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In this chapter we’ll delve into the user devices that you might want to connect to Asterisk, typically VoIP telephones of some sort. Configuring a channel in Asterisk for the device to connect through is relatively straightforward, but you also need to configure the device itself so it knows where to send its calls.[42] In other words, there are two parts to configuring a device on Asterisk: 1) telling Asterisk about the device, and 2) telling the device about Asterisk.
While most devices will have a web-based interface for defining parameters, if you’re putting more than one or two phones into production we recommend using a server-based configuration process, wherein the set is only told the location of a file server. The set will identify itself and download customized files that define the required parameters for that telephone. As an example, these could be XML files on an FTP server. The exact download process and syntax of these files will differ from manufacturer to manufacturer. In this chapter we will only talk about the configuration of sets from the perspective of Asterisk.
[42] This has nothing to do with Asterisk configuration, and each hardware manufacturer will have its own tools to allow you to configure its devices.