asterisk users - Aug 2005 - Shared Call and Bridged Line appearances on Polycom IP501

Greetings,

I am trying to get either of the above features to work with *, but  
can't seem to get it quite right. If anyone has them working, I'd  
sure appreciate an extract from the relevant config files.

Or, maybe I'm tilting at windmills, and * doesn't support them - in  
which case, the underlying business need is to provide the one  
incoming call on more than one extension at the same time, and have  
all other extensions stop ringing when one of them answers the call.

The other scenario is typical boss/secretary stuff - we need an  
incoming call to ring on both extensions at once as above, plus the  
ability to indicate to the secretary when the boss is on the phone.

Does anyone have anything like this working?

Regards,
-- 
Anthony Rodgers
Business Systems Analyst
District of North Vancouver
Web: http://www.dnv.org
RSS Feed: http://www.dnv.org/rss.asp

Anthony:
> I am trying to get either of the above features to work with *, but  
> can't seem to get it quite right. If anyone has them working, I'd  
> sure appreciate an extract from the relevant config files.
>
> Or, maybe I'm tilting at windmills, and * doesn't support them - in
> which case, the underlying business need is to provide the one  
> incoming call on more than one extension at the same time, and have  
> all other extensions stop ringing when one of them answers the call.

Asterisk does that by specifying multiple SIP extensions in a single 
DIAL command:

exten =>
102,1,Dial(SIP/netvoice-102&SIP/netvoice-103&SIP/netvoice-105,20)

> The other scenario is typical boss/secretary stuff - we need an  
> incoming call to ring on both extensions at once as above, plus the  
> ability to indicate to the secretary when the boss is on the phone.

This is known as SUBSCRIBE/NOTIFY in SIP parlance (see the comments in 
http://voip-info.org/wiki-Asterisk+standard+extensions) and uses the 
"hint" priority in extensions.conf along with specific support in the 
SIP phone. SNOM phones have it -- Grandstream has promised it in a 
future firmware U/G to the GXP-2000, and its anyone's guess if the 
Sayson/Aastra 480i will ever get it. Have no idea about the Polycom.
> Does anyone have anything like this working?

In short, yes.

g.


-- 
George Pajari, netVOICE communications    604 484 VOIP (484 8647 x102)
Open Source VoIP/Telephony Specialists  1 877 NET VOIP (638 8647 x102)
                  www.netvoice.ca  www.ip-centrex.ca
      www.digium.ca www.grandstream.ca www.sipura.ca www.snom.ca

Hi Anthony

I'm pretty sure Asterisk doesn't support the shared line appearances the
way Polycom does, but you CAN get calls to simultaneously ring multiple
destinations. The wiki has documentation for the Dial command - you're
going to specify multiple targets.

Example: 123 is the boss's phone which should ring his desk as well as a
secondary line appearance on his secretary's phone

exten => 123,1,Dial(SIP/123&SIP/123b)

Where 123 is his phone, and 123b is a separate registration/line key on his
secretary's phone.

You can get in to all sorts of clever stuff with macros where it'll ring
her phone first, then roll over to his if unanswered within X seconds or
busy, ending up in his voicemail if neither phone is answered/available.
Feel free to give me a shout if you need a hand.

Cheers
Paul