Proper usage of user's and peer's (was Re: [Asterisk-Users] IAX2 Trunking confirmation?)

[Jeremy McNamara]

WipeOut wrote:

> Jeremy, Can you elaborate on how using type=friend would restrict the 
> dialplan.. Just so I am aware of the pitfalls.. :)

Mark's words to me, when I was a newbie: 
[00:08] <kram> a user is to authenticate an incoming call
[00:08] <kram> a peer is someone you send a call to
[00:08] <kram> friend, of course, is both


I'll give you a real world example that has happened to more than a few 
NuFone customers:

NuFone Customer A orders a toll-free number and termination from us.
Instead of following the example config we send he does:

[NuFone]
type=friend
secret=his_secret
host=switch-1.nufone.net.
context=NANPA

When NuFone sends the toll-free calls to his Asterisk box, they will 
land in HIS NANPA context, which is really confusing, but he does figure 
that fact out and is able to make both toll-free inbound and outbound 
calls work.

Then a few weeks later he decides to pick up a regular DID from us. Now, 
his (above) configuration will fail for the regular DID inbound calls, 
but nothing else, because our regular DIDs do not come from 
switch-1.nufone.net.

The proper way is to separate the tasks. Starting with the user:

[NuFone]
type=user
secret=his_secret
context=inbound

This way he is not restricting the hostname/IP address where the user 
'NuFone' can call in from. Plus, he now has a more logical context for 
all of his inbound calls.

and the peer simply has the required information:

[NuFone]
type=peer
secret=his_secret
context=NANPA          
host=switch-1.nufone.net


Yes, a friend is a very easy way to get things started and it can be 
made to work, but you will end up causing hair loss and/or heartburn 
trying to figure out why everything doesn't work the way you expect it 
to, when you go to add more complexity to your operation.

The moral of the story is:  Separate those tasks now, so you can avoid 
problems later.


Jeremy McNamara