Asterisk can be installed under windows. Although it is a better idea to install it under linux or FreeBSD if there is a commercial use. But installing Asterisk under Windows is a good way to know the management and to learn a lot of commands and options.

The reference page is http://www.asteriskwin32.com

We can download the Setup0.56.exe version and execute the installation program. We should select "full installation" because it will install some configuration examples that are very useful.

Once the installation is finished we must start asterisk PBX server. So, execute the file C:\cygroot\bin\asteriskwin32.exe

At the beginning it can appear some warnings and error messages but normally we should not be worried about them (they are related with the lack of ISDN or TAPI modems). So, we have now Asterisk installed and running. It is quite easy.

Now we are going to verify that Asterisk is running ok with some easy tests:

We must configure a softphone, for example SJPhone, (more info about its configuration in Sjphone configuration) to register in our own Asterisk server. The default installation has two user that we can use.

A: user: 3000 password=anything works
B: user: 3001 password=anything works

When we have it properly configured and the user has been registered in our Asterisk server it is time to make some calls defined in the default extension dialplan.

1000 - Main menu
1234 - Transfer the call to the console (you could see the call at the console command line)
1235 - Console voicemail
1236 - Call to the console command line

3000 - Call to 3000 SIP user
3001 - Call to 3001 SIP user

500 - Call to Digium

600 - Echo test

8500 - Voicemail menu

99990 AGI test
99991 EAGI test
99992 Tell the hour
99999 Music

700 Parked call
701-720 Parking calls

One interesting tests at this moment is to configure 2 softphones in two different computers: one with the 3000 user and the other one with the 3001 user and make a call each other. If it works you are ready to learn how to configure Asterisk and create new users and dialplans in the Asterisk first steps chapter.