The users section was probably the most appropriate place for this.
Today I successfully placed my first VOIP call through LinuxMCE. Asterisk is still very much a black-box for me but I hope to learn it better as I have with each category of device I have added and needed to support or seek support on. Thank you once again to everyone who has worked on this project.
My hurdles that others may want to look at if they are having issues:
*If buying used voip equipment, inquire about the firmware version. "stepping up" a 7970 with very old and very unknown firmware was a chore.
*Open those ports. It was confusing to me until I actually sat down to do it. You basically build a rule into any router between your core and "outside" that communication using port 5060 (or your providers port #) gets handed down. In my case there are 3 routers between the core and my ISP so I had to have each router hand down port 5060 to the router closer to me.
*Google search, study, ask your provider for details, and get details. Again in my case the SIP - phone number was my user-name to log into their website again. I didn't get that information in my first help ticket I opened.
*Share your successes. I admit to shying away from a 30 page long ongoing thread that may or may not have resolved someones issue. I will read a dozen 2-3 response threads that quickly explain what was wrong and what needed to be fixed.
VoipCheap
name = website name
pw = website password
phone number = website name
port = 5060
provider = sip.voipbuster.com this is noteworthy as their website says sip.voipcheap
prefix = [something] ~from another current thread this is also important to indicate.
