[Asterisk-Users] Polycom IP500 - problems with multiple simultaneous calls

[Noah Miller]

Hi All -

I've got a load of Polycom phones, and for the most part, I think 
they're great, but one thing that is bugging the heck out of me (and my 
users) is the "on-hold" feature.  When you're on a call, and another 
one comes in, it doesn't ring the second line appearance on the phone, 
even though I have it registered separately, and I've tried to make my 
dialplan go to the second appearance/registration.  Instead, the second 
call rings on the first line, and allows you to put the first call on 
hold, and take the second call.  To do so, though, you have to press 
the little down arrow and then press "Answer".  When the third call 
comes in, it will ring the 2nd line.  I find this to be non-intuitive, 
but I can get used to it.  My receptionists, however, are finding it 
REALLY painful.  I'd just like to make the first call go to line 
appearance 1, the second simultaneous call to go to line appearance 2, 
etc.

Maybe somebody figured out a neat dialplan thing to get this done.  My 
config that doesn't do what I want looks like this:

; The first line appearance is registered to 18, the second to 1802, 
and the third to 1803
exten => 18,1,Dial(SIP/18,20)
exten => 18,2,Voicemail(u18)
exten => 18,102,Goto(1802,1)

exten => 1802,1,Dial(SIP/1802,20)
exten => 1802,2,Voicemail(b18)
exten => 1802,102,Goto(1803,1)

exten => 1803,1,Dial(SIP/1803,20)
exten => 1803,2,Voicemail(b18)
exten => 1803,102,Voicemail(b18)
exten => 1803,103,Hangup

I guess the phone just doesn't register as busy when there is only one 
call on a line.  It has to have two calls on a line appearance to 
register as busy.  Has anyone figured out how to disable this hold 
feature and just have the second call go to the second line, the third 
call to the third line, etc?

Thanks,
Noah Miller