[asterisk-users] Call park on Linksys 922 and similar phones?

[Brad Templeton]

I'm having an issue with call park on my new Linksys 922.   It has
soft menu keys for doing call transfer (which I always think is a good
idea because it's amazing how every phone has a different xfer interface
and people always get confused).

However, I can't get a good call park working on it.  It doesn't respond
to the use of "#" for transfer (nor should I want it to, since it has
soft transfer keys).  If I hit xfer and call 700, the parker does announce
the call being parked at 701, but then instead of disconnecting me I
hear hold music on the 722 (and continue to hear hold music on the
calling phone.)

If I hit resume, I am back talking to the calling phone.  If I hit xfer
again (which is normally how to complete a transfer) both phones
disconnect, and the console says that the 922 "got tired of parking."


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I must admit, on a side note, I have never been particularly happy
with the parking interface.  I know a number of other people feel the
same since there have been calls and development efforts for ways to
improve it, including hints for BLF, shared/bridged line functionality etc.

For the SOHO application, ie. a home pbx, the idea of a parking lot with
numbered slots is generally overkill.   Such a home is extremely unlikely
to ever have more than one call parked in a pickup group, or per PBX
frankly.   I think a much nicer interface would be to have the first
phone simply put the call on hold (which is the typical approach in many
key systems) and then dial an extension to "pick up the call that's on hold"
in my pickup group.

If, as will rarely be the case, more than one call is on hold, I think the
best way to deal with it would be to present an IVR that says:
"3 Calls are on hold.  Please enter the extension that placed
the call on hold.  Available extensions are 305, 49 and 902."

But 99 times out of 100, the interface would amount to putting the
call on hold, going to another phone and hitting the "pick up held call"
speed dial.   Which is what people tend to like in SOHO settings.

You can sort of do this if you just insist there is only one parking
slot, but it won't handle the rare double-hold case and it's much more
to do when putting the call on hold.

Any effort been made in this direction?