[Asterisk-Users] Anyone having trouble with VoicePulse Connect?

[Robert Hajime Lanning]

<quote who="beonice">
> Robert, thank you very much for that informative
> write-up. Of course, I now have more questions. The
> first is really basic. I thought "extension" meant
> something the caller dials _after_ reaching asterisk.
> How come incoming DIDs have to be handled as if they
> are extensions?

Actually the answer is better shown when looking at
DID analog trunks.  Analog trunks are just POTS lines.
With inbound DID analog trunks, the side that provides
the voltage and dialtone are reversed.  The CO looks
like a phone and your PBX looks like the CO.

So when a call comes in, the CO picks up the "phone"
to your PBX and dials the DID number.  In this case,
there is no callerID available.

>> [DID]
>> exten => _X.,1,Goto(PublicExtensions,8001,1)
>
>
> But won't this match every single number possible?
> Including the extensions I set up? So, for example, if
> I had an extension '1234', it would also be sent to
> PublicExtensions extension 8001 with priority 1, as
> would someone calling extension 8001, as well as
> someone calling in from any DID. I'm totally confused
> about the way this would behave.

This is why you use a seperate context ("[DID]") for
DID's.  DID trunks go into the DID context.  Your station
channels go into some other "internal" context, that
contains your real extension numbers.  The DID context
will match DID's to extensions that exist in other contexts.
In my example, I have "PublicExtensions" which is a list of
extensions that are available via my main phone number and
it gets included in my "PrivateExtensions" context which is
where my internal channels drop into.

Just remember that contexts seperate out extensions.
Extension "8001" in context "internal" has nothing to
do with extension "8001" in context "inbound".  You can
definately point on towards the other, but there is no
intrinsic relationship between the two.

-- 
END OF LINE
       -MCP