[Asterisk-Users] Re: Phones "Callwaiting" enable by default?

[Noah Miller]

Hi Matt -

>>> how can I get all the phones to enable call waiting by default 
>>> instead
>>> of having to dial *70 on each one to activate call waiting?

>> What phones? are you using Avaya, or Toshiba? Since you are posting to
>> this list I will guess you are using Asterisk, in which case I have no
>> clue why *70 is there in the first place. Did you notice that the guy
>> that went to the Doctor that his eye hurts when drinking coffee,
>> refused to remove the spoon from the cup?

> I'm using Sipura SPA-841 and SPA-2000 phones and ATAs... Yes.. it's a
> good assumption that I'm using asterisk, since I posted to this
> list.... Umm *70 is there to turn call waiting on/off in the asterisk
> database.

I think what C F was trying to get at is:

1) When you post a question it helps very much if you are as specific 
as possible.  Provide as many details as you can.  From your original 
post, it was very unclear what you were getting at.

2) Read.  Don't be lazy.  Take the time to learn.  Don't expect 
somebody else on the list to spoon feed you answers.  Nobody is paid to 
read this list, and most people will appreciate you putting in a little 
effort.  Somebody probably will give you the answers eventually, but 
you'll get the answer a lot faster if you've shown that you tried to 
find the answer yourself first.

How to search for answers:
a) Digium's Asterisk Documentation:
http://www.digium.com/index.php?menu=documentation

b) The Wiki
http://www.voip-info.org/

c) Google search of this list:
<search terms> site:lists.digium.com

d) Asterisk Documentation Project
http://www.asteriskdocs.org/

Now, to answer your question - *70 is a feature available from many 
standard phone providers.  You can use it to tell your provider to turn 
off call waiting.  If you never want call waiting, it might be a good 
idea to have the phone company disable it (you might save some money).  
If you can't do that, or you still want it sometimes, you can tell 
asterisk to just ignore call waiting.  To do so, it would depend on 
what kind of incoming connection you are using.  If it is a Zap line, 
you can disable call waiting in zapata.conf (callwaiting=no).  If it is 
an iax or sip connection, it's probably easiest tell your provider to 
turn it off, though there are ways to do it in the dialplan if this is 
not possible.  I don't know about the other connection types.

I hope this helps,
Noah