[Asterisk-Users] Hardware recommendations
Bill Michaelson
bill at cosi.com
Tue Jan 24 14:19:12 MST 2006
Actually, call groups are yet another layer of complexity. Let me try
another explanation.
With VoIP, the distinction between a call appearance capability and a
line is artificial to an extent. Think of a line as the analog for a
pair of copper wires. Think of a call appearance as call waiting
capability on a line. Well, not exactly, but it works for me.
In practice, "lines" are identities as understood by the phone and the
SIP server (Asterisk). So when a call arrives, the actual line it
arrives on is indicated in some fashion, depending on the phone. It
probably has separate line buttons and/or LEDs to indicate which line is
ringing or to press to answer. And because there are different lines,
you can specify different behaviors to associate with the lines for
whatever purpose, such as call forwarding, anonymous call reject, or
whatever. Similarly, you may select from the various lines in order to
place an outgoing call which affects, among other things, the call
record and caller ID.
Whether this is useful to you depends on your organizational
requirements. This leaves aside the question of how you direct calls to
the phone based on your dialplan, which provides another layer of
identity in some sense - a topic for a separate discussion, perhaps.
On top of this, each identity (line) can have mutliple call
appearances. This simply means that you can have multiple calls in
progress (originated or answered) simultaneously. The mechanism for
managing this varies by phone and configuration.
Beyond this, Asterisk can be programmed to ring multiple lines for an
incoming call.
Call groups/pickup groups, are a way of defining associations so that a
user of a line that is not ringing can answer a call directed to another
line (or other lines) which is (are) ringing.
Does this make sense?
Date: Tue, 24 Jan 2006 10:49:38 -0800
From: Gary Richardson <gary.richardson at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Hardware recommendations
To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion
<asterisk-users at lists.digium.com>
Message-ID:
<be2921990601241049h53e72b1bkf68cabc3e67f8134 at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>From my understanding this is more like a 'Key' system than a 'PBX'.
You can make all you phones ring when a certain number is dialed. The
first one to pick up gets the call. I can't think of exactly what this
functionality is called, but I believe there are menus for it in
Asterisk at Home. Perhaps it's call groups?
You need to think of asterisk as a multiplexor -- you have x number of
lines coming in from the PSTN and y number of phones. Not all phones
are active at one time and it is completely indescriminate when it
comes to the next available line. It doesn't matter which line gets
picked up when you dial 9, just that you get an outside line.
You should be able to get your telco to assign the same phone number
on mutliple lines and it will ring through to the next available line
(similar to how a T1 works).
On 1/24/06, Dane Reugger <dane at downtownpc.com> wrote:
>> Maybe I am getting this wrong - every phone I look at says it handles a
>> given number of lines.
>>
>> I don't want to spend the extra for 4 appearances when all I need is 2.
>> Where I must be missing something is:
>>
>> Imagine w/ have 2 appearances phones - no operator - the phones just ring.
>>
>> Lets say a call comes in and its for Joe, Joe picks up
>> another call comes in, this time for Fred - he picks up
>> now a call comes for me - wouldn't their above calls occupy all of our
>> appearances?
>>
>> If not I would think we would need some type of operator forwarding the
>> call to the phones instead of just having them ring.
>>
>> Sorry, I'm not getting it - maybe I'm just too old fashioned. I'm trying
>> to do this as simply and economically as possibly w/o sacrificing quality.
>>
>> Your help is GREATLY appreciated.
>>
>> -Dane
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Kerry Garrison wrote:
>
>
>>> > You need to separate lines from call appearances. Asterisk has lines (actual
>>> > phone lines) and phones have call appearances (number of simultaneous calls
>>> > the phone can handle). You could have 1000 lines going into your Asterisk
>>> > box but the typical user doesn't need more than 2 - 4 simultaneous calls.
>>> > On the flip side, you could have 4 "lines" coming into your asterisk server
>>> > and have 100 phones with 4 call appearances each. By using Asterisk to
>>> > manage the lines, you don't need 400 phone lines to support 100 phones w/4
>>> > call appearances each.
>>> >
>>> > Kerry Garrison
>>> > Publisher - http://GeekGazette.com - http://VOIPSpeak.net
>>> > (949) 502-7819 x200 - kerryg at techdatapros.com
>>> > http://www.techdatapros.com
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>>
>>
>>>> >> -----Original Message-----
>>>> >> From: asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com
>>>> >> [mailto:asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of
>>>> >> Dane Reugger
>>>> >> Sent: Tuesday, January 24, 2006 9:09 AM
>>>> >> To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion
>>>> >> Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Hardware recommendations
>>>> >>
>>>> >> If you have 16 call appearances or lines - how do you get to
>>>> >> line 16 - type in some code?
>>>> >>
>>>> >>
>>>> >> Adam Goryachev wrote:
>>>> >>
>>>
>>>
>>>>> >>> On Mon, 2006-01-23 at 23:00 -0700, Douglas Garstang wrote:
>>>>> >>>
>>>>> >>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>> >>>> Polycom SoundPoint 601 has 4 'lines'.
>>>>>> >>>>
>>>>>> >>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> >>> Actually, it has 6 'lines'
>>>>> >>>
>>>>> >>>
>>>>> >>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>> >>>> Needing a 4 line phone is going to decrease your
>>>>>> >>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>> >> choices of phones.
>>>> >>
>>>
>>>
>>>>>> >>>>
>>>>>> >>>> Why do you need 4 lines?
>>>>>> >>>>
>>>>>> >>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> >>> He probably hasn't worked out the difference between 'call
>>>>> >>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> >> appearances'
>>>> >>
>>>
>>>
>>>>> >>> and lines yet.... Even a polycom 301 (with 2 'lines' can
>>>>> >>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> >> handle loads
>>>> >>
>>>
>>>
>>>>> >>> of calls, I think the limit is something like 16 per line,
>>>>> >>> configurable in the xml file).
>>>>> >>>
>>>>> >>> Regards,
>>>>> >>> Adam
>>>>> >>>
>>>>> >>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>> >>>
>>>>> >>>
>>>>
>>>>
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>>>> >>
>>>
>>>
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > _______________________________________________
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>>> >
>>
>>
>>
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