In my last post, I talked about the disappointing performance of embedded Asterisk on a mini router.

Today, I’m going to discuss Trixbox (formerly Asterisk@home). Trixbox is a handy little open-source software package containing a combination ready-to-go linux install combined with an install of Asterisk with all the bells and whistles. It makes installing an Asterisk PBX as simple as it possibly can be. You take your Trixbox CD, drop it into the CD Rom drive of a machine, boot off the CD, and off goes the install.

After answering a couple of questions about a password and the timezone I’m in, the install adds all the necessary packages, reboots a few times while it does its work, and comes up running Asterisk. At this point, you can either log in via the console or, preferably, open up a web browser and point it at the newly-installed machine.

Coming from a background of installing Asterisk by hand and hand-editing the configuration files to do what I wanted and how I wanted, I’ll admit that the web-based interface was a little confusing. Documentation can be found online (and is extensive) , although there’s a trick to finding it from the interface which I found a little odd. You have to click on ‘Forums’ and it brings up an online page which includes a tab for documentation. That could have been labeled a little better (or had a direct link), but overall, I found the layout to be pretty good.

I would not, however, call the interface transparent. While there are several different interfaces combined into one (system configuration, recording management, etc), they all assume some Asterisk and phone knowledge, as the terms, layout, and configuration options are all Asterisk-specific. One couldn’t, for example, with no prior knowledge, load up Trixbox and have a phone system running in a matter of hours. It’s just not that simple.

With some careful reading, however, and if one uses all the resources of the internet available, it’s very easy to set up a basic running system to the point that you could then easily add or remove additional phones and users, work with voicemail, and configure some important features one would expect from a full phone system: conference calling and conference bridges, call waiting, call forwarding, do not disturb, call transfers, etc.

For those with Asterisk experience already, however, the experience can be frustrating. I’ll admit, I had to avoid the urge to uninstall the whole thing and just go back to my old ways of manually editing the config files. It would have been easier for me, but I was determined to understand the Trixbox solution, so I often forced myself to plod ahead.

As an install for a newer user, however, Trixbox comes wholly recommended. It takes the guesswork out of setting up a PBX either for home or at the office. Supporting large numbers of users would be a breeze with the web-based interface, and managing all the system files and configurations could be done by practically anyone with only a little bit of training.

I installed Trixbox at home, hooked it up to my IdeaSIP account using the instructions on the Asterisk@home wiki, and connected a device with an FXO port so that all my incoming PSTN calls go straight to my Asterisk box. From there, it determines whether or not I’m home or at the office by ringing first my local extensions, and then my remote extensions. If I’m nowhere to be found, and it’s during the day, it will forward off to my cell phone using my IdeasOUT minutes. If it’s night-time (sleep time), it just goes straight into voicemail.

And since I’ve become somewhat of a VoIP aficionado, and have many different VoIP-capable phones around the home, from the Snom phone to the wi-fi SIP phone to the ATA connected to my Uniden phones, I’m able to easily manage them all graphically with the Trixbox suite of interfaces. It’s quite effective.

The only real disappointment from Trixbox isn’t a Trixbox problem at all, really. It’s just that it requires a separate computer to use, and that means power, noise, space, and heat — something I’d been trying to avoid with the embedded asterisk install.

However, I can say that the whole suite works effectively enough that it’s worth investing in a small, shoebox-sized computer with a fanless power supply so at the very least I can keep space and noise down to a minimum.

If you’ve been thrilled with your VoIP account, but had been wondering what the next step might be in its evolution, I urge you to give Trixbox a try — for work or for home.