[Asterisk-Users] More Polycom IP501 questions

[BJ Weschke]

On 2/10/06, Andrew Kohlsmith <akohlsmith-asterisk at benshaw.com> wrote:
> I am starting to get the hang of this, I think.  These are more
> implementation questions; "is this a proper/good way of using/doing this"
> kind of questions.
>
> The IP501 has three line appearances.  I have learned that shared line
> appearances cannot place calls, only receive them.  They're indicated by the
> "half telephone" icon beside the button.  Private line appearances can both
> place and take calls, and they show up as a "full telephone" icon.
>
> (where in the world is the manual that describes this stuff?)
>
> So, I figure that for a typical business setup you want to have two shared
> appearances (for the main #, for example) and then a private appearance so
> you can actually place calls.  It seems kind of silly to "waste" 33% of my
> line appearances for my own extension, so that is the first question: Is a
> private line appearance required in order to place calls?
>
> Or do you simply not use the shared appearances for this, and let Asterisk
> handle it through ringing groups and pickup groups?
>
> I've set up the first two buttons to be the shared appearance for the "Main"
> line, and then the third for my own extension.  However...  When I go to use
> the live keypad to dial, I can enter the number and hit the "Dial" soft
> button, but the phone picks the shared appearance.  Since the shared line
> appearance can't place calls, it fails.  However, if I dial the number and
> hit the private line appearance it dials out just fine.
>
> This is telling me one of two things.  Either the phone's kind of dumb because
> it is choosing the first available line even though it can't place a call out
> of it (unlikely) or I'm just doing this in a dumb way (far more likely).
>
> How do all of y'all out in asterisk-users land set these phones up, and why
> did you choose to do it the way you did?  Were there nifty features you
> discovered through your particular configuration, are they set up to
> specifically avoid problems, or is it a mix of the two?
>
> I haven't even started to play with the mini browser; that looks like it is
> going to have some serious potential, too.
>
> Now for a side note: kxmleditor *rocks* for editing these damn Polycom XML
> configuration files!  It almost makes me feel a little queasy, like I'm
> editing the Windows Registry.  :-)
>

 Shared line appearances can make calls once the SIP you're
transacting with responds positively to the request for access to the
shared line resource to make a call. chan_sip in Asterisk doesn't
presently know how to do deal with this.


 For the integration with Asterisk, you don't want to enable your line
appearances as "shared" for the time being, but rather they should all
be "private".

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