[asterisk-users] Basic quetion on Asterisk usage

[Thomas Rechberger]

Am 02.12.2013 15:02, schrieb Raghav Goud:
> Hi all,
>     I want  peer-peer communication between two clients (soft phones)
> both are behind NAT.I have  an accounts with  SIP proxy for two clients.
> To communicate these two clients do i need to use Asterisk ?
>     As per my understanding Asterisk acts like Gateway where
> conventional phone calls data transfer into internet voice calls.
>   If am wrong please correct me .
> Thanks,
>   Raghav.
>
>

Asterisk is not required. In your soft phone you only need to enter SIP 
Account from ITSP and it is then "converted" by Provider from SIP to 
plain telephony or routed directly to the other VoIP user which is all 
transparent for you. 2 users on the same Provider, usually can call 4 
free but this depends.

When Asterisk is installed, both phones can be registered to it and both 
phones can communicate over Asterisk directly without even needing an 
ITSP, it goes all over IP. This requires good configuration to prevent 
"hackers" from misusing the system and generating high bills.