[Astlinux-users] 0.4.5 - install went well but have questions

[Gary G. H. <ghe...@co...>]

I implemented Astlinux 0.4.5 on four of my five branch office machines on
Tuesday and Wednesday after testing in the lab last weekend... deployment
went smoothly and did not run into anything odd ... the fact that the update
did not cause any disruption of service was noted and appreciated ...
 
All of my target machines are running in gateway mode ... they are all Via
C3 CPU machines ... during the build process I noted the option to choose
optimization for Via CPU's and did select this option ... I was wondering,
if there is indeed code in the package at this point that actually does take
advantage of some of the unique features in the Via CPU or if this is a
placebo ???
 
I could use some instruction on how to properly setup OpenVPN within
Astlinux ... I have some pretty decent cookie cutter "step 1, step 2" type
things for OpenVPN in general but nothing specific to the way it is
implemented in Astlinux ... is there such a document out there ???  anybody
got a link to it ???  
 
In my scenario, I have five branch office sites that link as clients using
Astlinux to a main office firewall running pFsense ... I have been able to
get it to work with trial and error but would love to get expert explanation
of what the heck I did to made it work as it seems to be hit and/or miss
every time I do it ... am tired of stumbling around in the dark and am
looking to put a light on this process so I understand it better ...
 
At the main office, we run a Trixbox PBX machine ... main reason I chose
Trixbox for this one is that my boss wants his darn CDR reports and putting
in TrixBox got him off my back with least effort ... this server also has a
Sangoma A200 card w/hardware echo cancel in it which we use to connect to
the PSTN ...  in previous releases of Astlinux, I was unable to make the
Sangoma card work ...
 
while nobody at the main office was watching, I did a quick CF card install
on this machine to test if your recent Wanpipe efforts bore fruit ... I was
indeed able to get Astlinux running on this computer and got it to recognize
the Sangoma card ... I was able to configure and successfully test the
Sangoma card ... so I am convinced your Sangoma Wanpipe implementation is
now ready for prime time ... 
 
However, I am still left with Trixbox at the main office unless I can get my
boss his CDR reporting using Astlinux ... is there any solution to CDR
reporting for Aslinux that would be reasonably simple to deploy ???  I would
need something that was at least very close to the functional level provided
in the reporting module that is packaged with FreePBX ...
 
so in summary my questions are ...
 
1) is the VIA CPU optimization doing anything real at this point ???
 
2) is there a HOW TO out there somewhere that explains the OpenVPN config in
Astlinux ???  an Astlinux to pFsense OpenVPN HOW TO would answer all my
questions if there is such a thing ...
 
3) has anyone implemented for Astlinux a decent CDR reporting piece that is
similar in functionality to the gizmo in FreePBX ???  if anyone out there
has figured this out and written even the most cursory of instructions on
how they did it, I would sure like to have a look ...  I am not the sharpest
tool in the shed but I am good at following instructions ...
 
My thanks to the development team for their efforts
 
G.Hendershot