If it doesn’t make sense please leave a comment or send me a message…

How to register:

Step one:

Click here: http://family.jamesforman.co.nz/

You will see a page like this:

Step two

Click “Login”

Step three

Click “Request new user account”

Step four

Fill in the user registration form. Please be really accurate and use proper capitalisation.

For example:

To make step 9 easier, please say who your parents are, when you were born and the names of your brothers and sisters (if any).

Step five

You will see a screen thanking you for registering and telling you that you will be sent an email.
Leave this window open for now.

Step six

You will get an email sent to you (At the address you used in the form)

It will look something like this:

Click the link in the email (The blue text with a line under it).

Step seven

You will be taken to a page with 3 text boxes. Two will be filled out for you.
In the Password field (the middle one), put in the password you used when you filled in the registration form (step 4).

Then click the “Send” button.

Step eight

You will see a confirmation screen. If you don’t, you got your password wrong…

Step nine

Now you have to wait. I’ll get an email with your details. I then have to find you on the family tree and say you are actually in the family! If I can’t find you then I’ll email you instructions on how to add yourself to the family tree.

step ten

When I’ve done step 9, you’ll get an email saying you can login!

How to login:

Step one

Click here: http://family.jamesforman.co.nz/

You will see a page like this:

step two

Click the “login” button as shown in the picture below:

step three

Enter your username and password. Then click “Login”:

step four

You are now logged in.

If you ever forget your password, go to the home page, click login, then click ”Request new password”.

Let me know if you have any problems.

Generally my display runs VideoLAN VLC Media Player which opens a playlist, accessing the media from my server. It works well, until you want to stop it, skip a song or change the volume quickly and without moving.

Yesterday I got it setup. It took about 20 minutes and was well worth the effort.

Unfortunately getting the display to communicate with the phone server was a bit harder. I went for the easiest solution I could think of:

DTMF -> SIP -> HTTP -> PHP -> VBS -> VLC

The DTMF tones from the phone go through SIP to the Asterisk server, the server runs a command which connects to a PHP script on the webserver, on the display. The PHP script runs a Visual Basic Script which controls VLC.

I chose this because of the speed to implement and because VLC can be controlled by keyboard shortcuts. So the VBS files can be easily adapted for Windows Media Player or iTunes (or your choice of player).

Currently, it’s setup as an extension. I dial 258 and then the key I want to push. Unfortunately FreePBX doesn’t allow you to set up Extensions or IVRs quite the way I needed to, so each function has its own extension. I plan to move it to an IVR, but I just didn’t know how or have the patience over new years to do it

Here’s how the phone pad relates to the extensions:

2581 = Start
2582 = Volume Up
2583 = Stop
2584 = Back (Previous song)
2585 = Pause
2586 = Next
2587 = Fullscreen
2588 = Volume Down
2589 = Quit
2580 = Mute

Quite simple.

When you dial the extension above Asterisk uses the function “System()” to run “wget http://display/<start/stop/volup/etc>.php”. Because FreePBX doesn’t currently let you do this, I had to manually edit the extensions_custom.conf file in the /etc/asterisk/ directory.

Here’s what the start of my file currently looks like (keep in mind that yours may look different)

; This file contains the contexts the agents login for the module call center.
; and contains the context conferences for module conferences of elastix 1.0.

[from-internal-custom]
exten => 1234,1,;Playback(demo-congrats) ;extensions can dial 1234
exten => 1234,2,Hangup()

exten => 2581,1,System(wget http://display/start.php)
exten => 2581,2,Hangup()
exten => 2582,1,System(wget http://display/volup.php)
exten => 2582,2,Hangup()
exten => 2583,1,System(wget http://display/stop.php)
exten => 2583,2,Hangup()
exten => 2584,1,System(wget http://display/back.php)
exten => 2584,2,Hangup()
exten => 2585,1,System(wget http://display/play.php)
exten => 2585,2,Hangup()
exten => 2586,1,System(wget http://display/next.php)
exten => 2586,2,Hangup()
exten => 2587,1,System(wget http://display/fscreen.php)
exten => 2587,2,Hangup()
exten => 2588,1,System(wget http://display/voldn.php)
exten => 2588,2,Hangup()
exten => 2589,1,System(wget http://display/quit.php)
exten => 2589,2,Hangup()
exten => 2580,1,System(wget http://display/mute.php)
exten => 2580,2,Hangup()

exten => h,1,Hangup()
include => agentlogin
include => conferences
include => calendar-event

What is in bold already existed. We have two lines for each extension.The first tells the server to open the PHP script, the second tells it to hang up. I'm going to use the play / pause script for my examples below.

exten => 2581,1,System(wget http://display/play.php) < Open PHP scriptexten => 2581,2,Hangup() < Hangup

The PHP script then launches, it looks like so:

<?php

exec(“vlcplay.vbs”);

echo “Command Complete”;

?>

The script is called play.php and is in the root www folder on the display.

NB: The command complete line is unnecessary.

When the PHP page is loaded, it launches the file vlcplay.vbs in the same folder as itself. The vlcplay.vbs script contains the following:

Set obj1 = CreateObject(“WScript.Shell”)

obj1.SendKeys ” ”

WScript.Quit

The VBS scripts assume that VLC is running (as you would have launched it previously) and that it has something to play.

As you can see above in the extensions_custom.conf file, each command has its own PHP file, which launches its own script. This could be simplified into having a single PHP file that launches the different scripts.

The main part of each VBS script is the obj1.SendKeys line. This line tells the script what to do to VLC. In the example above it is sending the space character to VLC, just like if you had pressed the space bar the way you would pause it normally.

Here’s a list of the other keyboard shortcuts I used:

Volume up: Ctrl+Up (obj1.SendKeys “^{UP}”)

Stop: s (obj1.SendKeys “s” )

Back: p(obj1.SendKeys “p” )

Next: n (obj1.SendKeys “n” )

Fullscreen: f (obj1.SendKeys “f” )

Volume down: Ctrl+Down (obj1.SendKeys “^{DOWN}”)

Quit: Ctrl+q (obj1.SendKeys “^q”)

Mute: m (obj1.SendKeys “m”)

Future to do list:

1. IVR
2. Make it so that the phone doesn’t report Call Failed: 603 Error
3. Seperate IVR for playlist selection
4. More controls!

Did I leave something helpful out? Let me know

These are in order, I suggest reading the transcript (There’s a button to see all of it)

Here’s a few screenshots for those who cant wait to watch it load, or can’t download it:

 
The Protoss base

 
The Terran base

 
A quick look around the map..

Terran starts building

 
Both races scout around

Protoss base with pylon

 
Terran base

 
Protoss base

New fancy towers.. [Have a look at the transcript for more info]

I figured you’d get the idea.

More on Elastix at http://elastix.org/

http://blogs.digium.com/2008/10/13/asterisknow-15-beta-available-more-coming-soon/

I wish they would hurry up and tell us more about it though..

I run this on a 501Mhz Celeron box with 256MB of RAM (8MB of that is shared with graphics) and it runs fine. The more you want to do with it the higher the system requirements will be. If you want a more detailed system spec list try asking on the forums.

1. Download the ISO. This is available at: http://www.asterisknow.org/downloads
   
2. After the ISO is downloaded, it needs to be “burnt” to a CD. I’ll assume you know what your doing there. If you don’t this may not be the thing for you. But here is a guide anyway. Alternatively you can mount the ISO in a virtual drive or mount the ISO directly to a virtual system.
    
3. Boot from the AsteriskNOW 1.5 Beta disk.
   
   
4. I was prompted to erase the hard drive as shown below. If this happens, ensure you are using a drive that you want to dedicate to AsteriskNOW and that doesn’t have any data on it that you want to keep. Click Yes to continue.
   
   
5. Partition the drive. Unless you want to do something fancy, just hit Next.
   
   
6. Select the time zone most appropriate for you. This is a rather cool time zone selector so I took some extra pictures
   
    
7. Choose your root password. This is the mother of all passwords on Linux so choose something secure. I recommend something at least 250 characters long, alphanumeric, consisting of upper case and lower case characters as well as symbols. But I might just be paranoid..
   
   
8. Sit there and do nothing while it installs. Fun.
   
   
9. Remove the CD / Dismount the ISO and hit reboot. This would be a good time to make sure that its labelled and in a nice case too.
   
   
10. Watch it startup for the first time, I hope this is a proud moment for many.
    
    
11. This part was confusing for me. Onetime I was prompted to login as root, and the other I was asked to go through a final configuration of the base system (Authentication, Firewall, Network, Services). It appears that it times out after a few seconds of inactivity and forwards to the console login. I just hit reset and it went back to this:
    
    
12. Skip the Authentication part unless you want to do something fancy and complicated, go down to Firewall and press Tab then Enter. Remember that in the upcoming steps you use Tab to move between items, the arrow keys to select items and the Enter key to move on.
    
13. Be secure. Set the firewall to enable and choose Permissive. Move down to Customize and press enter.
     
     
    I only used one Network Card so I’m not sure what it looks like with more. I’m sure you can figure it out. I set eth0 (my network interface) to Trusted since this was only going to run on my home network. I then set SSH, WWW (HTTP), Secure WWW (HTTPS), Samba and FTP to allow incoming connections and hit ok.
     
    Select Ok from the box at the bottom of the previous page when you leave the customize page as well.
    
14. Go down to Network Configuration. If your happy with DHCP then you can skip this step, in saying that if you want your PBX to get an IP through DHCP you don’t really want a PBX [unless you have a decent DHCP setup with static leases and the like ]
    Choose your network adapter:
    
    Here is how I had mine setup:
    
    I disabled DHCP and set AsteriskNOW to use the IP 192.168.1.1, Subnet Mask of 255.255.255.0 and the gateway of 192.168.1.254. Your IP addressing will probably vary. If you need help there’s lots on Google or you can leave a comment.
    
15. The wizard will close and AsteriskNOW will finish booting. You’ll see a screen like this when it’s done:
    
    This is where I unplugged the keyboard, mouse and screen from my PBX and went onto my laptop. To get to the web GUI to configure you box the easy way:

    Load the browser you normally use, browse to: http://<PBX_IP_Address>/” [for example: http://192.168.1.1/] and you should see a page like this:
    
    

16. Log into FreePBX Administration! The default username is freepbx and the default password is fpbx.
     
    Have fun!

New in AsteriskNOW 1.5 Beta:

• CentOS 5.2 instead of rPath
• FreePBX GUI
• DAHDi

Suffice it to say that AsteriskNOW 1.5 is a tasty sample of the shape of things to come.

- More here!

A 15-year-old high school student in New York State has been charged with three felonies after he allegedly accessed personnel information on his school’s poorly configured computer network and then notified his principal of the security weakness.

The unnamed student of Shenendehowa Central School was charged Thursday with computer trespass, unlawful possession of a personal identification information and identity theft, according to news reports. He has been suspended from school and ordered to stand charges in family court in Saratoga County.

He and a peer allegedly gained access to file containing the personal information of 250 workers because of a district-wide error in setting up a new server. After accessing the information, he sent an email alerting the principal to the breach and signed it “A student.” With the help of the district’s IT department, the principal identified the boy as the culprit.

How stupid do you have to be? Surely you should applaud a student who shows enough initiative and responsibility to come forward to the school principal and alert them that such information is easily available?

The article then continues:

“The kid committed an intentional criminal act,” state trooper Maureen Tuffey told The Times Union. “He deceitfully used someone else’s name and password so he would not get caught and was looking to profit from his criminal act.”

Seriously? The kids 15! Give him a reward for coming forward instead of posting the information on the Internet and letting 250 workers identities be stolen properly.

All that was needed to access the information was a district password. School officials have admitted that thousands of students, faculty and employees could have accessed the same file for up to two weeks. The file contained the social security numbers, driver’s license numbers and home addresses of past and present employees, most of whom were bus drivers.

So thousands of people could have easily stolen the information and sold it, something that is apparently more and more common these days. Yet when one person comes forward, instead of being grateful we screw them over? Awesome. Why not encourage them to do the right thing, maybe even ask them to have a look around for any more exploits they can find? Maybe they know of a few more and now they’re pissed off enough to use them against you. Don’t we need more white hats instead of black hats these days? Or are we promoting a secret underground community that will eventually screw the governments of the world over and cripple everything as we know it.

Speaking from personal experience, things shouldn’t be handled this way. It should be the last scenario to charge someone, especially a 15 year old student. Co-operation goes a long way. Sure, we could all provide a better opinion if we knew what the student said in the email, but HES 15 YEARS OLD!

Lets try promoting a better community next time guys.

Because the world needs less of this:
http://www.darknet.org.uk/2008/07/san-fransisco-officials-locked-out-of-their-own-network/

setxkbmap -layout dvorak

to change to the DVORAK keyboard and:

setxkbmap -layout us

to switch back to the dreaded QWERTY

Thanks to Yorokobi in #dvorak on FreeNode!

NB: This works without root permissions.

SiSky Personal Edition is a bridge between Skype and your SIP device. You can use it with a SIP Phone / ATA. I use mine with trixbox and a few phones I have.

SiSky PE is really cool. I’ve been using it for almost a month now without fault. Being the personal edition, SiSky PE only allows you to connect to one Skype account at a time. This more than enough for me though.

Step One: Download Skype.

Head off to www.skype.com if you haven’t got it already. Keep in mind that the computer it runs on needs to be running Windows XP, 2003 or Vista for it to work with SiSky PE and the system needs to be turned on for it to send calls to your IP Telephony device.

Take note of the Skype setup instructions on the downloading page.

Step Two: Download SiSky PE.

Now you can go off to www.yeastar.com/Products/SiSkyPE.asp and download SiSky PE using the link on the right hand side (It’s under the PDF links).

Step Three: Install Skype.

Follow the instructions given by Skype when you downloaded it.. Or:

Open the Skype Setup file you downloaded in Step One.

Check the box that says you agree to the conditions (read them first!) and click install.

Because I’m running this on a server I chose not to install the Google Toolbar. Your choice may vary..

Click next to continue..

Skype Installs..

Skype finishes installing. Click Start Skype to continue.

Skype will prompt you to create a new account. If you do not have an account you should create one now. Or click cancel if you have one already.

***Sign in using your account details.***

This is also a good time to go into Skype and disable the computer ringing when you receive an incoming call if you would like. I did this because it annoyed me and trixbox was called at the same time and the phones rang as well. I don’t answer calls on the computer itself. If you do you should leave the ring tone alone

Step Four: Install SiSky PE

There is a set of instructions on the SiSky PE website if you’d prefer to follow them. Alternatively:

Next..

Read and accept the conditions, check the box and click next..

Click next..

Next..

Next..

Finish!

If this pops up at any time from now, make sure you click Unblock!

Step Five: Configure trixbox.

Configuring trixbox for this is rather easy. We will create a SIP Trunk for SiSky PE and then create a ring group for the phones to be called (optional, you may wish to only have one phone called)

Launch your browser of choice and log into the admin side of the trixbox web panel.

Go to the PBX settings menu.

Select Extensions.

Now were going to add the extension that SiSky PE uses to connect to trixbox.

Select “Generic SIP Device” and click Submit.

Here is a fun part, choosing the extension. I used 103. This is the number that you dial internally to dial out through Skype.

For display name, I suggest something like “Skype”, I used “Skype User” myself.

For SIP Alias I always enter the same as the extension. CID Num Alias is left blank.

Scroll down until you come to the Device Options section. This is where you set the authentication password for SiSky. I strongly suggest using something decent, not 1234. Though it may not be necessary in a home situation. Its a good idea!

If you only have one thing you want SiSky to call then skip the next few bits and move onto the next Step.

Here we are going to setup a ring group. So that SiSky PE can easily call more than one phone. I use this so that my ATA, and two other phones are called when someone calls me through Skype.

Select Ring Groups from the main menu.

Ring Group Number – This is the number SiSky PE will dial to call all the devices you select.

Group Description – I used “Skype”.

Ring Strategy – “ringall”

Extension List – This is where you choose what extensions you want to ring. Its a lot easier to use the Extension Quick Pick box below as it adds the extensions you select for you.

You also need to choose what happens if no one answers. You can terminate the call or send it to a voicemail box. Up to you.

Once you’ve done all that click submit at the bottom

and apply the configuration changes.

Step Six: Setup the SiSky PE Client.

Allow SiSky PE to use Skype.

Open the SiSky PE window.

Open Tools -> Options so we can configure SiSky PE to use trixbox.

SIP Account – Extension number, mine was “103″.

Password – The Secret we defined in trixbox.

SIP Proxy and Domain are the IP Address of your trixbox server, eg 192.168.1.1

SIP Account of IP Phone is the extension to dial. If you only want one phone to ring you can enter its extension number here. Alternatively, enter the number of the ring group you have setup above. Mine was “600″.

Congratulations!

Your all done. Please leave a comment if you have any questions or comments. If your setup process differs from what is listed here please let me know.