[Asterisk-Users] Music on hold, Call Parking, etc

[Andy Powell]

On 13/05/2003 at 16:19 Derek Beaumont wrote:

>Ok, this falls under the newbie category:
>
>Has anybody created any documentation on using musiconhold or call parking?
>I have found sample config files for musiconhold, but I'm not sure how
>they work.
>

Don't think there is any, not that I've seen


>How do I then set up this feature in extensions.conf?
>I can't seem to find an example of what I'm looking for (or I am not 
>understanding the examples that I find .... my money is on the latter).

Music on hold normally takes place when a cal goes on hold (oddly enough)
however you can set up an exten that you can call to make sure it's working


exten => 3000,1,Ringing
exten => 3000,2,Answer
exten => 3000,3,MusicOnHold,default

in this case if you call exten 3000 you get music on hold. You need to make
sure that you have mpg123 in /usr/bin and make sure it's a recent version like
0.59r.

When I do a ps -aux on my machine I actually have 6 copies of mpg123 running.

>
>Do you just hit the hold button and then the person should hear the music, 
>or do you need to enter an extension to place a call on hold?

It depends on the phone, for example I use # on my snom 100's for the transfer
button, the caller gets music on hold then too...


>Also, what exactly is call parking, and how is it different from holding a 
>call?

Call parking is a really nice feature for any phone system, tech support 
engineers working late at night would find it hard to live without. 

Imagine the scene, you're on your own in the office. Your desk is on the 
2nd floor and the computer room is on the 4th. You are working late to fix
a problem on one of the servers, but you need some help. You call another
support team - they say they are busy but will call you back in 5 minutes.

When they call you back they ask you to fiddle with the server.

So, now you have a number of options


1. Say "hang on", run up stairs and do what they ask then run back and say "done that" only to hear them ask you to do somehting else.

2. Say "hang on, I'll transfer the call upstairs", you transfer the call to the computer room, run up stairs,pick up the phone in the computer room, run downstairs hang up, run upstairs and talk to the support team.

3.  Say "hang on, I'll transfer the call upstairs", you park the call, hang up, run upstairs to the computer room and pick
up the parked call.

Parking allows you to tranfer the call to a 'fictional' extention that will hold it until you unpark it (or they hang up)

Call parking is a wonderful thing... embrace it with open arms

HTH

Andy














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