User guide

12.6 Other GUIs
12.6.1 Switchbox
A company recently acquired by Digium (the company behind Asterisk) that has released the
Switchvox Free Edition
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, a software package that runs on Linux Fedora Cora 6.
12.6.2 AstBill
AstBill
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is a web based billing, routing and management software for Asterisk. AstBill LiveCD is based
on Knoppix Linux distribution and Drupal.
12.6.3 AskoziaPBX
This effort started at the University of Applied Sciences of Wolfenbüttel that has developed a small size
firmware (12 MB) image of asterisk with a user friendly interface to run in small embedded devices. It is
based on asterisk 1.4 and FreeBSD 6.2
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.
12.7 Asterisk and virtual machines
If you do not have a PC available that you can dedicate to install Asterisk you can install Asterisk in a
Windows machine as a guest operative system. By virtualizing the Asterisk distribution in your Windows
machine, you can test the software and even run a small production environment. It is important to
mention that dedicated hardware as the one that will allow you to bridge the VoIP network to the PSTN
(the traditional phone network) will not work in a virtualized environment.
The advantage of a virtual environment is that you will be able to test many complex scenarios without
buying any specific hardware. For example, you can install two Asterisk PBXs in the same Windows
machine to test VoIP routing between them or configure a softphone so you can leave messages in a
voicemail.
The majority of the existing efforts will offer you an installable ISO image (something you can burn, boot
and install) or a vmware ISO image (something you can load in a VMware player).
The Vmware Player is available for download here: http://www.vmware.com/download/player/
ISO Images for AsteriskNOW distribution (native and vmware) are available for download here:
http://www.asterisknow.org/downloads
12.8 Asterisk dedicated appliances
There are several efforts that provide Asterisk-based dedicated appliances. Close hardware solutions
include: Asterisk Appliance, Trixbox Appliance, D-Link Horst Box professional. Open hardware designs
are derived from the work of David Rowe and the Astfin Team.
50. Switchbox Free Edition http://www.switchvox.com/sv?page=free_edition
51. AstBill http://sourceforge.net/projects/astbill/
52. Askozia PBX http://askozia.com/
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