[asterisk-users] Why no traction for Windows version?

[Faisal Hanif]

Hi,

I haven't write any How to on it but below are some step by step
instructions to run Asterisk on windows,

1-Install Cygwin.
2-Install build essentials in Cygwin.
3-Download Asterisk source (I used 1.4.x) and unzip it using tar (You may
need to install tar manually as it is missing in some Cygwin default
installations. Don't use windows unzip for as it will create some abnormal
character in source and will make unexpected compile time errors)
4-Run bootstrap it will report any missing or lower version libs,
prerequisite or tools.
5-You may need to manually install/upgrade tools like autoconf, automake etc
depending on your Cygwin installation.
6-You manually need to download and compile termcap, ncurses.
7-Run configure.
8-Make menuselect and disable all non-required modules as it will save to
resolve lot of not needed dependencies.
9-Run make
10-Resolve any missing reported by make.
11-After successful make run make install
12-Once make install okey you can run asterisk on Cygwin console and also
directly run by double clicking on asterisk.exe in c:/Cygwin/usr/sbin/.

Once you have compiled it you can copy asterisk.exe to any other system not
having Cygwin installed by you have to care about following,

1-You must have to create required directories structure like Cygwin on
system drive.
2-You must need to copy required Cygwin DLLs to new systems
\windows\system32\ folder. You can identify required DLLs by trying to run
asterisk.exe and it will report missing DLLs one by one.

I did just for my experiment and fun and was able to make successful SIP
calls using static files configuration.

However I suggest to use SIPx, Yate or FreeSWITCH if you want to stick with
windows as that have native windows ports and have all required features you
need in a PABX or VoIP switch.

Regards,

Faisal Hanif