asterisk users - Dec 2004 - IAX long distance... Re: Asterisk for home office

On Wed, 1 Dec 2004 12:37:13 -0800 (PST), Ben Kirkpatrick wrote:
>   Do you find it difficult to manage four LD providers?
>   Can you show me part of your LD Macro and how it's used?
>
>   I'm toying with two LD providers now, but don't have failover
setup.
>Just using each one for what they are best at (least cost).
>
>Thanks,
>--Ben Kirkpatrick
>
>
Not really difficult, perhaps its a bit excessive. Although there have
been a few (very few) times when I've notcied a brief pause after
dialing and found that it had in fact dialed out on the last possible
option.

The macro is as follows:

[macro-multidial]
;
;try sixtel first
exten => s,1,ChanIsAvail(${IAXTRUNK5}) 
exten => s,2,Dial(${IAXTRUNK5}/${ARG1}) 
exten => s,3,Hangup 
;
;try voipjet next
exten => s,102,ChanIsAvail(${IAXTRUNK1}) 
exten => s,103,Dial(${IAXTRUNK1}/${ARG1}) 
exten => s,104,Hangup 
;
;try NuFone next
exten => s,203,ChanIsAvail(${IAXTRUNK2}) 
exten => s,204,Dial(${IAXTRUNK2}/${ARG1}) 
exten => s,205,Hangup
;
;try VPC-01 next
exten => s,304,ChanIsAvail(${IAXTRUNK3}) 
exten => s,305,Dial(${IAXTRUNK3}/${ARG1}@VPWS) 
exten => s,306,Hangup 
;
;try VPC-02 last
exten => s,405,ChanIsAvail(${IAXTRUNK4}) 
exten => s,406,Dial(${IAXTRUNK4}/${ARG1}@VPWS) 
exten => s,407,Hangup 
exten => s,408,Congestion 
;

I declare the params for IAXTRUNK1-4 and the login details as global
variables. 

My callout routine looks like the following;

[outbound-ip-local]
exten => _713XXXXXXX,1,Macro(multidial,1${EXTEN})
exten => _713XXXXXXX,2,Macro(fastbusy)
exten => _281XXXXXXX,1,Macro(multidial,1${EXTEN})
exten => _281XXXXXXX,2,Macro(fastbusy)
exten => _832XXXXXXX,1,Macro(multidial,1${EXTEN})
exten => _832XXXXXXX,2,Macro(fastbusy)

[outbound-ip-domestic]
exten => _1NXXNXXXXXX,1,Macro(multidial,${EXTEN})
exten => _1NXXNXXXXXX,2,Playback(invalid)
exten => _1NXXNXXXXXX,3,Hangup()

Might not be too elegant but it does work for me thus far.

Michael

--
Michael Graves                           mgraves@pixelpower.com
Sr. Product Specialist                          www.pixelpower.com
Pixel Power Inc.                                 mgraves@mstvp.com

o713-861-4005
o800-905-6412
c713-201-1262

Michael Graves wrote:
> [...] Although there have
> been a few (very few) times when I've notcied a brief pause after
> dialing and found that it had in fact dialed out on the last possible
> option.
[...]

The problem of your approach is that if you are out of credit with the 
first provider, your call will be dropped, not trying the next one, 
right? After all, I believe that ChanIsAvail 
(http://www.voip-info.org/wiki-Asterisk+cmd+ChanIsAvail) will only check 
if you can connect to that provider (ip route), not for available funding...

I'm using now something like this:

exten => _91NXXNXXXXXX,1,Dial(IAX2/username@provider1/${EXTEN:1},45)
exten => _91NXXNXXXXXX,2,PlayBack(beep)
exten => _91NXXNXXXXXX,3,Dial(IAX2/username@provider2/${EXTEN:1},45)
exten => _91NXXNXXXXXX,4,PlayBack(beep)
exten => _91NXXNXXXXXX,5,Dial(IAX2/username@provider3/${EXTEN:1},45)
exten => _91NXXNXXXXXX,6,PlayBack(beep)
exten => _91NXXNXXXXXX,7,Dial(IAX2/username@provider4/${EXTEN:1},45)
exten => _91NXXNXXXXXX,8,Playtones(congestion)
exten => _91NXXNXXXXXX,9,Wait(3)
exten => _91NXXNXXXXXX,10,Hangup

I know after every "beep"  that I changed the provider (out of credit?
dialing error? no connection?), and if the call is ringing after 45 
seconds and I hear a beep, I will hangup. Not the best, but I believe is 
the best failover solution (for a small company/home office at least).