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TheLinkBox

It is possible to interface an Asterisk/app_rpt installation with TheLinkBox program (by Skip, WB6YMH), using the chan_tlb channel driver.

The connection(s) are accessed and referred to by a locally-assigned (private) node number, starting with "1" (generally 1000-1999, private node numbering space).

Since the interface is unique to the app_rpt installation, other AllStarLink nodes must first connect to the node(s) configured to connect with the desired TheLinkBox station(s).

Both TheLinkBox and app_rpt sides of the connection must choose a consecutive pair of UDP port numbers on which to communicate (ports 44966/44967 by default) and also must both be on static IP addresses.

TheLinkBox supports uLAW, G726 and GSM codecs. The app_rpt side of the connection dictates which codec is to be used.

To enable TheLinkBox connectivity, there must be a tlb.conf on the AllStarLink node, the chan_tlb channel driver module must be loaded, and rpt.conf must be configured to use the appropriate rxchannel.

tlb.conf

See the tlb.conf page for more information on the configuration options for the chan_tlb channel driver.

rpt.conf

You need to define the appropriate rxchannel option to use chan_tlb, and pointing to a valid context in your tlb.conf.

Example:

In rpt.conf:

rxchannel = tlb/tlb0

In tlb.conf:
[tlb0]
...

modules.conf

Ensure /etc/asterisk/modules.conf loads chan_tlb.so:

load => chan_tlb.so                 ;TheLinkBox Channel Driver

On TheLinkBox side, you must specify the following in the main configuration file (typically tlb.conf):

RTP_Port = 44966

And you must have an entry if your TheLinkBox ACL file (generally tlb.acl) for each app_rpt node as follows:

allow   WB6NIL   99.88.77.66     -       -R

This example would allow station WB6NIL-R access from ip 99.88.77.66. Note that WB6NIL-R is the call defined in the app_rpt node's tlb.conf.