[asterisk-users] Right way to prevent analog channel from answering the phone?

[Rich Adamson]

Nick Ellson wrote:
> 
> I am in the process of learning my A1200P, and i would like an elegant 
> way to prevent it from answering the phone, but still make outbound 
> calls. I tried zap destroy channel 1 (which worked, but pissed off 
> Asterisk ;)
> 
> Is there a more elegant way to tell it to answer/not answer on command?

I don't have an A1200P, but most zap channel interfaces are built to not 
answer an incoming call unless you specifically configure asterisk to do it.

There are only two basic conditions under which an incoming call will be 
answered:
1. by including the "answer" statement, like:
	exten => 3556,1,Answer
	exten => 3556,2,Wait,1
	exten => 3556,3,Authenticate(3017)
	exten => 3556,4,Meetme(3556|pM)
2. a SIP phone (or other phone) user picks up the handset.

So, in zapata.conf you have definitions for each of the A1200P ports, 
and one of the items in those definitions is "context=<something>". If 
that context statement points to some non-existent context name (like 
context=xyz), there is nothing that would answer the incoming call.

If the context=<something> points to a real context (in 
extensions.conf), then review that context to ensure there is nothing 
there to answer the incoming call. (Note: some asterisk applications 
will automatically answer incoming calls.)

You could also define that context and include statements like:
[no-answer]
exten => _X.,1,Hangup