[asterisk-users] allowguest defaults to yes for SIP

[Michael Wyres]

>-----Original Message-----
>From: asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com [mailto:asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Lee Howard
>Sent: Friday, 13 November 2009 06:16
>To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion
>Subject: Re: [asterisk-users] allowguest defaults to yes for SIP

>I could be wrong, but I don't generally consider myself stupid or 
>lazy... and yet this default setting as "yes" took me by surprise, 
>obviously.

This has nothing to do with "stupidity" or "laziness".

The way I see it, the reason you have encountered some resistance to your opinion in regards to whether guest access should be allowed by default or should not be, is not because your opinion is "right" or "wrong" - everyone is entitled to an opinion - and your stance has merit, certainly - I don't think anyone is actually disputing that.  It is more that a lot of the people on this list have been using Asterisk for a LOOOOOOOONG time, and have explained why it might be advantageous to have guest access enabled by default.  There are definitely uses for this functionality, as has been demonstrated by a number of examples contained in this thread.

Isn't this why you joined the list?  To learn more about the product, and get ideas and assistance from the more experienced users of the product?

You raised your concern, and Tilghman (a senior developer at Digium) explained the reasoning behind the default setting.  He suggested that you take your concern to the tracker and post a patch.  You resisted.  The open source community (despite what some think) is a highly organised community, with structures in place to get things like that done.

If you consistently did end runs around established corporate procedures in your workplace, you'd expect a foot up the ass from management.  Tilghman was as politely as possible asking you to follow the established procedures.  You chose to resist.

Now, the default extensions.conf contains the following snippet:

<snip>

[default]
;
; By default we include the demo.  In a production system, you
; probably don't want to have the demo there.
;
include => demo

</snip>

Now, a lot of people never RTFM for anything.  Moreover, how many people actually read the EULA for any piece of software they use?  It's not Asterisk/Digium's fault if people don't read the available documentation that they provide.  The quite plainly clear statement above is "in a production system, you probably don't want to have the demo there".  Did you read that bit?  Did you wonder why that bit is there?  When I first started working with Asterisk, I clearly remember that line (or something very similar) piquing my curiousity to dig a little deeper as to why that statement was made.  Lo, I discovered that this was because by default, guest access is allowed.  

Digium has made that available in the distribution for EVERYONE to read, and extensions.conf is probably the most accessed file in an Asterisk system not using RealTime, so people who choose to ignore reading the excellent notes and annotations in all of the default configuration files is doing themselves a disservice.

I too found the default access odd at first, but I chose to understand the reasoning from people who knew better, instead of chucking a hissy fit.

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