FreePBX Installation
Do you own a business and dream of recording all your calls, greeting customers when they ring your company, transferring them to other internal numbers, having a voicemail service for when the business is closed, and forwarding calls to a mobile, all for practically nothing? It couldn’t be simpler! The free telephone exchange, FreePBX, allows you to do just that, and you can install it on a standard computer in your office.
FreePBX is a professional telephone exchange that automatically records incoming and outgoing calls to the computer’s hard drive. This is an incredibly useful feature for any business.
All you need is a VoIP desk phone, a landline number, and after a brief configuration, your telephone exchange will be ready to go. We invite you to follow our series of articles on the installation and configuration of FreePBX, which is based on the Asterisk software telephone exchange. Let’s begin!
FreePBX Asterisk can be installed on virtually any computer or laptop, as well as on a hosting service. Here, we will focus on installing it on a computer within your company. Remember, for such an exchange to be effective, the computer must be permanently switched on and connected to the network, ideally with a static IP address.
To install FreePBX, a computer with the following specifications is sufficient:
- Single-core processor
- 2GB RAM
- 20GB disk space
However, if your company intends to handle several internal phones simultaneously and record calls over a longer period, it is worth investing in an Intel i5 processor, 4GB of RAM, and a 120GB hard drive. In our company (Phones Rescue Ltd), FreePBX Asterisk runs as a virtual machine on a server, but a mini PC would also work perfectly well. They are quiet and energy-efficient, which is significant for a machine that needs to run 24 hours a day.
Downloading the FreePBX Asterisk ISO Image
Let’s start by downloading the FreePBX Asterisk ISO image from the manufacturer’s website. Go to the FreePBX website and click on ‘Download’ at the top of the page. Select the latest available stable version and click ‘FULL ISO’.
Preparing the USB Drive
You need to install the downloaded ISO image onto a USB drive and make it bootable. You can do this using an application like Rufus (for Windows) or Balena Etcher (for Windows, macOS, Linux). Both applications are free. An 8GB USB drive is sufficient for FreePBX. I work on macOS, so I will use Etcher to create a bootable USB drive, but using Rufus is also incredibly simple and you should have no trouble with it. Launch Balena Etcher, click ‘Flash from file’, then select the USB drive where you want to place the FreePBX Asterisk installation by clicking ‘Select target’, and finally, click ‘Flash!’
Warning! The entire contents of the selected USB drive will be deleted. When clicking ‘Select target’, make sure you have chosen the correct USB drive for the FreePBX Asterisk installation. If you accidentally select another drive or a USB stick containing important data, you will lose it permanently!
Installing FreePBX Asterisk on the Hard Drive
Once you have the USB drive with the FreePBX Asterisk installation ready, it’s time to install it on your computer’s hard drive. Insert the prepared USB drive into a free USB slot and start the computer. If the FreePBX Asterisk installation does not begin automatically, you will need to enter your computer’s BIOS and change the boot order of the drives. We cannot help you with this step, as these options depend on the specific model and brand of your computer. If you are unsure how to do this, check the user manual for your computer or laptop.
Choose the Asterisk Version
Select one of the available Asterisk versions. If you have no experience with FreePBX, we suggest choosing the version recommended by FreePBX.
Choose the Graphical Mode
If you are installing FreePBX on a local computer, select ‘Graphical installation – Output to VGA’.
Choose the FreePBX Version
In the next window, you cannot select any option other than ‘Standard’, so simply press Enter.
Create the Root User Password
You will not be able to continue the installation without creating a password for the ‘root’ user. Click ‘ROOT PASSWORD’.
Create a Strong Password
It is essential to create a password that is difficult to break. Otherwise, your telephone exchange could be hacked, and believe me, you do not want that. Someone with root privileges could, for example, redirect all your company’s phone calls to their own number, listen to all recorded conversations, change any settings, or even completely delete your telephone exchange along with all the recordings. So, I will repeat: CREATE A STRONG PASSWORD FOR THE ROOT USER. Finish creating the password by clicking the ‘Done’ button in the top left corner.
Wait for the Installation to Finish
After creating the root password, you can wait for the installation to complete. This will take several, or even several dozen, minutes depending on the processing power of your computer, the transfer speed of your USB drive, and the speed of the USB port. If your USB drive is version 3.0 and your computer has USB 3.0 ports, be sure to use one, as this will significantly speed up the installation. You can monitor the installation progress on the bar at the bottom of the screen.
System Restart
After the installation is complete, you will see a ‘Reboot’ button. Before you click it, remove the USB drive from the USB port.
First Login
After the restart, log in to the system by entering ‘root’ as the username and providing the password you created during the installation. After logging in, you will see the IP address of your FreePBX telephone exchange. For now, this is an IP address obtained automatically from a DHCP server, which we will later change to a static IP address. Enter the provided IP address into your web browser’s address bar. In my case, it is 192.168.1.178.
Initial Setup
To begin, we need to create a user with administrative rights for FreePBX settings. Provide an email address to which system notifications will be sent, for example, if someone leaves a message on the voicemail – ‘Notifications Email address’. In the ‘System Identifier’ field, enter a friendly name for our telephone exchange. The ‘Automatic Module Updates’ option allows you to enable automatic system updates. To finish, click ‘Setup System’.
Free Activation
To take full advantage of the FreePBX telephone exchange, we suggest activating the system. Activation is free and only takes a moment. Click the ‘Activate’ button to begin the activation process.
Language Selection
In the next window, you will be able to select the system language.
Firewall Settings
In the next window, you will proceed to the firewall settings. Do not skip this step, as hackers are very keen on breaking into unsecured telephone exchanges. The firewall will allow you to effectively secure your telephone exchange against most attacks completely automatically.
Firewall – Trusted Computer
If the computer you are currently using is trustworthy and inaccessible to unauthorised individuals, you can add it to the trusted list.
Firewall – Trusted Network
If all computers on your local network are trustworthy and inaccessible to unauthorised individuals, you can add the entire local network to the trusted list.
Responsive Firewall
The Responsive Firewall is an extremely useful option, and we suggest you enable it. How does it work? Well, if an unknown client (VoIP phone, computer, exchange) tries to log in to our telephone exchange (which is sometimes necessary, for example, when we have added a new, unknown phone to our network), it is initially allowed. Only after sending initial packets is the machine asked to log in. If the login attempt fails, the computer is then temporarily blocked for a short period. With each subsequent failed login attempt, the block time increases, until the 50th attempt, at which point the client’s IP address is permanently blocked.
Firewall – Telephone Exchange Behind NAT
If the FreePBX telephone exchange has been installed on a computer within a local network, you must enable this option. Furthermore, if your external IP address is dynamic (ask your internet provider about this), you will need to configure a DDNS service.
Summary
Your FreePBX telephone exchange has now been installed, initially configured, and secured with the firewall. In the following guides, you will learn, among other things, how to configure your first VoIP phone, how to set your company’s opening hours, and how to configure a welcome greeting for your calling customers.
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