New Asterisk versions released!

The Asterisk development team is pleased to announce new releases of our
primary projects: Asterisk 1.2.8, Zaptel 1.2.6 and libpri 1.2.3.

All of these releases incorporate a number of bug fixes, with the
Asterisk release containing an especially large number since the last
release, including some important fixes in the IAX2 channel driver. All
users are encouraged to update as soon as they can to avoid experiencing
these known problems.

The release files are available in the usual place (ftp.digium.com), as
both tarballs and patch files relative to the last release. In addition,
both the tarballs and the patch files have been signed using GPG keys of
the release maintainers, so that you can ensure their authenticity.

Thanks for supporting Asterisk, Zaptel and libpri!

Encrypted Chat for your softphone — from the creator of PGP

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/22/technology/22privacy.html

The New York Times

May 22, 2006
Voice Encryption May Draw U.S. Scrutiny
By JOHN MARKOFF

SAN FRANCISCO, May 21 - Philip R. Zimmermann wants to protect online
privacy. Who could object to that?

He has found out once already. Trained as a computer scientist, he developed
a program in 1991 called Pretty Good Privacy, or PGP, for scrambling and
unscrambling e-mail messages. It won a following among privacy rights
advocates and human rights groups working overseas - and a three-year
federal criminal investigation into whether he had violated export
restrictions on cryptographic software. The case was dropped in 1996, and
Mr. Zimmermann, who lives in Menlo Park, Calif., started PGP Inc. to sell
his software commercially.

Now he is again inviting government scrutiny. On Sunday, he released a free
Windows software program, Zfone, that encrypts a computer-to-computer voice
conversation so both parties can be confident that no one is listening in.
It became available earlier this year to Macintosh and Linux users of the
system known as voice-over-Internet protocol, or VoIP.

What sets Zfone apart from comparable systems is that it does not require a
web of computers to hold the keys, or long numbers, used in most encryption
schemes. Instead, it performs the key exchange inside the digital voice
channel while the call is being set up, so no third party has the keys.

Zfone's introduction comes as reports continue to emerge about the
government's electronic surveillance efforts. A lawsuit by the Electronic
Frontier Foundation, a privacy rights group, contends that AT&T has given
the National Security Agency real-time access to Internet communications.

In the wake of 9/11, there were calls for the government to institute new
barriers to cryptography, to avoid its use in communications by enemies of
the United States. Easily accessible cryptography for Internet calling may
intensify that debate.

"I'm afraid it will put front and center an issue that had been resolved in
the individual's favor in the 1990's," said James X. Dempsey, policy
director for the Center for Democracy and Technology, a Washington-based
public policy group.

The Federal Communications Commission has begun adopting regulations that
would force Internet service providers and VoIP companies to adopt the
technology that permits law enforcement officials to monitor conventional
telephone calls. But for now, at least, F.C.C. regulation exempts programs
that operate directly between computers, not through a hub.

"From the F.C.C.'s perspective you can't regulate point-to-point
communications, which I think will let Phil off the hook," said Marc
Rotenberg, director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, an
advocacy group in Washington.

Zfone may face more of a challenge in Europe, where the British government
is preparing to give the police the legal authority to compel both
organizations and individuals to disclose encryption keys.

But Mr. Zimmermann, 52, does not see those fearing government surveillance -
or trying to evade it - as the primary market. The next phase of the
Internet's spyware epidemic, he contends, will be software designed to
eavesdrop on Internet telephone calls made by corporate users.

"They will have entire digital jukeboxes of covertly acquired telephone
conversations, and suddenly someone in Eastern Europe is going to be very
wealthy," he said.

While Mr. Zimmerman is giving away his software so far, his goal is to
attract VoIP software and hardware developers to license his technology and
embed it in their products.

Zfone can automatically encrypt any call between users of freely available
VoIP software programs like X-Lite, Gizmo or SJphone. It can be downloaded
at www.philzimmermann.com.

The system does not work with Skype, the VoIP system acquired by eBay, which
uses its own encryption scheme. But at a conference last week in Cyprus,
German officials said they had technology for intercepting and decrypting
Skype phone calls, according to Anthony M. Rutkowski, vice president for
regulatory affairs and standards for VeriSign, a company that offers
security for Internet and phone operations.

Mr. Zimmermann said he had not yet tested Zfone's compatibility with Vonage,
another popular VoIP service.

Mr. Zimmermann contends that the nation is better off with strong
cryptography. Indeed, Zfone can be considered an asset, he said, because it
allows people to have secret conversations without hiding their Internet
protocol addresses, which could be traceable geographically. Those observed
having a secured conversation could come under suspicion, of course. But for
that reason, he argued, sophisticated criminals or terrorists are unlikely
to use the technology.

"I'm sympathetic to the needs of the intelligence community to catch the bad
guys," he said. "I specifically protect the content the criminals want,
while simultaneously not interfering with the traffic analysis that the
N.S.A. is trying to do. You could make the case that I'm being socially
responsible."

Asterisk Jobs – Announce Version 3.0

Well, I'd like to announce the best Asterisk VOIP Jobs Site out there to you.

I've spent a bit more time on the template for the Asterisk VOIP Jobs Site and created some Free Posting for Employers to post their jobs.

Check out the new and improved Asterisk-Jobs

New AstLinux – Ast-users

Hello Everyone,

After many months (and seemingly no updates), I am happy to announce
AstLinux 0.4.

AstLinux 0.4 was built with the new AstLinux build system. The
AstLinux build system is based off of buildroot2 and includes everything
you need to build AstLinux (and more). It is very simple to get
started, but powerful enough to add your own applications, patches,
kernel options/modules, target architectures, boot devices, etc.

I am currently looking for people to help add applications. While I
have been very picky about what gets included in AstLinux, I am much
more flexible about what gets added to the build system. I am hoping to
add at least the following:

- mysql
- perl
- unixodbc
- postgres
- rx_fax, tx_fax (spandsp)
- chan_misdn
- BRIStuff
- SER

If you have any other ideas or are willing to help, please sign up to
the AstLinux mailing lists at http://lists.kriscompanies.com and post
your thoughts!

As of right now, with only a few commands you can build a bootable
AstLinux CF image or ISO.

With the advances of the new build system, I have also released
AstLinux 0.4.0. There have been numerous updates, including:

- Asterisk Native Sounds (g729, ulaw) now included in the base image
- based off of uclibc for a reduction in memory footprint
- Asterisk 1.2..7.1, Zaptel 1.5, and libpri 1.2.2
- Wifi support. Everyone that has wanted to add WIFI support to their
Soekris, this is your chance! Support for madwifi and all drivers in
the kernel tree
- Speaking of kernel, upgrade to 2.6.16.12
- Soekris/PC Engines (SC1100) performance improvements. I include NAPI
support for the natsemi ethernet driver. This should reduce CPU usage
and improve throughput dramatically.
- Now includes microperl (limited version of perl)
- WRAP Error LED support
- SNMP support (client, server, and traps)
- Booting from USB is back on i586

As always, you can find out more about both at http://www.astlinux.org.

Thanks!

--
Kristian Kielhofner

PA-168S – Historical info of ringtone sounds

just putting it on here for archival purposes...

DTMF0- High pitched, medium length tone - annoying
DTMF1- louder sounding european style ring
DTMF2- softer sounding european style ring
DTMF3- Long ring followed by shorter ring, soft sounding
DTMF4- very short spaced medium pitched tone - annoying
DTMF5- Two short pulse european ring sound
DTMF6- Continuous Medium Pulse Ring - Annoying
DTMF7- Higher Pitched two short pulses with longer spacing - not too bad
DTMF8- Two short high pitched pulses, with long spacing - not that bad but not that good
DTMF9- Very Long High Pitched Tone - Similar to 'PLEASE EVACUATE THE BUILDING type of noise' - very annoying
NOT DISTURB- no ring at all heard - works as intended - unless one can hear the sound of the LCD flicking
PCMRING- recorded sound of a quick succession 4 ring tone - okay i guess
USER DEFINE- 'Click!' noise heard - not working with PA-168S afaik.