provided by Star2Billing S.L.

Hi,
I have installed a2billing but I am not able to establish the calls between my two xlite soft phones.

I am stuck here as I couldn't find a complete step by step tutorial for configuring a2billing.

Please can any one of you guide me how to proceed further after the a2billing installation.
There are many questions for which I am not able to get answer from a2billing's manuals e.g what are the changes required in sip.conf (only extension.conf is discussed in tutorial), do I need to make trunks, whats the difference b/w did and normal extensions etcetera

a2billing version :1.3.4
asterisk:1.8

looking for your guidance.

regards.

Hi

We would suggest you use A2Billing 1.9.3, and to make calls between customers, you should use the DID functionality which in later versions allows on-net calls.

You configure trunks in Asterisk, and tell A2Billing about them, by referring to the trunk name.

You only need to call a2billing.php in your extensions.conf, anything else is up to you and your requirements.

Joe

Thank you for your response,
I will immediately shift to the version you suggested but before that I want to at least get a call billed.

All right, let me start from settings in .conf file
I am testing a2billing on a LAN

Before using a2billing I use to dial 92101 from sip phone named VC239 and get connected with my sip phone named VC072...easy

Now after a2billing, If you go through my extensions.conf, I added a context a2billing. What I am not able to understand is that how this context will get linked with my users in the sip.conf & make the dialled phone ring. I want to dial 92101 and get connected with VC072 plus get billed, but to achieve this what configuration is required in (extension.conf/sip.conf) conf files.

A part from my conf's files are given below
======================================================
;extension.conf
[internal]
exten => 92101,1,Dial(sip/VC072,30)
exten => 92101,2,Hangup()

exten => 92102,1,Dial(sip/VC239,30)
exten => 92102,2,Hangup()


[a2billing]
;Calling card application
exten => _X.,1,Answer()
exten => _X.,2,Wait(1)
exten => _X.,3,AGI(a2billing.php)
exten => _X.,4,Wait(1)
exten => _X.,5,Hangup()
=============================================================

;sip.conf

[VC072]
type=friend ;Can receive and send call.
username=VC072
callerid="VC072 phone"
host=dynamic ;Host can come and log in from public IP.
;context=internal ;The "exten" related to this context
context=a2billing ;will be excuted in extensions.conf.

[VC239]
type=friend ;Can receive and send call.
username=VC239
callerid="VC239 phone"
host=dynamic ;Host can come and log in from public IP.
;context=internal ;The "exten" related to this context
context=a2billing ;will be excuted in extensions.conf.

Please excuse me for the obvious things that I am not aware of, and taking you time.
Have a good day

Hi

This is easy in version 1.9, it is not easy in 1.3.4.

I'm prepared to help you with On-Net calls in 1.9.3, but not in 1.3.4.


Joe

Hi,

Allright, let me install a2billing 1.9 . Hope it's installation will not have much issues.

btw OnNet means that both callee & caller are using same service provider, so should I hope that it will not create problem in making & billing calls on LAN? (lets say for testing/initial understanding purpose we want it working on LAN)

see you later.

Regards

From your point of view, on net means that one of your customers is calling another one of your customers, which is what I understand you want to achieve.

You describe on net from your ITSP's point of view.

Joe

Hi,

I have installed the version 1.9.3

From admin web ui I created a provider, Trunk and then Call plan(rate card & rate), but unable to make customers!! When I confirm the data of a customer it shows a red colour message that data hasn't been added, how this will be solved ?

Secondly, what should be the provider IP in trunk? If my asterisk server and a2billing both are installed on same machine, should I use 127.0.0.1 or machines(hosting asterisk & a2billing) LAN IP 192.x.x.x, (Keeping in mind that I am trying to run this on LAN)

regards

I suspect that you have not installed the DB properly.

Joe

You were right , there was problem in DB installation. I run the wrong version script.

Now, I can create new customer but file "additional_a2billing_sip.conf" remains empty, is it a valid behaviour?

file permission are as following;
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 2011-04-08 10:14 additional_a2billing_iax.conf
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 2011-04-08 10:14 additional_a2billing_sip.conf

and in group webui
the key "buddy_sip_file" has value "/etc/asterisk/additional_a2billing_sip.conf"

if I login as customer I can see following info related to sip
[call-labs]
username=4597289806
type=friend
secret=1234
host=call-labs.com
fromuser=4597289806
context=a2billing ; change for proper context
allow=g729 ; we support ulaw,alaw,ilbc,gsm,g723.1,g726,g729a
trustrpid = yes
sendrpid = yes
canreinvite = no


but "additional_a2billing_sip.conf " is empty, should I paste the above data there?

regards,

Have you searched the forum on this issue?

Joe

the post "changing real-time" on forum solved the above issue.
will be back
regards

Hi,
3 problems that I want to discuss.
First thing is that now we have a user with name '92102' and it has an extension that is also '92102', I tried the following configuration and call hung up after a few seconds of call establishment plus no sound asking for PIN is heard. If line 3 is removed only then sound asking for PIN is heard.

Can you please point out the problem in this dialplan?

1. [a2billing]
2. ;Calling card application
3. exten => _X.,1,Set(CDR(accountcode)=${EXTEN})
4. exten => _X.,n,Answer()
5. exten => _X.,n,Wait(2)
6. exten => _X.,n,AGI(a2billing.php)
7. exten => _X.,n,Wait(2)
8. exten => _X.,n,Hangup()

sip.conf
[92102]
type=friend
username=92102
callerid="92102"
host=dynamic
context=a2billing


Secondly , I haven't configured a trunk on Asterisk server (because we are testing this set up on LAN).
In this scenario can we be able to established calls using a2billing?


Third query is that if you compare the following two application, how application option 'A' comes to know that which extension is for which phone?. I mean its obvious from Dial application that dialling 103 will ring VC231 phone but to understand AGI I need your guidance.
A. exten => _X.,n,AGI(a2billing.php)

B. exten => 103,1,Dial(sip/VC231,30)

Regards,

Hi

For on-net calls, I would suggest that you use DID functionality of A2Billing rather than do this in dialplan, calls are routed internally from one customer to another's DID,

The only dialplan you would require then is

[a2billing]
exten => _X.,1,deadagi(a2billing.php,1)
exten => _X.,n,hangup()

Joe

Hi,

My Inbound DID calls are working.

Now, while configuring DID destination I am using this value "SIP/[email protected]:45438",
problem is that all this information is static (IP, even have to give Port's). Can we make it dynamic, any HINTS?

plus while configuring Destination I have to associate a card/customer ID to a particular DID, Isn't it possible that sip user enter its pin number once (that it doing right now) and we dont need to configure any customer ID here using web admin UI?

Regards

Hi

You can deliver the call using:-

sip/a2b-account-number/did-number
sip/a2b-account-number
iax2/a2b-account-number/did

Joe