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On Tue, 2004-11-16 at 09:19 +0100, Peter Svensson wrote:
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<FONT COLOR="#000000">On Mon, 15 Nov 2004, Jim Dossey wrote:</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> I have a client who currently has a Toshiba PBX. We are trying to</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> replace it with an Asterisk system. One of the features that they have</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> on their current PBX is the ability to select a POTS line by pressing a</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> button on their phones. They have 10 POTS lines and they can select any</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> line by just pressing the corresponding button on their phone. They can</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> also join an existing call by just picking up the handset and pressing</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> the button for the call they want to join. This isn't like a conference</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> call because you have one outside line coming in and 2 or more people</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> inside the office on that call.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">This is commonly referred to as a "key system". Asterisk is not terribly </FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">well suited as a key system since it is a pbx. The difference is </FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">(leaving out all the subtleties) that a key system is based on the concept </FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">of pstn lines while the pbx is based on the concept of extensions. Even </FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">the whole pstn cloud can be thought of as extensions. </FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">You could possibly make something similar if you really _really_ want to </FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">using agi scripts and redirects through the manager port to a meetme </FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">conference. Before going down that road I suggest you first consider if </FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">your client is best served by this solution or if it is just an artifact </FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">of their old system.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">Peter</FONT>
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Thanks for that answer. That clears up a lot of questions that I had. This isn't really a functionality problem. It's more a problem of breaking the users of their old habits and switching them to a new platform.
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