3 POTS lines with Rollover

Hey all,

Very new first of all, current setup 3 POTS lines come into office, no PBX or switch at all each of the 4 phones we have are 3 line phones so from the dmark point we have a 3 line phone cord going to each phone. So no matter which line rings all phones will ring at the same time. My question to you all, can I have this same setup with Asterisk, I’m sure I can, I just need to be pushed into the right direction. I know I need atleast 3 FXO interface cards for the 3 incoming POTS lines. I am just not sure where to go from there, I understand I need FXS cards as well to allow me to connect the standard phones I am currently using, my hang up is how do I make all three lines ring on all 4 phones at once? Do I need 3 FXS cards per standard phone to route each incoming call to each phone? or will one FXS card per phone be fine then I just configure Asterisk some how to route each incoming call to each handset? If someone can point to either a section in the O’Reilly book that covers this i’m not sure what you would call this type of setup? I have read through the Asterisk wiki but still not sure.

Thanks for reading my long rambling post :wink:

K I have figured out what I want to do is not possible, Shared call appearance is not possible with Asterisk YET,

What about this each call comes in hit the automated attendant " press 1 for sales and 2 for service"

If they press 1 the system will ring 3 differenet extentions anyone can pickup the call and if another tech is required call park and tell bob called parked for you?

if two is pressed 3 extentions are also rung again 3 phones are ringing???

If this works then perfect.

This is called ring groups and yes it does work exactly as you described.

Scott

Im not for ure about the phones you are using but I cant see why it wouldnt work exactly the way you have it now if you wanted to. The shared call appearance is usually a feature of a key system. The system tells the phone wich line a call is coming in on and lights a button on the phone. This is not the case on your phones so if you wanted you could do it exactly as you have it now or with a menu. It would require 3 fxs ports for each phone you could use a Digium TDM 2400 card that would give you plenty of ports for this.

You could simply bring the three pots lines into the Asterisk box, and have one or all phones in the system ring as each incoming line rings.

The upside to this configuration, is that each station will has it’s own extension. This can give callers direct access to a specific person if you use an automated attendant. Each station would also gain private voicemail boxes.

You can also have a “default”. If a caller doesn’t know the extension of the person they are calling, you would configure the system to have every VOIP station ring and then go to a general voice mailbox, if there was no one available to answer the call.

The downside to this configuration is that you cannot simply place a call on hold, and pick it up at any other station. As you noticed, bridged call appearances aren’t yet possible in VOIP stations using Asterisk.

You would only have to transfer the call to the other station, but it does change how things work now.