[Asterisk-Users] More Polycom IP501 questions

[Andrew Kohlsmith]

I am starting to get the hang of this, I think.  These are more  
implementation questions; "is this a proper/good way of using/doing this" 
kind of questions.

The IP501 has three line appearances.  I have learned that shared line 
appearances cannot place calls, only receive them.  They're indicated by the 
"half telephone" icon beside the button.  Private line appearances can both 
place and take calls, and they show up as a "full telephone" icon.

(where in the world is the manual that describes this stuff?)

So, I figure that for a typical business setup you want to have two shared 
appearances (for the main #, for example) and then a private appearance so 
you can actually place calls.  It seems kind of silly to "waste" 33% of my 
line appearances for my own extension, so that is the first question: Is a 
private line appearance required in order to place calls?

Or do you simply not use the shared appearances for this, and let Asterisk 
handle it through ringing groups and pickup groups?

I've set up the first two buttons to be the shared appearance for the "Main" 
line, and then the third for my own extension.  However...  When I go to use 
the live keypad to dial, I can enter the number and hit the "Dial" soft 
button, but the phone picks the shared appearance.  Since the shared line 
appearance can't place calls, it fails.  However, if I dial the number and 
hit the private line appearance it dials out just fine.  

This is telling me one of two things.  Either the phone's kind of dumb because 
it is choosing the first available line even though it can't place a call out 
of it (unlikely) or I'm just doing this in a dumb way (far more likely).

How do all of y'all out in asterisk-users land set these phones up, and why 
did you choose to do it the way you did?  Were there nifty features you 
discovered through your particular configuration, are they set up to 
specifically avoid problems, or is it a mix of the two?

I haven't even started to play with the mini browser; that looks like it is 
going to have some serious potential, too.

Now for a side note: kxmleditor *rocks* for editing these damn Polycom XML 
configuration files!  It almost makes me feel a little queasy, like I'm 
editing the Windows Registry.  :-)

-A.