Download and extract Asterisk and Asterisk-related files:

mkdir -p /usr/src/asterisk
cd /usr/src/asterisk
wget http://downloads.asterisk.org/pub/telephony/asterisk/oldreleases/asterisk-1.6.2.6.tar.gz
wget http://downloads.asterisk.org/pub/telephony/asterisk/oldreleases/asterisk-addons-1.6.2.1.tar.gz
wget http://downloads.asterisk.org/pub/telephony/dahdi-linux-complete/dahdilinux-complete-current.tar.gz
wget http://downloads.digium.com/pub/libpri/libpri-1.4-current.tar.gz
tar
tar
tar
tar

-zxf
-zxf
-zxf
-zxf

asterisk-1.6.2.6.tar.gz
asterisk-addons-1.6.2.1.tar.gz
dahdi-linux-complete-current.tar.gz
libpri-1.4-current.tar.gz

Install Libpri
cd libpri-VERSION
make clean
make
make install

Install DAHDI
cd ..
cd dahdi-linux-complete-2.3.0.1+2.3.0
make all
make install
make config
service dahdi start

Have DAHDI load automatically upon system startup: chkconfig dahdi on

Install Asterisk 1.6
cd ..
cd asterisk-1.6.2.6
make clean
./configure
make menuselect

A menu will come up. Usually everything by default is fine, however I would also suggest
installing the asterisk extras sound files in addition to the regular sound files.
make
make
make
make
make

install
samples
progdocs
config

useradd -c "Asterisk PBX" -d /var/lib/asterisk asterisk

mkdir /var/run/asterisk
mkdir /var/log/asterisk

chown -R asterisk:asterisk /var/run/asterisk

chown -R asterisk:asterisk /var/log/asterisk
chown -R asterisk:asterisk /var/lib/php/session/
chkconfig asterisk on

OMIT THIS SCRIPT IF YOU WILL BE INSTALLING FREEPBX

Lets just make sure that Asterisk starts properly. Ignore the warnings:
asterisk -vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvc
core stop now

dahdi-linux-complete-2.10.0.1+2.10.0.1]# yum -y install openssl-devel

yum -y install kernel Loaded plugins: langpacks, refresh-packagekit