Astriank Manual

Quick Start

In only 3 minutes your Asterisk and Astribank can be up and running!

1.Connect your Astribank(s) to the USB 2.0 port of a computer.

2.Connect the Astribank to the power supply.

3.Insert the Xorcom Rapid™ Live-CD and restart the computer. 

When the menu is displayed, your Asterisk and Astribank(s) are running.
Notes: 

•The computer boots from the Live-CD. The content of the computer’s hard drive is not affected at all. 

•Do not forget to connect your Astribank to the main power supply. 

•Use USB 2.0 ports only. Otherwise, Astribank either will not work at all or the voice quality will be poor. See “Troubleshooting” on page 44 for instructions on how to check if your computer is equipped with a USB 2.0 controller. 

•If your computer does not boot from the CD, change the BIOS settings. One of the BIOS options configures the computer to try booting first from the CD. 

•The Xorcom Rapid Live-CD also detects and installs Digium and other Zaptel/DAHDI devices.

•To log-in to the Asterisk’s web interface from any other computer, simply enter the Asterisk computer's IP address or name into your browser. Then, access the FreePBX setup screen and enter the default user-name and password. The default user-name is admin and the default password is admin.

•Use the console or remote terminal (AjaxTerm) to access the root or the Xorcom Rapid menus. The default user-name is user and the default password is live. To open the Xorcom Rapid menu, type rapid-menu. To work as root, after you have logged-in, type: sudo –i

•Connect analog telephones to FXS ports, analog PSTN lines to FXO ports, ISDN BRI PSTN lines to BRI TE (green LED) ports and ISDN BRI PBX lines to BRI NT (yellow LED) ports.

•For ISDN BRI, you can connect the TE ports to the NT ports (using a regular LAN cable) for a loop-back test.

•Read the Live-CD documentation to perform effective tests to check your Astribank and to explore Asterisk.

WARNING! The Live-CD is for tests and demonstrations and should not be used as an operational PBX. All configuration changes made on the system will be saved only in the RAM and will be erased upon reboot. For an operational PBX, please use an Asterisk installation version.

Introduction

Astribank ™ is a channel bank that was specially developed for the Asterisk Open Source IP-PBX. An Astribank is connected to the Asterisk server via a USB 2.0 connection. It supports analog telephone sets, analog lines (a PSTN connection), ISDN PRI and BRI lines, E1 R2 lines, and ISDN BRI telephone sets. 

Astribank drivers are included in the official DAHDI and Zaptel packages. The latest information about Astribank drivers is available in the Support section of the Xorcom Web site. 

Multiple Astribank units can be connected to a single Asterisk server. If the PC does not have enough USB ports to support additional Astribank units, add a USB 2.0 hub. 

The total number of supported ports is determined by the Asterisk server performance. A simple, single-processor Pentium 4, 3 GHz PC can support hundreds of ports. For more information about large Astribank setups, please contact us at info@dtasia.com.au

System Overview

The Astribank comes in different configurations and is based on 8-port modules.