[asterisk-users] University dumps CISCO VoIP for Asterisk

[Aaron Daniel]

On Wed, 2006-09-20 at 08:26 -0500, Eric "ManxPower" Wieling wrote:
> joea, j4computers wrote:
> > Ferguson, Michael<ferguson at BRVMLAW.COM> Wrote on: 9/20/2006 8:03 AM:
> >> G'Day List,
> >>  
> >> Interesting article. Enjoy
> >>  
> >> http://www.networkworld.com/news/2006/091206-von-sam-houston.html?t5 
> >>  
> >> Mike
> > 
> > The text states that asterisk cannot do "secretarial" functions, meaning one person, or admin, cannot answer multiple lines.  
> > 
> > This relates a bit to my recent post, asking about servicing multiple lines.  
> > 
> > Implication is that asterisk can do that, but I am now concerned that there is no "uber function" that can allow a single person answer any line, for reasons of convenience or design.  Problem is, this was understood, rightly or wrongly, to exist, in preliminary inquiries (not here) and is a part of a potential clients desire.
> > 
> > Can someone enlighten me?
> 
> The problem with a BLF (Busy Lamp Field) is that it's hard to find a box 
> with 6,000 buttons on it, as would be required by above university.
> 
> Asterisk has several methods of picking up remote lines.  Group Call 
> Pickup, Directed Call Pickup, and the standard way Asterisk rings 
> multiple extensions at the same time via & in the Dial() Line, and BLF
> 
> If you want the "traditional" Key System style of BLF, then you need a 
> phone that supports it.  The Polycom 601 Sidecar supports it in a 
> limited way, and I've heard that SNOM supports it as well.
> 
> What SPECIFICALLY are you trying to do that you are unable to do?

You are correct, to an extent.  We do have extensions that ring multiple
phones on campus, however, BLF and SLA don't work in the current 1.2
branch.  I know they're doing SLA work in 1.4, so we're hoping that the
point is moot by the time it comes out.

There are a number of patches that allow the polycoms and aastra's to do
directed pickup on a line that's "ringing" combined with hinting to get
the illusion of SLA, however, without extensive testing we haven't had a
chance to implement the software.

The biggest problem we have with the hinting functions is that you have
to have the phones registered to the same server, and with two identical
servers that could theoretically serve any phone we have, it's a
management nightmare to guarantee that any given phone will be on the
same server as any other given phone.  On that note, for a small office,
it would probably work great, it's just not feasible for us just yet, so
we're looking into other options as well. :)
-- 
Aaron Daniel
Computer Systems Technician
Sam Houston State University
amdtech at shsu.edu
(936) 294-4198