Scratch Install for VOIP and SoftPhone ...

[Ands]

The first post on the forum

How big is the change in the scratch install going to be if i am going to set up VOIP and softphones as the ...

Since its going to be VOIP based SIP termination i am not going to be using any cards in my machine other than the Ethernet ...

[mflorell]

You have three options for installation if you want to use voip trunks and voip clients:

1. use ztdummy. Install most recent Linux kernel from kernel.org and make sure you have enhanced realtime clock support enabled(RTC) and set MHz under "processor type and features" to 1000 Hz. more info at:
http://www.voip-info.org/wiki-Asterisk+timer+ztdummy

2. instead of meetme, for VICIDIAL you can use app_conference which requires no timer to work. It is currently experimental but it has been tested in light production use. A zipped version is available under the astguiclient_snapshot package on the project site or from here:
http://www.eflo.net/files/VD_app_conference_0.5.zip

3. This is the one we recommend because it is guaranteed to work, buy an X100P card from ebay or X100p.com. They are not expensive and are available in low profile. You do not need an analog line connected to it, it just needs to be there for the timer.

Hope that helps.

[Ands]

Is there any other change in the install that we have to do ...

Thanks

[mflorell]

using ztdummy or an x100p and you could follow the scratch install. If you use the VD_app_conference you should follow the VICIDIAL.txt instructions in that package to get it working with VICIDIAL.

[squinky86]

A little more verbose info to help you make your decision:

case 1) you're willing to risk your uptime and asterisk stability by installing app_conference. It's worked mostly in most of my tests until too many people get transfered in, amongst other small inconsistencies.

case 2) you want to use vicidial in a known-working setup by using meetmes. You have time and know how to compile a kernel. Follow the June '06 section of http://www.voip-info.org/wiki-Asterisk+timer+ztdummy and ztdummy should suffice for you. You'll need up to date asterisk and zaptel versions for this.

case 3) you want to use vicidial in a known-working setup by using meetmes. You don't have time to play around with no stinkin' kernel, or your distro has a kernel for you already that you don't want to touch. Get an x100p, or even better, ask digium what card they recommend for good timing support.

[AIRAM]

This is working using ztdummy.
Getting ztdummy to work is not covered on the scratch install but you can get it going with the instructions from Voip-Info (http://www.voip-info.org/wiki-Asterisk+timer+ztdummy).
If you are using latest kernel and lates asterisk version you might encounter an error when compiling zapatel. This seems to be a know bug/typo on the kernel source files; spinlock.h file needs to be modified (http://kb.digium.com/entry/22/123/). Aside that most of the install should be straight forward if you stick to the scratch install.

Also if you are planning on using auto answering machine detection I will recomend to use IAX instead of SIP providers, specialy if you are behind a NAT.

[Ands]

Also if you are planning on using auto answering machine detection I will recomend to use IAX instead of SIP providers, specialy if you are behind a NAT.

Is there a problem on answering machine detection with SIP providers ?

[AIRAM]

Remember that SIP protocol sends signaling on different ports than streaming/audio. Answering machine detection needs to be able to "listen" to what is going on when the other side answers. For me it didn't work with SIP but that is mot likely because I am behind a NAT. Not even a one-to-one NAT worked.

Anyway for autodial campaigns and answering machine detection IAX will be more reliable since all signaling and streaming is sent through a single port. On my experience VICIDIAL performs much better on IAX than SIP. Now if you are planing to have a manual dial campaign where your agents will do the dialing from the VICIDAL web interface then SIP will work great.

[roche]

This is working using ztdummy.
Getting ztdummy to work is not covered on the scratch install but you can get it going with the instructions from Voip-Info (http://www.voip-info.org/wiki-Asterisk+timer+ztdummy).
If you are using latest kernel and lates asterisk version you might encounter an error when compiling zapatel. This seems to be a know bug/typo on the kernel source files; spinlock.h file needs to be modified (http://kb.digium.com/entry/22/123/). Aside that most of the install should be straight forward if you stick to the scratch install.

Also if you are planning on using auto answering machine detection I will recomend to use IAX instead of SIP providers, specialy if you are behind a NAT.

Aditional you can avoid the error changing the Zaptel´s MakeFile

Change the line:

CFLAGS+=-I. -O4 -g -Wall -DBUILDING_TONEZONE #-DTONEZONE_DRIVER

with

KernelVersion=2.6.9-34
CFLAGS+=$(shell if uname -r | grep -q 2.6.9-34.EL; then echo
"-Drw_lock_t="rwlock_t""; fi)