Introduction This is what the Asterisk site says about it: “Asterisk is a free and open-source framework for building communications applications. Asterisk turns an ordinary computer into a communications server. Asterisk powers IP PBX systems, VoIP gateways, conference servers and is used by small businesses, large businesses, call centres, carriers and governments worldwide. " A large number of Asterisk installations seem to be PBX (private branch exchange) related for small to medium companies and some commercial PBX solutions such as SwitchVox are customised Asterisk appliances with a user-friendly GUI.