I've been playing with Asterisk for a few weeks and it's working great. I have a question about getting multi-line receptionist phones working. I was thinking about getting one of these expansion ports: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/phones/ps379/products_data_sheet0 9186a008008883d.html What are people using for receptionist phones that show all the extensions in use, etc? Is that even possible with Asterisk right now? Anyone play around with this thing yet? Bill -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.digium.com/pipermail/asterisk-users/attachments/20051109/275f3b41/attachment.htm
Nevermind I found a note about "Hint" which can be used for this purpose. Bill _____ From: asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com [mailto:asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Bill Gibbs Sent: Wednesday, November 09, 2005 11:52 AM To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion Subject: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist phones I've been playing with Asterisk for a few weeks and it's working great. I have a question about getting multi-line receptionist phones working. I was thinking about getting one of these expansion ports: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/phones/ps379/products_data_sheet0 9186a008008883d.html What are people using for receptionist phones that show all the extensions in use, etc? Is that even possible with Asterisk right now? Anyone play around with this thing yet? Bill -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.digium.com/pipermail/asterisk-users/attachments/20051109/6509f79c/attachment.htm
The SNOM 320's with 12 buttons work fine and they are relatively inexpensive, although the indications are not as fine grained as on the Cisco. Basically light on=in use, light off=not in use. You get into diminishing returns on the value of a line indicator sidecar in inverse proportion to the number of users. On our Mitel sets, we have a double daisy-chained sidecar with 64 lights. It's stupid, confusing, and messy as hell. My strategy has been to emphasize the use of DID's + IVR for the staff so the bulk of calls never hit reception. One of the receptionists balked when I took away her sidecar, and told her that if she wanted to transfer a call, she would have to enter Transfer + 4 digit DID. I reasoned with her and told her that every single call in the company can come through her and she could transfer each one with a sidecar (300-400 calls a day) or she could use this DID method, and I would guarantee that her call volume would drop to ~80 calls a day, max. She saw the light, and she's been happy ever since. Your company culture, however, will dictate your approach. Reason I'm down on sidecars is that in a medium to large organization they are not practical. Especially one, like the one I work in, where there is high staff churn, we were constantly futzing with the sidecar. hth -----Original Message----- From: Bill Gibbs [mailto:bgibbs@edurotech.com] Sent: Wednesday, November 09, 2005 9:52 AM To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion Subject: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist phones I've been playing with Asterisk for a few weeks and it's working great. I have a question about getting multi-line receptionist phones working. I was thinking about getting one of these expansion ports: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/phones/ps379/products_data_sheet09186 a008008883d.html <http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/phones/ps379/products_data_sheet0918 6a008008883d.html> What are people using for receptionist phones that show all the extensions in use, etc? Is that even possible with Asterisk right now? Anyone play around with this thing yet? Bill -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.digium.com/pipermail/asterisk-users/attachments/20051109/0f5be9d3/attachment.htm
> I have a question about getting multi-line receptionist > phones working. > I was thinking about getting one of these expansion ports: > http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/phones/ps379/products_d > ata_sheet09186a008008883d.html > What are people using for receptionist phones that show all > the extensions in use, etc? Is that even possible with > Asterisk right now?Is there a list of phones with working "hint" support being maintained anywhere? We have an install coming up in a few weeks where there will be a requirement similar to Bill Gibbs' for a pair of multi-line receptionist phones. The client is rather reluctant to spend the many ? on the 7960+7914 given that they'll be frequently used by temp staff in an environment where they're not likely to get the loving care phones of that price deserve. Thanks in advance. Regards, Chris -- C.M. Bagnall, Director, Minotaur I.T. Limited This email is made from 100% recycled electrons
Well the problem with the sidecar is simple. Just try to light all lights three times within one second. If you have 50 keys there is already hell breaking loose. If you cascade side cars and say have 100 LED, this is a real Xmas tree. The CPU drowns in XML notifications. We already had trouble, and we don't want to double it at this time. Good work, IETF. BTW this is not only a problem if the phone. If the PBX has to supply 50 phones with 50 LED and e.g. they are going off hook at the same time, we are talking about a burst of 50 * 50 = 2500 messages which will have some impact of the PBX CPU as well. We need to do something about this first before we can start having 100 or 150 LED on a device. Christian - yes I am from snom.> -----Original Message----- > From: asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com > [mailto:asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of > mustardman29 > Sent: Tuesday, March 28, 2006 8:47 PM > To: 'Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion' > Subject: RE: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist Phones > > So how did the Polycom with sidecars work? I like the idea > of a dedicated FOP display but not sure why you would need it > if you have a Polycom with sidecars. > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Jerry Jones [mailto:jjones@danrj.com] > > Sent: Tuesday, March 28, 2006 7:28 AM > > To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion > > Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist Phones > > > > We installed a snom with 3 sidecars. Kinda worked, but had so many > > quirks they had us replace with a Polycom. All their other > phones were > > of the poly variety. We installed a dedicated lcd running FOP for > > display. Receptionist was much happier. > > > > One of the key problems was she like to set the handset on > her desk. > > But then the snom would not ring. > > > > On Mar 28, 2006, at 9:01 AM, Bob McDowell wrote: > > > > > > > > Can you chain these to get more that 42 buttons? I need > about 60... > > > > > > > > > Bob McDowell > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > > From: asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com > > > [mailto:asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com] On Behalf > > Of Darrell > > > Long > > > Sent: Monday, March 27, 2006 4:32 PM > > > To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion > > > Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist Phones > > > > > > The 360 has an expansion unit. It adds 42 extensions. > > > > > > Darrell S. Long > > > BestWeb Corporation > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Daniel Hazelbaker wrote: > > >> Hmm, which phone from Snom are you using for this? I've > > looked around > > >> their website and I can only find 3 VoIP phones, the > 300, 320 and > > >> 360. > > >> The 360 by the looks of it only has 12 buttons you can assign to > > >> different extensions; am I missing something or is that > > the phone and > > >> you just do 12 per phone? > > >> > > >> Daniel > > >> > > >> On Mar 27, 2006, at 2:28 PM, <pdhales@optusnet.com.au> > > >> <pdhales@optusnet.com.au> wrote: > > >> > > >>> Yes - set up about 10 of them at a business last year. > > >>> > > >>> Monitoring is fine - picking up calls is a bit iffy at > > the best of > > >>> times. > > >>> (that is, picking up a ringing call by pushing the > > extension button. > > >>> *8 works fine) > > >>> > > >>> Paul Hales > > >>> Technical Manager > > >>> AsteriskIT > > >> > > >> _______________________________________________ > > >> --Bandwidth and Colocation provided by Easynews.com -- > > >> > > >> Asterisk-Users mailing list > > >> To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: > > >> http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users > > >> > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > --Bandwidth and Colocation provided by Easynews.com -- > > > > > > Asterisk-Users mailing list > > > To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: > > > http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users > > > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > --Bandwidth and Colocation provided by Easynews.com -- > > > > > > Asterisk-Users mailing list > > > To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: > > > http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > --Bandwidth and Colocation provided by Easynews.com -- > > Asterisk-Users mailing list > To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: > http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users > > >
> -----Original Message----- > From: mustardman29 [mailto:mustardman29@hotmail.com] > Sent: Wednesday, March 29, 2006 4:08 PM > To: 'Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion' > Subject: RE: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist Phones > > > Could you please explain this limitation. Why would Polycom > sell a sidecar > if it does not work or is this specific to Asterisk?mustardman: Here's a couple of email quotes from a discussion I had with a Polycom employee. If you'd like the full text of the email let me know and I can send it to you directly. You can quite clearly see it's a Polycom limitation. Others have reported being about to 'buddy' more than 7 extensions with other phones with Asterisk. "Douglas, There is slated to be a large increase to the amount of buddies (48) with sip 2.0 towards the end of May. At this time we have sip 1.6.5, but it does not include any of those enhancements." - and - "Yes at this time the limit is 7, but that should increase with newer releases of software."