The authors

Barrie Dempster has worked as Network Administrator/IT Manager. He has a serious interest in Asterisk as an extremely powerful system, which combines his interests in open-source software, PBX systems and custom communication and conferencing systems. The present position of Barrie Dempster is a Scotland-based Infrastructure and Security consultant primarily within the financial sector.

David Gomillion received a Bachelor's of Science in Computer Science from Brigham Young University in August, 2005. Since his freshman year there, he has worked in the Information Technology sector. He has been a Networking Assistant, an Assistant Network Administrator, a Supervisor of a large Network and Server Operations unit, a Network Administrator, and now he is a Director of Information Technology for the Eye Center of North Florida.

The book

Building Telephony Systems with Asterisk is a small, simple and readable book. Although it consists of only about 160 pages, it is surprisingly useful. Well and logically structured, the book is designed for the users who make their first steps with the Asterisk.

Although, the book refers to version 1.0 branch of the Asterisk, it still contains very useful information.

With a price of $30, the book gives you just the information you need to have a well functional system, having important functions, such as Voicemail and Queues, but without covering you up with too much unnecessary details.

Starting from the basics and going through the installation and configuration of the Asterisk, reaching the maintenance and security section, you will be led, through the whole process. I can assure you, that if you follow the book chapter by chapter, at the end you will have your first Asterisk PBX system, configured and ready to work.

What I like the most, are the case studies at the end of the book. They include examples of a fully configured Asterisk for a SOHO , small business and hosted PBX systems. The section about the Maintenance and Security is also of great use. It even has a whole chapter dedicated to the Asterisk@Home, teaching you how to install and use this version.

Conclusion

If you are new to Asterisk and telephony, and you do not know where to start from, but you want something to guide you easily and quickly, Building Telephony Systems with Asterisk is the guide, you are looking for.

Sample

Here you can read a free chapter from the book in pdf file.