[Asterisk-Users] Asterisk stops working for no apparent reason :-(

[Jim Archer]

Hi All...

I have been having a recurring problem with * for several weeks now.  I am 
using it with two ATA186 devices configured for SIP.  There is a USB zaptel 
device plugged in but to the PC but no phone is plugged into it.

I have two X100P cards, each with a phone line.

About once each day, * will just decide to stop answering calls from the 
phone lines or from an extension.  The * process is still running.  I can 
kill it and restart it, and * begins working normally again.

This is becoming a serious problem so I have 2 questions.

1 - Is there any way to fix or at least diagnose this?

2 - Is there any way to check from another process to see if * is still 
running so I can working so I can kill it and restart it if it is not? 
Such a thing might be a regular output to a log file, answering on a port, 
something like that.

Thanks!

Jim