Asterisk is a software implementation of a telephone Private Branch Exchange (PBX) created by Mark Spencer of Digium in 1999. Asterisk is released under a dual license scheme, the free software license being the GNU General Public License (GPL), the other being a proprietary software license as to allow proprietary code, such as the G.729 codec to work with the system.

It is originally designed for Linux, but now runs on a variety of differnet OSes inclusing NetBSD, OpenBSD, FreeBSD, Mac OS X and Solaris. Microsoft Windows version is known as AsteriskWin32. Like any PBX, it allows a number of attached telephones to make calls to one another, and to connect to other telephone services including the PSTN.

Features:

• Includes PBX features such as, voice mail, conference calling, interactive voice response, and automatic call distribution.
• Asterisk server can be attached to PSTN trunk lines, telephones, T1 and E1 lines, and other analog and digital phone services by using specially made PCI cards made by Digium and other firms.
• Supports wide variety of Voice over IP protocols including SIP, MGCP and H.323. Asterisk can interoperate with most SIP telephones, acting both as registrat and as a gateway between IP phones and PSTN.

For more info, go to http://www.asterisk.org

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