Voicemail in Asterisk

Voicemail systems allow callers to leave messages for subscribers of the system. Although this type of communication is not as popular as it was a couple of decades ago, it can still be found in some corporate and home environments. Asterisk features a voicemail system called Comedian Mail. Some of the more important features of this system are:

  • password-protected voicemail boxes
  • email notification of voicemail, with the option of attaching the voicemail file
  • default or custom greetings
  • voicemail forwarding
  • visual message waiting indicator (flashing light or stuttered dialtone) for the subscriber’s phone
  • the capability to associate phones with multiple mailboxes
  • group voicemail (voicemail broadcast)

Voicemails are configured using the /etc/asterisk/voicemail.conf file, so create an empty file using the touch command:

touch /etc/asterisk/voicemail.conf
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