Asterisk + Skype

Recently discovered that it is possible to create an asterisk to skype gateway. Well, I’ve implemented this by doing the following (everything was installed on the asterisk server):

• Installed jdk
• installed skype client on asterisk server, in it is a gui applications so I installed Xming on my desktop PC – this allowed me to configure skype without sitting in front of asterisk server. For those who doesn’t know hot to do this, here you are (don’t forget to allow connections to your Xming from external sources)-

export DISPLAY=IP_of_your_desktop_PC:0.0

skype

• So, I configured Skype on the asterisk server, so that it will be started minimized. Then Skype could be launched by “skype &”
• Then I installed SipToSis software http://www.mhspot.com/sts/siptosis.html
• I had to recompile skype4java (but you probably do not need this option). Also I added direct paths for java applications.
• Once I started SiptoSis software (don’t forget to export DISPLAY again) Skype asked me if I would like to allow access from external program – I allowed this.

Installation is done, now I configured SiptoSis and Asterisk configs:

SipToSis SkypeToSisAuth.props (substitute EXT with a valid asterisk extension):

*,sip:EXT@localhost:5060

SipToSis siptosis.cfg:

host_port=5070

username=skypeusername

passwd=skypepassword

Asterisk sip.conf:

[skype]

type = peer

context = your_asterisk_context

secret = skypepassword

username = skype

host = IP_address_of_asterisk_server

port = 5070

qualify = yes

That’s it, I need to mention that I was only interested in incoming calls from Skype to my Asterisk system, so I didn’t investigate SkypeOut and other features of SipToSis package.

And now – major this in my post – you have to link this SkypeIn line to a certain extension on your asterisk system (conference room or something), because there is no way to dial numbers or input any PINs via Skype client :)

So, the bottom line – It is cool but without interactive dialpad in Skype this thing can’t do much. I have a thought of implementing voice recognition for this line, so that users can say which extension they would like to dial, but this is going to be pretty complicated. I let you know if I make this, deal? :)