[Asterisk-Users] sharing a line w/multiple extensions

[Adam Goryachev]

On Thu, 2005-12-15 at 09:33 -0800, John Biundo wrote:
> I'm particularly worried about acceptance of this "shared line" (or lack 
> thereof) aspect of the system.  My wife will "get" the idea of 
> extensions, transfers, parking, etc. because she uses a PBX at work, 
> though I worry that the habits of how the phone is "supposed to work" at 
> home may die hard with her.  And the kids are a whole 'nuther story.

IMHO, kids are the ones likely to use the more advanced features... ie,
conferences, and anything else likely to tie up multiple in/outbound
calls at the same time...

You might consider permitting them to throw their own mp3's onto the
server for their personal MoH ....

> I thought that having some "common area" phones share a single extension 
> (wired into a single ATA FXS port) might ease the transition, but I'm 
> also afraid it might be confusing ("you can just pick up from these 
> extensions, but you have to transfer or park to/from these extensions". 
> Huh?).

Program one of the speed-dial keys to transfer the call to a meetme with
MoH. Then tell them that to put the call on hold, just press this
button. Then label the next closest speed dial as "Pickup" which simply
dials the meetme room. Of course, if you have multiple 'lines' you might
need some 'custom' dialplan magic to ensure a hold will always add you
to a new empty meetme, while an unhold will take you to the oldest
meetme which hasn't been 'un-holded' yet :)

Otherwise, you might as well teach them about parking.... Still, a
button for "Hold" which does a #700, and then they just walk to any
other phone and dial 701 (or whatever) should get you most of the way
there. Just remember to set a short-ish parking timeout which will
call-back the phone .....

> The huge selling point, which I'm hoping will overcome any initial 
> resistance, is the idea that one person will no longer tie up the whole 
> phone system for the house when they make/take a call.  And deploying 
> one of my free DIDs to give my 16-year-old "his own phone number" that 
> rings only in his bedroom is the real ace up my sleeve!

Yep, neat.... + his own direct VM etc...

> Sure, Asterisk will come with a lot of other neat features, but frankly 
> most of them have more geek appeal (though I have high hopes for my 
> favorite feature -- announced caller id over the stereo/tivo while we're 
> making dinner -- to revolutionize the way we deal with (or at least who 
> answers ;-) ) phone calls at that hour), and in some cases I think may 
> face similar "that's not the way it's supposed to work" objections.  For 
> example, while they will acknowledge that voicemail is cool, I suspect 
> they'll miss the simplicity of walking into the kitchen, seeing if the 
> answering machine is blinking, and just pressing the button.

Use phones that have a VM indicator.... then program a speed dial for
your VM extension.

> I'm excited AND anxious about starting a real "beta test" with them! 
> Maybe that's why I'm already 3 weeks behind my original schedule. ;-)

Well, looks like you are close, I think the biggest one to test
thoroughly is the echo..... That is probably the hardest one to ask
people to live with...

Regards,
Adam