asterisk users - Mar 2006 - Asterisk integration with office PBX

Forgive me if this question has been asked/answered in another post.
And let me reiterate what other users have frequently said - Asterisk is great,
and I really appreciate all the work you folks have put into it.

How have some of you gone about integrating Asterisk with a legacy office PBX,
such that the end-user can use a regular office (digital handset) and dialing is
fairly seamless ?
Our end-users are accustomed to picking up their office handset and just dialing
a 4 digit extension to reach another staffperson in our office. I'd like to
replicate that so they can reach staff in our other (international) offices
(behind the scenes, the call would route over IP).

For instance, we have regular NEC handsets talking to an NEC PBX, and an analog
line from the PBX to the Asterisk FXO.
I already had our NEC tech set up an access code/alias, such that an end-user
just dials 6 and it goes to the analog line going into Asterisk. Asterisk picks
up after about 2 rings, and then the end-user is prompted to enter the
destination phone number (which would be an e.g. 3 digit number corresponding to
a SIP destination in the dialplan).
But this means the end-user has to dial 6 and then wait for Asterisk to pick up.
I'd Is there a way to have Asterisk pick up sooner, e.g. without any rings ?
Ultimately, I'd like to get it to the point where the end-user doesn't
have to pause at all. In other words, they could dial e.g. 6123 and their call
would be appropriately routed. I realize that probably involves configuring
Least Cost Routing on the NEC PBX, but that still leaves the issue of having to
wait for Asterisk to pick up the line.

Any help is appreciated.

Best way is to have a PRI interface to your PBX, I don't have any experience
with NEC, but with our nortel system this is what we did.  You program your
PBX to send extension 123 out the PRI, asterisk sees the call and routes it
accordingly.

On 3/15/06, John Padovano <jpadovano@engenderhealth.org>
wrote:
>
> Forgive me if this question has been asked/answered in another post.
> And let me reiterate what other users have frequently said - Asterisk is
> great, and I really appreciate all the work you folks have put into it.
>
> How have some of you gone about integrating Asterisk with a legacy office
> PBX, such that the end-user can use a regular office (digital handset) and
> dialing is fairly seamless ?
> Our end-users are accustomed to picking up their office handset and just
> dialing a 4 digit extension to reach another staffperson in our office.
I'd
> like to replicate that so they can reach staff in our other (international)
> offices (behind the scenes, the call would route over IP).
>
> For instance, we have regular NEC handsets talking to an NEC PBX, and an
> analog line from the PBX to the Asterisk FXO.
> I already had our NEC tech set up an access code/alias, such that an
> end-user just dials 6 and it goes to the analog line going into Asterisk.
> Asterisk picks up after about 2 rings, and then the end-user is prompted to
> enter the destination phone number (which would be an e.g. 3 digit number
> corresponding to a SIP destination in the dialplan).
> But this means the end-user has to dial 6 and then wait for Asterisk to
> pick up. I'd Is there a way to have Asterisk pick up sooner, e.g.
without
> any rings ? Ultimately, I'd like to get it to the point where the
end-user
> doesn't have to pause at all. In other words, they could dial e.g. 6123
> and their call would be appropriately routed. I realize that probably
> involves configuring Least Cost Routing on the NEC PBX, but that still
> leaves the issue of having to wait for Asterisk to pick up the line.
>
> Any help is appreciated.
>
>
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> Forgive me if this question has been asked/answered in another post.
> And let me reiterate what other users have frequently said - Asterisk
is
> great, and I really appreciate all the work you folks have put into
it.
> 
> How have some of you gone about integrating Asterisk with a legacy
office
> PBX, such that the end-user can use a regular office (digital handset)
and
> dialing is fairly seamless ?
> Our end-users are accustomed to picking up their office handset and
just
> dialing a 4 digit extension to reach another staffperson in our
office.
> I'd like to replicate that so they can reach staff in our other
> (international) offices (behind the scenes, the call would route over
IP).
> 
> For instance, we have regular NEC handsets talking to an NEC PBX, and
an
> analog line from the PBX to the Asterisk FXO.
> I already had our NEC tech set up an access code/alias, such that an
end-
> user just dials 6 and it goes to the analog line going into Asterisk.
> Asterisk picks up after about 2 rings, and then the end-user is
prompted
> to enter the destination phone number (which would be an e.g. 3 digit
> number corresponding to a SIP destination in the dialplan).
> But this means the end-user has to dial 6 and then wait for Asterisk
to
> pick up. I'd Is there a way to have Asterisk pick up sooner, e.g.
without
> any rings ? Ultimately, I'd like to get it to the point where the
end-user
> doesn't have to pause at all. In other words, they could dial e.g.
6123
> and their call would be appropriately routed. I realize that probably
> involves configuring Least Cost Routing on the NEC PBX, but that still
> leaves the issue of having to wait for Asterisk to pick up the line.
> 
> Any help is appreciated.
John,

I am familiar with NEC PBX's.  Please contact me offline and I'll be
happy to give you all of the information that I have.  We can post the
results to the list without all of the intermediate discussions.

For kicks, here you can check out some work I did to get my NEC 2400
talking to my * box:
http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/index.php?page=Asterisk+NEAX2400

-MC