In the admin mode, go to “PBX” > “PBX Settings” > “Extensions.”

The most common type of device that you are going to be using (and the type for this walk through) is a Generic SIP (Software IP Phone) Device.  So, in the drop down box next to “Devices” select “Generic SIP Device.”

Click on the “Submit” button.

At the next screen, you will see that there are a lot of configuration options for your new extension.  Most of these options are not required, and are used to make using your SIP Device more robust by adding advanced options.  For now, we will just cover the required settings; however the great thing about trixbox, is that if you want to learn more about what each option is, you can simply hover over the option name, and a pop-up box will display a description of that option:

The first required field is “User Extension,” which is the first option on the page to fill out.  This can be any number that you want really, but should have some form of logical order (such as 101, 102, 103, etc), for obvious reasons.

Next you’ll need to enter a “Display Name,” which is what will show up on other SIP devices when you call them.  Again, this can be anything that you like, but would be best if it followed some guideline, such as first and last name.  If you want to make use of the company directory service included in trixbox, you will want to make sure you use real names (first name first, last name last).

The last required field to enter is the “Secret.”  This is the password that will be shared between the SIP device and the PBX box to authenticate who they are.  It is important to make this secret something that cannot be easily guessed, or else an intruder could easily gain unauthorized access.

Now that you’ve filled in those fields, can click on the “Submit” button located at the bottom of the page.  You have now created an extension, that can be called from any other extension, and that can also call any other extension.  For configuring the more advanced options for each extension, check out my other blog entries.

Also you can get your own Trixbox Virtual VOIP Server Here.

What is a VOIP service provider?  To understand this, it is first important to understand why you would want one.  Just like with any kind of internet traffic, for data to get to a destination, it travels over a certain protocol such as TCP, UDP, FTP, etc.  Voip traffic travels over the protocol SIP (Session Initiation Protocol).  Basically what this protocol does, is take the phone calls that are generated in your PBX and destined to an outside number, and allows them to travel through your internet connection as apposed to a separate physical phone cable.

Just like with your Internet Service Provider, in order to use the protocol that will transfer data from your location to an outside one, you have to pay for it.  The good thing however, is that its much cheaper than separate phone service, which is what makes all of this worthwhile.

There are many different VOIP providers out there, all of them ranging in price, minutes, customer support, etc.  For this tutorial, we will be using one of our preferred solutions, CallCentric.

The steps are pretty self explanatory, you just need to navigate through the site in the same manner as you would for any site that you wish to purchase something from.

You’ll need to pick what plan suites you and your business.  The nice part about using a carrier such as CallCentric, is that if you don’t make a lot of calls, but want the ease and convenience of using a VOIP system, you can purchase a plan that charges you per minute, compared to buying a plan that causes you to pay for wasted minutes.

Also you can get your own Trixbox Virtual VOIP Server Here to use with CallCentric VOIP Service Provider.