SipX@Home

sipX@Home

An IP PBX at home? Sure, if an Enterprise needs one ...

• Become your own telco and talk for free with family & friends
• Have your home phone forwarded to your cell phone or softphone
• Take your phone with you to work or while on vacation
• Least cost call routing - a snap!
• Need an answering system for the familiy?
• Want to call your mom just dialing three digits?

This page describes how to set it up. And its real easy!

What you need

Server HW: Almost any server will do provided there is enough memory. "Enough" in this case is everything 512MB and more (Although we know of people doing it with less). No special HW is required. Got an old P-III machine - you might want to try that too (it's not below 600MHz, is it?). Performance is only critical if all your friends call into voicemail or the auto-attendant at the same time, which they usually don't. In addition, sipXconfig might be slow to respond on older hardware, which will not affect performance of call handling. An Intel Mac Mini works and is a powerful, compact, all-in-one package; you need to attach a DVI adapter cable to the monitor output to let it boot headless.

Do I have to be a Linux expert? We don't think so. If you are very new to Linux you might learn something as we will walk you through the entire installation process. All configuration is done using a Web broswer, including the configuration of phones & gateways. No need to mess around with config files and Linux command lines.

Installation: The easiest way to both install sipx as well as the Linux operating system is to use the Single CD Installation CD. The CD will format and partition your harddisk, install the operating system, sipX and all necessary components. A Wizard will then allow you to configure the system, including fully automated configuration of DNS, DHCP, and NTP servers. It cannot be much easier than this. Alternatively, you can try our LiveCD, which allows you to run the sipx system on your laptop without writing anything to disk. This is a great first test or demo environment.

How about features - you got them all, do you? Do you mean all the 5,000 Avaya got? Yes, we are getting closer. sipX supports lots of features and its getting more and more with every release. Have a look: Description of sipX System Features

What phone should I use? There is no better argument than a good old desk phone to get your family convinced. sipX@Home supports many and a good place to start is the Phone & Gateway Interoperability Portal. Many phones are plug & play managed by sipX@Home. Yes, plug & play. Using the sipX Configuration Server it is down to this: Create a user, create the device, assign the user to the device and plug in the phone. The phone will automatically pick-up the generated profile and register with sipX@Home as it comes up.

The Setup

The following proposed setup provides a host of desired features:

1. You are reachable via "sip:name@yourdomain.com" (yourdomain.com resolves to the external IP address of your firewall)
2. You can give phones to family & friends that can register from the outside with sipX (use a publicly accessible STUN server like stun.fwd.net)
3. sipX provides all the PBX features to your users (internal & external)
4. Additional lines (e.g. Vonage, FWD, etc.) can be registered on the phones using the "external line" function in sipXconfig
5. For additional analog lines in your house we recommend Grandstream HandyTone gateways
6. An FXS gateway is used to connect to the PSTN (e.g. Mediatrix 1204, Audiocodes, or other)

The Home Network Environment

DHCP & DNS: Yes, you do need both a DHCP and DNS server. Typically a DHCP server is built-in to your DSL / Cable router. Make sure you can set options as Option 66 is needed to tell phone clients where to find the TFTP server. Many DSL / Cable routers also include a simple DNS server that is sufficient in most cases. The article "HowTo Configure DHCP and DNS Servers" describes how to install a Linux based DHCP and DNS server on the same machine used for the sipX@Home server. This is the most powerful and flexible solution for your home network. Make sure you turn off any other DHCP server that might still be active on your home LAN.

Firewall & NAT Traversal:

• Intertex IX67 SIP Firewall
• SIP NAT Traversal using the Astaro Security Linux Firewall

Other "good to have" Services:

• Configure sendmail for Email Notification of Voicemail
• HowTo Setup an NTP Daemon for Time Synchronization

Getting it Up and Running

Installation:The simplest install is on Fedora Core. Alternatives include CentOS 4 or Debian Sarge. Binary distributions as well as installation instructions for other distros are being worked on. The article "SipXecs Start Here" describes in detail how to fist install the Linux OS and then install sipX. At the end of the process you will have a fully configured system ready to be configured with users and devices using your favorite Web browser.

Configuration: Specific configuration tasks are described in the SipX Configuration Server Users Manual.

Connecting with a SIP Service Provider

SIP Trunking is the way to go, but it is still early and not all the technical issues have been ironed out. Several providers started to offer SIP trunking services, such a BBcom in NYC and other cities. SIP trunking is a secure interconnection between two SIP proxies. This is the way it should be and there is no requirement for a Back-to-Back-User-Agent (B2BUA). However, for now if you want to connect to Vonage, FWD, sipphone.com or most other residential VoIP service providers you do need a B2BUA. They expect a phone to connect to them and not another SIP proxy. The article below describes how to use Asterisk as a B2BUA for sipX (afterall Asterisk is a B2BUA).

If you know your way around C++, using sipXtapi to build a B2BUA for sipX looks fairly simple. It could be managed by sipXconfig, run on the same host, and offer many parallel B2BUAs for interconnection with several providers. Any interest? Please say so on the sipx-dev mailing list and you might get some help.

• HowTo interconnect sipX with the Asterisk PBX