The open source telephony platform trixbox CE is designed to implement a PBX system with features typically reserved for large enterprise businesses. trixBox allows an individual or organization to set up a telephone system with traditional telephone networks as well as internet-based telephony or VoIP. The task is time consuming and involves a lot of technical skills.

This book comes to your rescue to set up a VoIP system fast and easily using trixbox CE. It is the successor to the highly successful book; trixbox Made Easy, written by Kerry Garrison, the Community Director for trixbox CE.

If you are already familiar with Asterisk Open Source PBX, trixbox CE provides a comprehensive web-based GUI to make managing an Asterisk-based system much easier than dealing with confusing configuration files.

The book begins by introducing telephony concepts before detailing how to plan a telephone system and moving on to the installation, configuration, and management of a feature-packed PBX. This book is rich with practical examples and tools. It will give you all of the information and skills needed to implement your own trixbox CE PBX system for yourself or even to resell to potential clients.

Kerry's original book, trixbox Made Easy, made it possible for anyone to set up a trixbox-based telephony system. The emphasis of this book is to take an in-depth look at trixbox CE and expose all of the features to the typical user. By making the system easier to understand and use, trixbox CE users will have even more power available to them as they implement their own PBX solutions.

What you will learn from this book?

• Set up a basic system to make and receive phone calls, make calls between extensions, and utilize basic PBX functionality
• Deploy different features of this telephony system with best practices and expert tips
• Create custom features like redirecting calls for 411 to a free provider
• Gain expert insight to avoid common implementation mistakes
• Explore the extensive personalization capabilities in the community edition of trixbox
• Discover the pros and cons of segmented versus combined networks, and network considerations for using VoIP services and supporting remote users
• Connect to other trixbox CE systems using trunk techniques to branch them whether they are on your network or not
• Get both basic and advanced call reports using the trixbox CE dashboard CDR Reports tool
• Provide extra functionality not provided by other tools using the trixbox CE Dashboard
• Perform routine maintenance for smooth running and troubleshoot the system when things are not going right
• Secure your system using essential methods like a good firewall, changing access to the SSH service, and adding login attempt protection to your extensions

Approach

This book is a step-by-step tutorial with clear instructions and screenshots to guide you through the creation of a complete, cost-effective telephony system. With its "follow-along" style, you will start with installation, walk through the different features, see how to manage and maintain the system, and finally see how all the different pieces come together.

Who this book is written for?

If you want to learn how to install and configure either trixbox CE systems or Asterisk-based PBX systems, without struggling with confusing configuration files and cryptic scripts, this is "the" book for you. This book will also benefit readers who use trixbox CE and want to learn all its features, and how best to use them. It is ideal for any user wishing to set up a telephony system for small business usage. No previous knowledge of Trixbox or networking is required, although some basic knowledge of PBX and Linux would be an advantage.