Hello, I am not a veteran here, but would like to share my thoughts on this subject.
True, * is opensource and freely available, but it is not a computer program that you download and run. It is a very versatile telecommunication product you would otherwise pay at least 100 K to buy from a telecom vendor, if not more based on modules and usage, license hash-codes etc. Even to try * one would need some pre requisite knowledge in telecom, if not many years in the field. I work for a large telecom company and my specialty is voice over broadband (or xDSL). I worked with asterisk for couple of months now and I am amazed to see areas of telecom that * touch upon with. Starting from Linux, to SIP, H323, DSL technologies (PPP, PPPoE, PPPoA, DHCP, NAT), Call routing(Dial Plan), IVR, Transcoding, STUN are few areas that one would have to master even thinking about *. True one would know the syntax, and howtos etc, but also would have to have the ability to troubleshoot. For last two-three months in this list, I have not seen any newbi posting a sip trace (from a ethereal or a TCP dump) and asking a question about it. I have seen many question for instance, asking syntax of h.323 dial, but never seen a question asked on a h323 trace. I think, having * openly available is like keeping an airplane openly available in a airfield, so that anybody can try flying. Tell me how many of us would go try and fly that airplane if we do not know how to fly :) Point that I want to make here is simple, please try to understand what * is all about. If you like it's features and would like it to run in a production environment try to get some professional help. If you are learning these technologies for fun then get educated, use tools available to troubleshoot. Hooking up couple of phones and making a call is far from knowing *. Asterisk is a great product (thanks Mark and many others) and if you know what you are doing, you can do wonders with it. Don't put it down, because you do not have the background to understand it or work with it. Cheers SW Message: 4 Date: Wed, 31 Dec 2003 12:37:24 -0800 (PST) From: Me <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [Asterisk-Users] New to asterisk? RUN... don't walk. Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] As a newcomer to Asterisk, you will not be welcomed with open arms. First, you will find almost no documentation on it's features. Second, if you try to ask questions, you will be flamed and pointed to worthless how-tos and 'the wiki'. These worthless documents can only be useful for explaining how things work to those already in-the-know. Lastly, Asterisk is so bug ridden, expect frequent segmentation faults. With a community so 'anti-n00b', don't expect your problems to be fixed anytime soon. RUN!!! Don't walk... away from Aterisk. _______________________________________________ Asterisk-Users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
