[asterisk-users] Asterisk on Mac OS X

[Steve Edwards]

On Thu, 23 Apr 2009, Rick Dwyer wrote:

> What I want to do is allow callers to call a our phone line and 
> unsubscribe their phone number from our call center list.  So, 
> basically, when they call in, they would be greeted with a message 
> something like: "please enter your 10 digit phone number followed by the 
> pound sign".  They would then have the number read back to them to 
> confirm it or reenter it.  Once confirmed, it would write the phone 
> number to a text file for importing into MySQL or FileMaker.

Piece of cake -- use Read() and SayDigits().

Any reason you don't want to write the number directly to the database? 
Any interest in looking up the number in the database so they know if they 
are entering a subscribed number? How will you keep a disgruntled customer 
or employee from un-subscribing other customers?

> Is what I am trying to accomplish within the realm of what Asterisk can 
> do on the Mac platform... or any platform... and if so, how difficult of 
> an install is it?  I have read varying accounts from it being a breeze 
> to being frustrating.

It depends on the skills of the installer. I prefer to install from source 
but a lot of people depend on RPM or DEB packages or just use a "boot & 
nuke" approach with PIAF or something similar.

> I have already been told I can do this via both caller id and via number 
> entry by touch tone, my question is, are there currently any users who 
> are doing the above on a Mac or should I only consider Linux?

Asterisk is developed on Linux. Most users run on Linux. You will have 
fewer problems on Linux. Can you run Linux on your Mac? (I mean booting 
Linux, not VMWare or Parallels).

Thanks in advance,
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Steve Edwards      sedwards at sedwards.com      Voice: +1-760-468-3867 PST
Newline                                             Fax: +1-760-731-3000