No matter who you are, no matter where you go in your live, no matter how much money you have at some point point in your live you need somebody to stand by you...

Awesome song, specially grandpa elliot :-)

I think Ben E. King is very happy to hear and see such a beautiful interpretation of his song!

Cheers
Daniel

Wow, can you believe it after so many Asterisk project we got the first time a client which actually want to use the dictation service! :-)

So we had to figure out on how to use and tweak it a little bit. Thought i can share that with you guys. Here you go:

The main function of this feature is to record a meeting / conversation between people in the same room respectively same meeting table. This function will not record incoming or outgoing calls. It is designed to use the build in microphone to record the meeting and send the recording via e-mail after the meeting ends.

Step 1. How to configure this service
You need to enable this service on the extensions on which you like to use this service. In your FreePBX edit the respective extensions via “Extensions’ tab.
Configure the following settings:

You need to enable the service, choose the format of the file for the recording and key in your e-mail address to send the recording to.
Next you need to check in the “Features code’ tab on how to access the recording functionality. By default it should be set to *34 to start/stop/manage recording and *35 to e-mail recordings.

That’s it from a configuration point of view.
Attention: Asterisk must be able to send out e-mails! This setup is not part of this tutorial.

Step 2. How to use the dictation service for recording

If you like to record a meeting press *34 on your phone.
The system will ask you to enter a numeric file name followed by # key.

Sample: Key in 123 and press #
After that you hear press 0 for help and playback mode paused.
If you like to start recording press 1 to go into record mode. You will hear record mode paused.
Press * to start the recording. You will record message.
You can toggle between record and record paused mode by pressing *. This function allows you to discuss “off the record” topics.
If you are done with the recording just hang up or press # and #.
The file is no stored under the file name (in raw format) you gave in the beginning of this process. The storage location is in /var/lib/asterisk/sounds/dictation{extension}

Step 3. Send a recording via e-mail with *35

If you like to send this recording to your e-mail address (which you configured on your extension) you need to dial *35 (attention you need to hang-up first after your done with your recording, so this is a “new” call).
After you dialed *35 you hear “enter the numeric file name followed by #”.
Sample: Key in 123#
You will hear a message like the sending of the recording processes please wait. After a couple of seconds you hear the recording was sent.
Done! You should get the recording in your e-mail.

Attention: The file will still be in /var/lib/asterisk/sounds/dictation/{extension} directory. It will not be deleted. If you use the same file again the recording will be appended to the existing recording.

If you like that the recording file is deleted you need to adjust a perl file. This needs to be done by your Asterisk vendor or system administrator.
The file sending the recording is called /var/lib/asterisk/bin/audio-email.pl.
Open the file and simply add this line at the end of this file:

# un-comment this if you like to delete the recording after it was e-mailed
unlink($file);

Step 4. Playback recording via phone with *34

You can playback your recording by dialing *34 and enter the numeric file name.
Sample: 123#
You will hear something like playback mode paused. If you press * the recording will play back
(if it was recorded before). By pressing * again you can stop playback mode (toggle).

Hope it helps some of you guys :-)

Cheers and have a great weekend!
Daniel

Hi there

I had a speech yesterday at the Malaysian Open Source Conference 2010, here in Kuala Lumpur at Berjaya Times Square Hotel.

It was fun and i met a lot of interesting and enthusiastic open source "fanatics".

Here the link to my slides (basics about Nagios) which i presented in a business track.
Therefore don't expect technical stuff... :-)

Link: moscnagios.ppt
(Feel free to use any of the content in the slides)

A complement to the graphical designers of this event! Everything (Flyers, Brochures etc etc) was very nicely designed! :-)

Even the speaker badge:

Cheers
Daniel

Good Morning

We had a client request to have a distinctive ringtone on the phone if the call is coming in from the PSTN (a call from internal must have a different ringtone as a call from external.

Our client is using Yealink phones (www.yealink.com). The first thing you need to do is upgrading the firmware to release V50.....

Here the link: Yealink Support Site

Downloading the respective firmware for your phone and upgrade the firmware via phone website.

Then you need add some setting in the "Phone" + "Ring" tab:

Create a new "Internal Ringer Text". In our sample we use Test.
And choose a ringtone for it.

Next you need to make some changes in FreePBX.
Go to Inbound routes and choose a DID if you have DIS's or choose Any DID..... and
add following text into the Alert_Info textbox:

This info will be sent in the SIP-Header and the phone will read the Alert_Info parameter. The phone will try to download the ringtone from the provided URL and if
it cannot get the ringtone play the ringtone on the phone defined in the "info' part
of the Alert_Info string: info=Test

Where "Test" must much the "Internal Ringer Text" configured previously in the phone.

Thats it! Enjoy your distinctive ringtones.

Cheers
Daniel

Hi

I fumbled a couple of hours with a Cisco 7941 to connect it to Asterisk. Simply not successful. It cannot register!!

The solution is :-) :

Download the latest Firmware files from Cisco.
For me that was file:

cmterm-7941_7961-sip.8-5-4.zip

Attention: you need a CISCO account to do this... :-(

Unpack the zip file in your tftp root folder.

Here the working SEP file (Filename: SEP00235E19A836.cnf.xml).
Attention you need to change the filename according your phones MAC-Address.

Here you can download the SEP sample file.

Enjoy!

Cheers
Daniel