[Asterisk-Users] Asterisk integration with office PBX

[Michael Collins]

> Forgive me if this question has been asked/answered in another post.
> And let me reiterate what other users have frequently said - Asterisk
is
> great, and I really appreciate all the work you folks have put into
it.
> 
> How have some of you gone about integrating Asterisk with a legacy
office
> PBX, such that the end-user can use a regular office (digital handset)
and
> dialing is fairly seamless ?
> Our end-users are accustomed to picking up their office handset and
just
> dialing a 4 digit extension to reach another staffperson in our
office.
> I'd like to replicate that so they can reach staff in our other
> (international) offices (behind the scenes, the call would route over
IP).
> 
> For instance, we have regular NEC handsets talking to an NEC PBX, and
an
> analog line from the PBX to the Asterisk FXO.
> I already had our NEC tech set up an access code/alias, such that an
end-
> user just dials 6 and it goes to the analog line going into Asterisk.
> Asterisk picks up after about 2 rings, and then the end-user is
prompted
> to enter the destination phone number (which would be an e.g. 3 digit
> number corresponding to a SIP destination in the dialplan).
> But this means the end-user has to dial 6 and then wait for Asterisk
to
> pick up. I'd Is there a way to have Asterisk pick up sooner, e.g.
without
> any rings ? Ultimately, I'd like to get it to the point where the
end-user
> doesn't have to pause at all. In other words, they could dial e.g.
6123
> and their call would be appropriately routed. I realize that probably
> involves configuring Least Cost Routing on the NEC PBX, but that still
> leaves the issue of having to wait for Asterisk to pick up the line.
> 
> Any help is appreciated.

John,

I am familiar with NEC PBX's.  Please contact me offline and I'll be
happy to give you all of the information that I have.  We can post the
results to the list without all of the intermediate discussions.

For kicks, here you can check out some work I did to get my NEC 2400
talking to my * box:
http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/index.php?page=Asterisk+NEAX2400

-MC