[Asterisk-Users] Extensions to solve three way calling problem

[Steven Critchfield]

On Wed, 2005-01-05 at 19:27 +1100, PHP Mechanic wrote:
> > On Wed, 2005-01-05 at 18:38 +1100, PHP Mechanic wrote:
> >> >> Have you considered setting up a meetme confrence line for them? :)
> >> >
> >> >> > analog phone <=> asterisk/tdm11b <=> pstn
> >>
> >> I have played with it. But the problem I'm having is as follows
> >>
> >> exten => _1800.,1,Dial(Zap/4/${EXTEN},20,Tr)         ; call some company
> >> willing to pay for my test, preferably get someone with an on hold 
> >> message
> >> ; Now I press #* on the analog phone to transfer them to Meetme
> >> exten => *,1,Meetme,2000                                           ; send
> >> them to meetme
> >> exten => *,2,Flash() 
> >> ;
> >> flash the pstn line
> >
> > What makes you think that would flash the PSTN line?
> 
> Because the cli reports that it is executing flash on the Zap/4 - the PSTN 
> line
> 
> >This is your
> > problem. When you transfer the PSTN line anywhere and then go to dial
> > again, the flash is actually on the current channel. I wouldn't be
> > surprised if you hear it in your receiver. I don't know of anyway to
> > flash the PSTN line from within asterisk that would do as you want. In
> > fact, to enable it would be a security risk as well. Think of the
> > possibility of having multiple lines in and then dialing an extension to
> > flash the line and messing up and flashing someone else's connection.
> >
> > Closest thing I could think of is having your PSTN side caller do the
> > transfer and redial. If the PSTN caller was allowed to transfer the
> > inside person and then dial a special extension that would initiate the
> > flash and the dial command. Of course the trouble here is that as soon
> > as the flash occurs, the new caller is the one going to be stuck in an
> > odd state and the previous PSTN caller is going to be in unrecoverable
> > limbo.
> >
> > Just looks like you will be SOL on utilizing the PSTN 3 way calling.
> 
> Yeah, I think you are right.
> 
> But what is the point of  threewaycalling and transfer in zapata.conf - what 
> do they do? 

All of it is for doing stuff within asterisk. For example transfer is
for if you have more than one station inside the PBX, then you could
transfer the call from one phone to the other.

Threeway calling is similar. You can make a small impromptu conference
that way with 2 internal phones and an external or 3 internal phones or
even 1 internal and 2 external calls on separate phone lines. All of
these are mixed inside of asterisk and the PSTN is non the wiser.

-- 
Steven Critchfield <critch at basesys.com>