# Asterisk Project : Creating SIP Accounts

Added by malcolmd , edited by lmadsen on Apr 28, 2011

In order for our two phones to communicate with each other, we need to configure an account for each phone in the channel driver which corresponds to the protocol they'll be using. Since both the phones are using the SIP protocol, we'll configure accounts in the SIP channel driver configuration file, called sip.conf. (This file resides in the Asterisk configuration directory, which is typically /etc/asterisk.) Let's name your phones Alice and Bob, so that we can easily differentiate between them.

Open sip.conf with your favorite text editor, and spend a minute or two looking at the file. (Don't let it overwhelm you — the sample sip.conf has a lot of data in it, and can be overwhelming at first glance.) Notice that there are a couple of sections at the top of the configuration, such as [general] and [authentication], which control the overall functionality of the channel driver. Below those sections, there are sections which correspond to SIP accounts on the system. Scroll to the bottom of the file, and add a section for Alice and Bob. You'll need to choose your own unique password for each account, and change the permit line to match the settings for your local network.

    [demo-alice]
    type=friend
    host=dynamic
    secret=verysecretpassword ; put a strong, unique password here instead
    context=users
    deny=0.0.0.0/0
    permit=192.168.5.0/255.255.255.0 ; replace with your network settings

    [demo-bob]
    type=friend
    host=dynamic
    secret=othersecretpassword ; put a strong, unique password here instead
    context=users
    deny=0.0.0.0/0
    permit=192.168.5.0/255.255.255.0 ; replace with your network settings

##### Be Serious About Account Security

We can't stress enough how important it is for you to pick a strong password for all accounts on Asterisk, and to only allow access from trusted networks. Unfortunately, we've found many instances of people exposing their Asterisk to the internet at large with easily-guessable passwords, or no passwords at all. You could be at risk of toll fraud, scams, and other malicious behavior.

For more information on Asterisk security and how you can protect yourself, check out http://www.asterisk.org/security/webinar/.

After adding the two sections above to your sip.conf file, go to the Asterisk command-line interface and run the sip reload command to tell Asterisk to re-read the sip.conf configuration file.

    server*CLI> sip reload

    Reloading SIP

    server*CLI>

##### Reloading Configuration Files

Don't forget to reload the appropriate Asterisk configuration files after you have made changes to them.