Asterisk on a Linksys Wireless Router

I haven't heard much about this openWRT stuff - anyone here using it?

http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/2007/01/as ... nksys.html

I had SIP@H (from DD-WRT) run on my WRT54GS a year ago for some months before it got bricked. I also had done some works to port asterisk to a PAP2v2, see my post here. However, it looks like this will be obsolete once asterisk has been ported to kuro (a mini/portable PowerPC unit made by Bufallo).

I have been using Asterisk and OpenWRT in my Linksys WRT54GS version 3.0 for more than a year now.

Currently I have 10 VoIP providers and 4 extensions configured and working. Considering my 2 Sipura 3000 which give me PSTN access to my 2 land lines, I have 6 devices configured.

IVR and VoiceMail is working pretty well.

The only real restriction in this not powerfull device is transcoding, so I have configured all my providers and devices using G711. I can also use G729a without transcoding.

I have also written some small C programs to send an SMS to my cell phone when someone call or leave a voice mail message. Emailed voicemails are also working pretty well.

Juan C.

Wow. Talk about on the "edge" early adopters

I did not realise this was such a popular exploit - I confess I'm not really an asterisk person.

I'm really interested in the theory of it/practical experience with it though.

Can we have some threads here about experiences and practicalities please pretty please?



Just so I am absolutely clear on this (transcoding issues to one side and noted) - I think you're basically telling me that you have your entire PBX running in a £49 router?

Yes Dean. With £ 160 (router £ 26, 2 SPA3000 £ 102 and 1 PAP2-NA £ 30) I have a PBX with VoIP and PSTN access.

Sometimes in my job I need to make a conference mixing PSTN (local calls) and VoIP (some other countries including USA) and this Embedded Asterisk works pretty well.

I wanted something small, with low power consuption and this is a good option.

Juan C.

Hi jcgalvezv
Finally I found someone who seems to have had much success with Asterisk on OpenWRT. I have the JFFS version of RC6 loaded onto a WRT54GL. However, my Sipgate host is being reported as 'UNREACHABLE'. I am guessing that it may be a port problem but am none to sure how to forward the ports since Asterisk is in the router rather than behind it. I would be most grateful if you could help out? Also, as a Trixbox user I am just used to the dialplans all working. Hence, I am absolutely confused by having to hard code the extensions.conf. Could you give me a headstart? By the way I can only get the router to handle WEP security as if I load up the NAS module for WPA it runs out of memory? Do you know a workaround that doesn't involve soldering on a memory card?
Cheers
Mark
Dean, I would love you guys to start up a dedicated OpenWRT section here as the OpenWRT forum is very generic with not many Asterisk posts.

Ji Mark:

WRT54GL has just 4MB flash and 16MB RAM, so you don't have enough memory to do a full Asterisk installation. WRT54GL doesn't have enough memory to install and configure VoiceMail.

My WRT54GS v3.0 has 8MB flash and 32MB RAM and runs at 200MHZ. Probably the best device to run OpenWRT these days is Linksys WRTSL54GS which has 8MB RAM, 32MB flash, runs at 266Mhz and the best: has a USB 2.0 port, so you can use a flash memory or a hard drive to install more applications and to store voicemail.

I have a Buffalo WBR2-G54. This one has 4MB FLASH and 8MB RAM. I installed RC5 with asterisk 1.2.?, all downloaded in binary format from openwrt.org and from someone's site posted in openwrt's forum.

I am going to prepare some advices for people using this device for Asterisk.

Answering your questions:

Quote:

Sipgate host is being reported as 'UNREACHABLE'

I had a similar problem I solved by changing in sip.conf file the line:

srvlookup=yes

to

srvlookup=no.

Quote:

Also, as a Trixbox user I am just used to the dialplans all working. Hence, I am absolutely confused by having to hard code the extensions.conf. Could you give me a headstart?

I would recommend you to just copy trixbox conf files to your router. You should consider the TrixBox's Asterisk version and openWRT's version. Since TriXBox is a newer version, probably it includes some features not supported by Asterisk version in OpenWRT. ¿What Asterisk version are you running in your OpenWRT?

Quote:

By the way I can only get the router to handle WEP security as if I load up the NAS module for WPA it runs out of memory? Do you know a workaround that doesn't involve soldering on a memory card?

As explained before, WRT54GL has not enough meemory. I guess you could solder more to it, but my skills don't go so far.

Juan C.

Quote:

I am going to prepare some advices for people using this device for Asterisk.

Awesome - I might have to hold you to that - might even get me building one! Sounds like fun.

Quote:

Dedicated forum

I suggest keeping any WRT related threads in this forum for the moment. If a whole load of interesting threads arise as a result, and there's a clear demand showing a requirement for a dedicated forum, then we'll do it.

We need to be demand driven. There's not much point having a dedicated forum if it's just us 4 discussing something (fun though that would be)

That said I am amazed not to see more discussion about this on here. It does seem like such a good idea from so many different angles - Fanless (no moving parts to fail), Small form factor, Cheap, etc.

Mazi - I remember some posts of yours about Asterisk on the PAP2. I don't think you ever got it quite right from memory?

Buffalo Tech also look interesting.... but I've always liked making devices do things they were not designed for - a lot more fun

Thomas Anglero has a good idea - use this to turn FON into a wireless VoIP network...

http://anglero.blogspot.com/2007/01/fon ... rvice.html

Hi jcgalvezv,

Could you let me know to install IVR and voicemail?
When I did "ipkg install asterisk-sounds" and "ipkg install asterisk-voicemail", it said, the packages has been provided by asterisk-cvs already.

I have directory /usr/lib/asterisk/sounds, I copied all .gsm files from my computer to wrt54gs, but it didn't work.

Could you help me?

Thanks,
Alen

jcgalvezv :

I have been using Asterisk and OpenWRT in my Linksys WRT54GS version 3.0 for more than a year now. Currently I have 10 VoIP providers and 4 extensions configured and working. Considering my 2 Sipura 3000 which give me PSTN access to my 2 land lines, I have 6 devices configured. IVR and VoiceMail is working pretty well. The only real restriction in this not powerfull device is transcoding, so I have configured all my providers and devices using G711. I can also use G729a without transcoding. I have also written some small C programs to send an SMS to my cell phone when someone call or leave a voice mail message. Emailed voicemails are also working pretty well. Juan C.

Alen:

Could you please tell me what do you have in your voicemail.conf file and what do you have in extensions.conf file to let the caller leave a voice mail message.

Juan C.

Hi Juan,

Thanks for your reply. Actually, later on, I created /var/spool/asterisk and put a link sounds linked to /usr/lib/asterisk/sounds, where I have already copied all .gsm files from my computer.
Then it worked.

But I'm not sure if it would be fine with only asterisk-cvs. Or I have to install some modules by doing ipkg install asterisk-sounds and asterisk-voicemail.

Actually, I don't quite understand what asterisk-sounds and asterisk-voicemail include.

Thanks,
Alen