[Asterisk-Users] RE: Answering Machine Function?

[Bryan Mannos]

Jason is right, it's certainly possible.

I've got my home setup (single land PSTN line) as a full pbx system
with a fiance that would never tolerate any of my "nerd" setups.  My
setup is fully transparent to her using a Sipura 2000 (2 fxs ports for
our separate lines attached to 2 different portable phones) and an
Digium FXO card (1 port).  By using distinct ring detection offered by
Qwest with 2 phone numbers inbound, the main Qwest DID rings both fxs
lines, but her Qwest distinctive ring DID saves me from getting up to
answer her mother's daily call :)

I have no prefix dialing codes, except for forcing my local Qwest line
to dial long distance, which I only use for testing my inbound 800
numbers via the PSTN.  If a VoIP provider is down or not working, it
rolls the dialout to the next available VoIP provider or Qwest (yes,
get more than one)

I've also a sipura desk phone (SPA-841) that I use as my office phone.
 This shows 2 line presence for the Qwest inbound/outbound, as well as
VOIP out/in via both NuFone & VoIPjet.  I have 2 inbound VoIP business
DIDs via NuFone.com that are routed directly to my Sipura-841.

On top of this I have about 8 friends connected via SIP helping test
my system.  A few are out of state and one is in Kobe, Japan (took him
a BudgetPhone 100 while visiting last spring)  These users can dialout
via my VoIP plans and get inbound via NuFone toll free numbers and of
course dial via direct extension. (they have no access to the Qwest
line)  This is basically like a spread out office scenario and the
VoIP outbound offering to the users is cheap development feedback for
the $$$. Combined they don't use more than $15 a month.

My Dialplan routes all in house calls that are local to QWest, unless
it's occupied, then routes via VoIPjet.com or NuFone.net.  Using call
busy forwarding offered by QWest (0.38 cents a month) if the QWest
line is busy, it forwards to a DID provided by NuFone to an unbusy
inhouse extension. (note: distinctive ring is lost by the forward, but
that's ok, that's where CallerID comes in, I just have to get up now
;) )

So you can have a shared PBX setup, kids and all, that's transparent,
you just need to remove or rewire your phones to sit behind the PBX,
not laterally.  Let the PBX do it's job.

The dialplans are a bit voluminous to go through right now, but with
enough reading (voip-info.org of course) and testing, it's certainly
possible....

Jason,

I too am in SLC. Despite our apparent competition (or soon to be) in
our local market, the spirit of open standards don't end at Asterisk.
Perhaps you'd be willing to meet for coffee/beer/soda sometime and
discuss setups and/or some local biz talk. Drop me an email if you'd
like to do so.

-Bryan

On Mon, 31 Jan 2005 16:44:55 -0700, Jason Kawakami
<jkkawakami at optellabs.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> <snip>
> 
>     Is this possible with asterisk?  Anyone have a sample dialplan?
> 
> -other than the problem outlined below I would try something like
> 
> S,1,wait(20)
> S,2,voicemail(uwhatever)
> S,3,hangup
> 
> That should ignore the call for 20 seconds and then leave a message in the
> unavailable greeting for 'whatever' then hangup
> 
>     That leaves another problem - retrieving the messages.  Sounds
>     like console GUI or web interface would be the only way to do this -
>     since the only way to get connected to the voicemail service
>     is by calling in through the PSTN - since asterisk doesn't "own"
>     any extensions.  Do I have this right?
> 
> 2.  Now, a more full-blown home-use scenario.
> 
>     Suppose I DO want to have asterisk run my two-line home
>     phone system, and I obtained the requisite FXS and FXO
>     interfaces - maybe the 2x2 Digium card, or maybe go SIP
>     on my side.
> 
>     Now, I'm as much a hobbyist as anyone... but my wife and kids
>     aren't.  There's no way I'm going to run a PBX at home if anyone
>     except me actually has to treat it like one, at least for basic
>     features, like placing a phone call.
> 
>     So...
> 
>     Is it in principle possible to create a dialplan that allows
>     prefix-free dialing to an outside line, and move all the
>     "PBX-like" features behind some special prefix?
> 
>     i.e. recognize 3, 7 and 11 digit numbers as phone numbers
>     and dial them without further ado, and put voicemail and
>     every other PBX-ish feature behind, say "#"?
> 
> this really isn't this complex.  I taught my mother how to dial '9' and she
> bitched for about a month until she started making free calls to all of her
> friends all over the world.  They will need to have an "aha moment" where
> they realize the power of the system.  Sell the kids on personalized
> voicemails for them etc.  crap like that.  Kids will love it, and you will
> never have to take messages for them ever again.
> 
> [default]
> Include=home_extensions
> Include=local
> Include=long_distance
> 
> [home_extensions]
> 
> Include=default
> Exten => 1000,1,...             ;dial 1000,1001 etc
> 
> Exten=9999,1,voicemailmain(${CALLERIDNUM}@home_vmbox_context    ;dial 9999
> for voicemail retrieval, leave out a pin in voicemail.conf to make it easy
> 
> [local]
> 
> Exten=_NXXXXXX,1,Dial(zap/outgoing channel/${EXTEN})
> 
> [long_distance]
> 
> Exten=_1NXXNXXXXXX,1,Dial(zap/outgoing channel/${EXTEN})
> 
> Note that I haven't done the first example but the second one is duck soup.
> 
> Jason Kawakami
> www.optellabs.com
> Salt Lake City, UT
> 
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