asterisk users - Jan 2004 - Question on setting up asterisk with hunting lines

*My apologies if this message is posted 3 times, I was trying to sent it to
the list once before I am a list-member, the second time before I was
approved.

Can anyone point me to some resources on using hunting lines with Asterisk?
Sales support of my telco have no idea what I am trying to do.   They asked
what pbx system I am using, I was like Aster... never mind =)

I am trying to setup asterisk to take in 5 hunting lines.
Where one phone number would get published as our companies main IVR entry
point, and the calls will get distributed into the Asterisk system internal
extensions via the 5 available hunting lines.
I am lost here.
When a customer dials the main number, does it (A) get call transferred to
an available channel by a dial plan with asterisk, or  (B) the telco
automatically checks to see if the main number is busy and transfer to the
next hunting line?

If (A), do I flash, dial to the available hunting line with my dial plan,
and disconnect the original call (similar to a 3 way call conference).
Would this even work on a external telco line?
If (B), this would be simple, I would assume Asterisk can listen to all 5
fxo and run the same IVR script

Here is my setup.

5 FXO hunting lines/19 FXS analog phone goes to a channel bank, then to a
Digium T1 card.

Thanks in advance,

Sam

The answer is B.

Hunting lines is nothing else but a call forward on busy.
So line 1 forwards to 2 
line 2 forwards to line 3 and so forth.

In your dialplan just set up the 5 lines with the same incoming context. 

Regards.
Alfred.

-----Original Message-----
From: asterisk-users-admin@lists.digium.com
[mailto:asterisk-users-admin@lists.digium.com]On Behalf Of
samuel.au.gt@elitecorp.com
Sent: Friday, January 30, 2004 7:35 PM
To: asterisk-users@lists.digium.com
Subject: [Asterisk-Users] Question on setting up asterisk with hunting
lines


*My apologies if this message is posted 3 times, I was trying to sent it to
the list once before I am a list-member, the second time before I was
approved.

Can anyone point me to some resources on using hunting lines with Asterisk?
Sales support of my telco have no idea what I am trying to do.   They asked
what pbx system I am using, I was like Aster... never mind =)

I am trying to setup asterisk to take in 5 hunting lines.
Where one phone number would get published as our companies main IVR entry
point, and the calls will get distributed into the Asterisk system internal
extensions via the 5 available hunting lines.
I am lost here.
When a customer dials the main number, does it (A) get call transferred to
an available channel by a dial plan with asterisk, or  (B) the telco
automatically checks to see if the main number is busy and transfer to the
next hunting line?

If (A), do I flash, dial to the available hunting line with my dial plan,
and disconnect the original call (similar to a 3 way call conference).
Would this even work on a external telco line?
If (B), this would be simple, I would assume Asterisk can listen to all 5
fxo and run the same IVR script

Here is my setup.

5 FXO hunting lines/19 FXS analog phone goes to a channel bank, then to a
Digium T1 card.

Thanks in advance,

Sam

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samuel.au.gt@elitecorp.com wrote:
> *My apologies if this message is posted 3 times, I was trying to sent it to
> the list once before I am a list-member, the second time before I was
> approved.
> 
> Can anyone point me to some resources on using hunting lines with Asterisk?
> Sales support of my telco have no idea what I am trying to do.   They asked
> what pbx system I am using, I was like Aster... never mind =)
> 
> I am trying to setup asterisk to take in 5 hunting lines.
> Where one phone number would get published as our companies main IVR entry
> point, and the calls will get distributed into the Asterisk system internal
> extensions via the 5 available hunting lines.
> I am lost here.
> When a customer dials the main number, does it (A) get call transferred to
> an available channel by a dial plan with asterisk, or  (B) the telco
> automatically checks to see if the main number is busy and transfer to the
> next hunting line?
On incoming, telco does the hunt and rings an open line. You need 5 
FXO's to handle the lines. Then set them up in a group. I use an ADTRAN 
channel bank with a digium T1 card and have the following in 
\etc\asterisk\zapata.conf, for 5 lines:

    [channels]
	:
	:
	context=default		; or whatever
	:
	:
	signalling=fxs_ks
	group=1
	channel => 1-5				;Group1

The fxs-ks is not a mistake. When you talk to an fxo (central office 
line), you have to look like an fxs (a telephone). These five lines will 
then drop into the default context in your dialplan. For a channel bank, 
you also have to define the T1 channel assignments in \etc\zaptel.conf. 
  Again, in my case:

	fxsks=1-5
	fxoks=6-24

You will have to adjust these for your hardware and mapping assignments.

For outgoing hunting, just use group1 in your dial statements, like this:

    [globals]
	PSTNTRUNK=Zap/g1	;I do this for convenience/flexibility

    [some context or other]
	exten => _pattern,1,Dial(${PSTNTRUNK}/${EXTEN})
> 
> If (A), do I flash, dial to the available hunting line with my dial plan,
> and disconnect the original call (similar to a 3 way call conference).
> Would this even work on a external telco line?
> If (B), this would be simple, I would assume Asterisk can listen to all 5
> fxo and run the same IVR script
> 
> Here is my setup.
> 
> 5 FXO hunting lines/19 FXS analog phone goes to a channel bank, then to a
> Digium T1 card.
> 
> Thanks in advance,
> 
> Sam
> 
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