This is a step-by-step guide to configure your FreePBX 11 installation with a Simtex SIP trunk.
FreePBX 11 is a widely used, stable and feature-rich graphical user interface for Asterisk – https://www.freepbx.org/
Our guide assumes you have already set the server up, and have the web-based GUI ready to go. If not, grab an ISO image of FreePBX11 from here: FreePBX Distro
Search for the latest ISO within “64 BIT DOWNLOADS” on the FreePBX Download page
Asterisk unfortunately does a very bad job of handling SIP SRV records – this means, if one of our server farms is not reachable, your Asterisk server will not automatically failover to our backup platforms. To combat this issue, we need to setup multiple SIP trunks and move the fail-over logic to a special FreePBX configuration instead of relying on Asterisk’s ability to handle SRV weightings.
With multiple trunks available, you simply configure Outbound Routes with an ordered list of trunks to use. If one is not available, FreePBX will hop down the list until it finds one that works.
By setting up multiple trunks in FreePBX, we can register on multiple Simtex platforms simultaneously. Simtex will then send calls to your FreePBX via alternative servers in the case of an outage.
We will be setting up multiple trunks, one for each Simtex data centre. Depending on the location of your FreePBX server please setup three trunks in the order specified below.
Order of Trunks
Order of Trunks
For security reasons, it’s best to limit the quantity of channels to the amount you will actually need in day to day use
Populate the peer details depending on the Simtex server you are currently setting up
Trunk Name: Account Number-Server – eg 7xxxxxxx-SIPWA1
PEER Details:
username=7xxxxxxx
type=peer
secret=xxxxxxxx
qualify=1000
insecure=port,invite
host=sipwa1.simtex.com.au
fromuser=7xxxxxxx
trustrpid=yes
sendrpid=yes
Replace host=sipwa1.simtex.com.au with the appropriate server (ie sipwa1.simtex.com.au / sipwa2.simtex.com.au / sipnsw1.simtex.com.au)
Clear out the data within USER details, enter the register string for the correct server/trunk you are setting up
Reminder: Setup multiple trunks for each server as listed in the table on the top of the page
In order to make outbound calls, your system needs to know what it’s allowed to route and where the calls are to be routed. We’ll set these up to guard against people making unauthorised calls on your system.
If you do not wish to make international calls, leave out the 0011 route pattern.
The below configuration examples will accept a 0, then strip it off automatically prior to sending it to the Simtex Trunk.
Inbound routes are used to direct incoming calls to your allocated DIDs. You can have individual numbers go to different extensions, groups, IVR routines etc as you wish.
First up we will create a ‘catch-all’ inbound route. This will be answered by your PBX if a number is sent to you but not actually configured on your system. Most users will route this to a receptionist or main hunt group.
Also set the desired destination…in our example we have it ringing a Ring Group but you may select another option.
Add entries for individual numbers, or blocks of numbers. You can enter wildcard patterns such as _618921133XX
Note: If using wildcard patterns, you must use an underscore: _618921133XX
