Asterisk Consulting
15+ years building Asterisk systems, from single-site offices to multi-location contact centers. Most of my work is for companies that have outgrown their FreePBX install, or need someone who can actually read a SIP trace.
Dialplan Development
- IVR flows, call routing, queue strategies
- Tying Asterisk into your CRM, ticketing system, or database
- AGI and ARI applications
- Cleaning up dialplans that got out of hand
System Architecture
- New Asterisk deployments from scratch
- HA and failover setups
- Multi-site or distributed systems
- Figuring out why your box falls over at 50 concurrent calls
Migration & Upgrades
- FreePBX/Issabel to vanilla Asterisk
- chan_sip to PJSIP (yes, it's worth it)
- Version upgrades (16/18 to 20/21)
- Switching carriers or SIP trunks
Security & Reliability
- Toll fraud prevention (before it costs you $40k over a weekend)
- TLS and SRTP for encrypted calls end-to-end
- fail2ban and AMI lockdown
- Monitoring and alerting, so you hear about problems before your users do
Troubleshooting
- One-way audio, registration failures, codec mismatches (the usual suspects)
- Packet capture analysis when nobody can figure out what's wrong
- Crashes, performance issues, and "it works on my phone but not hers"
Not sure if it's worth a conversation? Just email me. If it's a quick question, it's free. If it turns into real work, I'll tell you before I start billing.
How it works
Send me an email. Tell me what you've got, what's broken or what you're trying to build. I'll look it over and reply with how I'd approach it and what it'll probably cost. That part's free.
From there, it's either hourly or a fixed quote, depending on the size of the thing. I work remotely over SSH. If you'd rather I hand you configs and docs to deploy yourselves, that works too.
Rates
| Engagement | Rate | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Hourly | $150/hr | 2-hour minimum. Billed in 30-minute increments. |
| Monthly Retainer | $95/hr | 10-hour monthly block, prepaid. Priority scheduling and faster response times. |
| Fixed Project | Quoted | Scoped and quoted after initial assessment. 50% upfront, 50% on delivery. |
| Emergency / After-Hours | $300/hr | System-down situations outside business hours. 1-hour minimum. |
Travel is billed separately if needed, but most work is remote.
Beyond Asterisk
Most Asterisk problems aren't really Asterisk problems. They're network problems, or Linux problems, or "nobody documented anything" problems. I do that stuff too:
VoIP & Telephony
- Kamailio SIP proxy and load balancing
- FreeSWITCH
- SIP protocol analysis and packet captures
- Codec negotiation, RTP, SRTP, TLS
- SIP trunk provisioning and carrier interop
Linux & Infrastructure
- Debian/Ubuntu server administration
- Ansible automation and deployment pipelines
- Nginx, Postfix, fail2ban, iptables
- Monitoring (Nagios, Prometheus, Grafana)
- Backup strategy and disaster recovery
Server & Network Security
- Network segmentation and firewall design
- TLS certificate management (Let's Encrypt, CA-signed)
- Intrusion detection (OSSEC, fail2ban)
- OS hardening and auditing (CIS, Lynis)
Development
- Python scripting and tooling
- Flask/Django web applications
- REST API integrations
- Database design (PostgreSQL, SQLite)
FAQ
- Do you work on FreePBX / Issabel / VitalPBX systems?
- I can. But honestly, most people who call me are trying to get off those systems. If yours is working fine, I won't try to talk you out of it. If you're fighting it every week, we should talk about vanilla Asterisk.
- What Asterisk versions do you support?
- 16 through 21. If you're on 11 or 13, I can help you upgrade, but I'm not going to pretend those are good versions to stay on.
- Can you work on our system directly?
- Give me SSH access and I'll take care of it. Or if your security team doesn't like that, I can hand you tested configs with notes.
- How fast can you start?
- Config changes, troubleshooting: usually same day or next day. Bigger projects depend on what else I've got going on. Retainer clients go to the front of the line.
- Do you do ongoing support?
- That's what the retainer is for. You buy a block of hours each month and I keep an eye on things, handle changes, and pick up the phone when something breaks.
- I just have a quick question.
- Email me. If it takes five minutes, it's free. If it turns into real work, I'll tell you before I start billing.
Get in touch
Tell me what you've got and what's going wrong. I'll reply with how I'd fix it and what it'll cost.
Get in touch
Tell me what you've got and what's going wrong. I'll reply with how I'd fix it and what it'll cost.
Send a message
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