[Asterisk-Users] outgoing calls that last an unreasonably long time

[Warren Burstein]

I'm running asterisk 1.0.9 with TDM400B's for both internal and external 
lines.

I put in the macro that dials outside lines an AbsoluteTimeout(36000), 
never expecting it to happen.  But it does, a few times a month.

I've noticed an odd thing, it seems that it usually happens twice in a 
row from the same internal phone (connected to a TDM400B, not an IP 
phone) as if someone dialed a number, something went wrong, they flashed 
and dialed again.  What happened next I don't know.  If they left the 
phone offhook for the rest of the day, that could explain how they 
managed to keep two outside lines busy.

What is frustrating is that the cdr file shows the dst as T rather than 
as the phone number dialed.  I realize that AbsoluteTimout causes it to 
jump to the T extension, but it would help to know who the user dialed 
(asking a week later isn't going to get any useful information out of 
the user).  It's not in the log file, either - would increasing the log 
level help here?

I'm reluctant to decrease the abosolute timeout because someone is going 
to come to me saying "I was on hold for five hours for tech support and 
before I finally got a human, I was disconnected and had to wait all 
over again".

Is there something I could run from the console that would show how long 
each channel has been connected, and to who?  That way we might be able 
to catch the next one of these as it happens instead of much later.