Asterisk Training Programme

As Digium certified training partners Telappliant in association with TeleSpeak are offering 2 new Asterisk courses, the Asterisk Fast Start and the Asterisk Advanced for both the beginner and the more advanced student. Either get up to speed quickly on Asterisk technology or expand your knowledge of Asterisk with us.

What is Asterisk?

Asterisk is the world's leading open source PBX, telephony engine, and telephony applications toolkit. Offering flexibility unheard of in the world of proprietary communications, Asterisk empowers developers and integrators to create advanced communication solutions... for free. It is also one of the most celebrated emerging technologies and demand is great for experts in the field.

Asterisk Fast Start

Course Goal

The goal of this course is to familiarize students with Asterisk and the environment in which it operates, both in terms of operating system and telephony (traditional and IP) connections - and to acquaint participants with the installation, configuration and basic operation of Asterisk. This course will take students (who do not need to have previous experience with Linux, telephony or Asterisk) from a freshly installed Linux PC through to a fully configured and working Asterisk implementation.

Asterisk Fast Start Course

The emphasis is on the practical implementation, and not necessarily a detailed understanding of every element of an Asterisk deployment or the detailed workings of the underlying technologies involved - this can be obtained, if desired, subsequent to the course by further research.

At the end of the training class, participants will be able to:

Identify the purpose and primary functionality of Asterisk as a PBX and as an application development platform
List the functionality associated with a traditional PBX
Explain the background to Asterisk in terms of the history of Digium and the Open Source community of which it is a part
Define the operating system environments in which Asterisk is developed and supported
Describe the telephony connections which Asterisk supports and identify the Digium hardware needed to effect this connectivity
Identify the basic characteristics of analog and digital PSTN connections and how VoIP compares and contrasts with these
Install and run Asterisk from the packages available for download from www.asterisk.org
Configure Asterisk to deliver basic PBX functionality including basic call routing, voicemail and directory services
Learn the basics of Linux in order to be an effective Asterisk administrator

Course Prerequisites

This is an entry-level course; there are no prerequisites to attend this training.

Course Format

The Asterisk Fast Start course is a three-day course. The class will consist of a combination of lectures and lab exercises.

The labs will be presented in a workbook which the student gets to keep. The lecture notes and sample configurations will also be included. As each lab and lecture builds on the results of the previous lab and lecture, the workbook is a great way for students to work through the process at their own pace, as well as ensure that they have learned all the relevant material.

Asterisk Advanced

The Asterisk Advanced course is a five day hands-on course which covers the knowledge and skills that an advanced Asterisk administrator should know to be effective at his or her job. It is a combination of both lectures and labs designed to give the students both the theory behind the concepts and the hands-on experience to be able to effectively deploy Asterisk-based solutions.

Students will learn to create advanced dial plans and create innovative telephony solutions by using the features of Asterisk. Along the way, students will also get important insight into Voice over IP, and how to design robust VoIP networks. Students will also explore connecting Asterisk to a variety of devices, including analog phones and phone lines, digital phone lines, and VoIP providers.

Asterisk Advanced Course

Course Goal

The Asterisk Advanced course is designed to prepare Linux/Unix consultants, interconnect vendors, enterprise IT personnel , and ITSP/telco systems administrators to install, configure, manage and troubleshoot Asterisk-based VoIP systems. Items covered in the course include:

Asterisk dialplan syntax and constructs, including auto-attendants and simple IVR system
Effective use of Asterisk features, such as call parking, audio conferencing, find-me follow-me, and music on hold.
Call monitoring and recording
Theory of Analog telephony, and how to connect Asterisk to the PSTN
Digital telephony using T1s and E1s
VoIP fundamentals and fundamental network concepts
SIP and IAX protocols
Connecting Asterisk to a VoIP provider
Configuring Asterisk to save Call Detail Records
Call queues and ACD with Asterisk
Call routing using DUNDi
Using the Asterisk Manager Interface to control Asterisk from an external program
Connecting Asterisk to a relational database such as MySQL
Troubleshooting your Asterisk system
Speech recognition with Asterisk and LumenVox
... and many more!

Prerequisites

Linux Knowledge:

Have installed and worked in a Linux environment.
Know how to manipulate files and perform basic administrative tasks from the command line.
Know how to use a text editor to modify configuration files.

Asterisk Experience:

Have installed Asterisk and DAHDI from source.
Know where Asterisk configs are located, and how to read and use sample config files.
Know the general format/syntax of the Asterisk dialplan and the basic dialplan applications.
Asterisk CLI: Know how to connect to remote Asterisk sessions and administer them using basic CLI commands.
Know how to register and use VoIP devices (phones) and providers with Asterisk.

Recommended Skills:

Have general knowledge of VoIP protocols, especially SIP and IAX including generally how they work what ports they use.
Programming and scripting experience: Have some familiarity with programming and scripting languages such as C, C++, Bash, Perl.

Certification Offered

The dCAP program is offered at the end of the Asterisk Advanced course or can be taken separately. If you pass the test, you will earn a coveted Digium-Certified Asterisk Professional qualification. This qualification enables you to be recognized within the industry as an expert on Asterisk. More on dCAP certification below.

The Digium-Certified Asterisk Professional (dCAP) certification is a verification of your knowledge of Asterisk. The certification covers a specific released, stable version of Asterisk. The dCAP test consists of a 150 question written exam concerning Asterisk and Asterisk-related technology, and a hands-on practical lab exam in which you are asked to configure a PBX according to a given specification.

Please note that taking the Advanced course does not guarantee that you will pass the dCAP exam.

To pass the dCAP exam, it is recommended that you have read Asterisk: The Future of Telephony, 2nd Edition by O'Reilly, have actual working knowledge of setting up and maintaining an Asterisk server, have familiarity with the Asterisk sample configuration files, and have taken the Asterisk Advanced course. Information on open source Asterisk can be found at Asterisk.org.

Dates and Pricing

The three day Asterisk Fast Start course: £1497+VAT.

The five day Asterisk Advanced course: £2297+VAT
or with the optional dCAP course £2547+VAT.

The course will be held at TeleSpeak House, Bicester, Oxon, UK on the below dates:

Dates for 2013 to be confirmed.

Cancellation and Rescheduling

A 30-day or greater notice for cancellation or rescheduling prior to the start of training results in a 100% refund. A 7-day to 29-day notice for cancellation or rescheduling prior to the start of training results in a £250 cancellation fee. A 6-day or less notice for cancellation or rescheduling prior to the start of training results in a 0% refund. Cancellation and Rescheduling by Digium. Training courses and certification programs may be canceled without prior warning with a 100% refund of course fees if severe inclement weather, or local or natural disasters affect class participation and deliverance of training. Digium will gladly move a student to another scheduled class at no cost to the student.