Introduction

Installing Asterisk is only half the battle. The other half is configuring it. Asterisk configuration can be just as difficult as installing the program, so don t think you re in for an easy ride. Configuring Asterisk depends heavily on how exactly you want your PBX to function and what features you want available to users.

Configuring Asterisk can be somewhat of an adventure. Asterisk, like many Unix utilities, has many small configuration files all interconnected to one another. This has its pros and cons: While it adds a level of complexity to the system by requiring you to remember what feature is in which specific file, it allows you to make a mistake in one file and not have the entire proverbial house of cards come crashing down.

The plus about configuring Asterisk is that once you get the hang of it, you can easily start flying through configuration files and tackle larger and more complex problems. Asterisk s configuration files have a certain way of doing things and once you figure it out, picking up the advanced stuff is easy.