[Asterisk-Users] Small office with all employee's offsite

[Tom Rymes]

On Nov 26, 2005, at 4:01 PM, Jason Marshall wrote:

>>> I want all calls to come into the Asterisk box in the main office.
>>
>> This is relatively easy, but how you do it depends on where the  
>> analog POTS lines are terminated. At the central office or at the  
>> employees' remote location? (I assume that they terminate at the  
>> remote locations)
>
> You're right, I should have been clearer.  The way things are now  
> is probably suboptimal, but here it is anyway.
>
> We have one phone number, the line for which is terminated in the  
> main office, which is where I'd like the server to be.
>
> The two employees, offsite, have seperate lines which terminate in  
> either location.

OK, then this is easy. Instal Asterisk in the central location, along  
with a Sipura SPA-3000. Configure that unit to answer the incoming  
POTS line and act as a VOIP gateway for Asterisk. Then configure two  
additional SPA-3000 units, one at each employee's location. Then,  
configure Asterisk (I recommend Asterisk at Home for your setup, BTW) to  
route the incoming call to the right extension based on time of day,  
auto-attendant, whatever. The SPA-3000 units at each remote site will  
also be able to accept the employee's incoming POTS line and pass  
that call through to the phone they normally use without resorting to  
sending it to the Asterisk server and back. (It's all in the SPA-3000  
setup.

> What we do, depending on who is "on" at that time, is forward the  
> main number (which is hooked up to an old portmaster 2 via a modem,  
> so reachable remotely) to whoever should be getting the calls.   
> This is suboptimal for at least two reasons that I can see:  1)  
> We're paying for a phone line which is basically never used -- the  
> call forwarding happens at the telco's switch in the CO, so nothing  
> ever comes in over that line;

This will not change, you're still looking at three lines in the  
scenario I outlined above. (Unless you switch to incoming VOIP, but I  
do *NOT*  recommend that.)

> 2) There's no way to record the calls, or to have a consistent  
> voicemail prompt, nor is there any way to present the caller with  
> any options if, for instance, the person who has the phone  
> forwarded to him is busy, or has gone missing for whatever reason...

Asterisk will indeed solve this problem.

[snip]

> If I put one of these at each of the two remote sites, could I set  
> them up so that the employees' phones would ring whether the call  
> was routed to them via VOIP, OR if I call their current phone  
> number?  So if the server dies, or the DSL to the employees'  
> locations dies, we could revert back to the lame way we're handling  
> call "routing" now -- by just forwarding the main incoming line to  
> one employee's number?

Yes, on both counts.

>> The downside of using a SPA-3000 at the remote location to answer  
>> the phone, send the incoming call to the asterisk server, and then  
>> send it back to the extension at the remote site is that you will  
>> use double the bandwidth. using SIP reinvites might help with  
>> that, though.
>
> If I understand you, this scenario would be to intercept calls to  
> each employee's current telephone number, redirect the call via  
> VOIP into the Asterisk server, and then direct another VOIP call  
> back to the employee's handset.  If that's what you mean, that's  
> not what I hope to accomplish. No one knows each employee's actual  
> telephone number.  It's all hidden with the call-forwarding of the  
> main number to each employee's number.

Given that you have the one incoming line at the central location,  
you are good to go. Don't worry about the above.

> I should see if my local bookstore has a copy, to save on shipping  
> (and delays at the border).  If no one has it, I may very well take  
> you up on your offer.  Do you have a paypal seller's account?

Yes! Feel free to make donations as often as you feel necessary... ;-)

Tom

--------------------
Tom Rymes
Cascade Link Systems
www.cascadelinksystems.com
(603) 375-1414

"Intelligent technology solutions for small businesses."