So for the better part of two years now I've been diligently working on telephone systems and related systems that are based on Asterisk.  Asterisk is an open-source call processing engine that has been used for many different purposes.  I've been using it exclusively as a business telephone system, but other folks use it for dialers, IVR (interactive voice response) systems, voicemail, and a host of custom applications.

When I first began the process it was really difficult to grasp how everything fits together.  Being a Microsoft-based systems user, I was really used to being spoon fed.  A few clicks and you can get things just about right.  Just about right, but not completely!  This is where the time comes in.  It's taken many failures, and some successes, to realize that I've got a better answer now.  It's taken hours and hours of study followed by application to get to the point where I can have success in a timely fashion.

Each time I have felt like "NOW I know this stuff!", I soon realize that I've just peeled back another layer of the onion.  It's been great to read the same information and on-line posts only to find that I now understand different things about what is being said.  It's pretty exciting to have a continual learning process underway each and every day.

So time and experience are combining to make it easier to tackle the everyday challenges that we run into while deploying Asterisk / FreePBX / Elastix.  The problem solving is fun and the rewards are plentiful.  Those CLI based tools are now quicker to use than the GUI tools that some smart people have so graciously developed!

What's the point of this?  If you are just beginning to work with Asterisk, be patient.  If you are coming from a Windows background, prepare for some confusion.  If you need to be spoon fed, pay someone else to do the job.  The community is helpful if you are asking the right questions.  The various forums are a wealth of information if you are willing to dig.  There is a tremendous amount of INCORRECT information on the Internet so be prepared to dig through some crap to find the golden peanut hidden within.  It's all doable if you have the time and the drive to get it done.