# Asterisk Project : AEL and Asterisk in a Nutshell

Added by mdavenport , edited by mdavenport on Aug 31, 2010

Asterisk acts as a server. Devices involved in telephony, like DAHDI cards, or Voip phones, all indicate some context that should be activated in their behalf. See the config file formats for IAX, SIP, dahdi.conf, etc. They all help describe a device, and they all specify a context to activate when somebody picks up a phone, or a call comes in from the phone company, or a voip phone, etc.