that you want to dial out.

If you like to be a provider yourself you can assign routes and rates to up to three carriers, so you choose the cheapest destinations from your carriers and charge it to your customers. This is nearly fully configurable. As a user of this system you are able to see how much money is left on your prepaid account, how much a call to a specific destination costs, you can change your settings like the name if you married and so on. If you have no more money left on your prepaid card you can only call to destinations which aren't rated, so free calls might do (and internal calls, too) but not the expensive routes to the PSTN. If you don't need it, just leave all the fields blank and you are done, use it when you need it, that's the idea.

VoIPonCD has it's own website on http://www.voiponcd.de, there is also a forum on http://forum.voiponcd.com.

Every software I used is under GPL but the MySQL is a bit enhanced but may be given away as long as there is no charge taken for it. In a free version (and that's what I do) there shouldn't be any issues with rights of the used software.

Operating system: Debian Linux, Kernel 2.6

Applications installed:
Apache 1.3 webserver MySQL 4 database Asterisk 1.2.7.1 VoIP system Sendmail mailserver Scripts for administrations done by myself Websites with PHP done by myself

Primary account
Username: admin
Password: rowi.net