Assistance Required: Custom Dialplan Configuration for Simultaneous Dialing of Two Different Numbers in FreePBX/Asterisk

Asterisk Asterisk Dialplan
1

Hello Asterisk Community,

I’m currently facing an issue in configuring a custom dialplan in FreePBX/Asterisk that’s intended to enable simultaneous dialing of two different external numbers by dialing a single extension.

Background and Goal:
My setup consists of FreePBX with Asterisk, and I have a successful track record of making and receiving individual phone calls. However, when trying to configure the system to simultaneously dial two external numbers, I am encountering difficulty. The aim is to dial extension ‘7878’ which should trigger the system to call two different external numbers simultaneously.

Approaches and Methods:
I have tried different methodologies, including creating custom extensions, custom context, leveraging local channels, and even the call file method to stimulate the calls. Despite these attempts, I continually receive a busy signal and no response when trying to use the custom dialplan or dial the created extensions directly. Additionally, we also ventured down the route of setting up a Ring Group, which also unfortunately did not yield a successful result.

Current Configuration:
Two custom extensions - ‘881’ and ‘882’ - have been created, each one intended to dial a unique external number via specific outbound routes. The dial setting for each extension is in line with its outbound route: ‘Local/908XXXXXXXXX@outbound-allroutes’ for extension 881 and ‘Local/918XXXXXXXXX@outbound-allroutes’ for extension 882, where ‘8XXXXXXXXX’ are the actual external phone numbers.

These extensions are not set up on any softphone or application; they are designed solely to make outbound calls to the specified external numbers as part of the custom dialplan.

A custom Ring Group (‘7878’) has also been set up with these two extensions (881 and 882) included in the Extension List.

Persisting Issue:
Despite implementing these configurations and carrying out multiple dialplan and core reloads, I am unable to achieve my goal. Attempting to dial extension ‘7878’ results in a ‘403 Forbidden’ response, accompanied by a busy signal. Also, attempts to directly dial the custom extensions (‘881’ and ‘882’) have been unsuccessful. To troubleshoot the issue, we’ve checked the Asterisk logs at various log levels, but none of the standard SIP messages such as “SIP INVITE”, “SIP ACK”, “SIP CANCEL”, “SIP BYE”, “SIP REGISTER”, and “SIP NOTIFY” were present. The absence of these messages has made troubleshooting significantly more challenging.

I’ve conducted extensive troubleshooting, even inspecting my NAT settings, network configuration, and ensuring that the firewall is not causing the problem, all to no avail.

I’m seeking your valuable insights and suggestions to address this issue. Any input towards helping me configure a custom dialplan for dialing two numbers simultaneously will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

2

I’ve tried to rescue an Asterisk question from this, but the statement that no SIP messages are being logged indicates a dialplan problem, and that is purely a FreePBX issue.

In Asterisk, you would, typically, use:

Dial(PJSIP/908XXXXXXXXX@provider&908XXXXXXXXX@provider)

3

Firstly, I would like to express my gratitude for your valuable insights and time. The Asterisk command you suggested for simultaneously dialing multiple numbers was a boon.

Yet, the issue remains unresolved. It seems to be rooted in the dialplan configuration within FreePBX. Based on the advice I have received so far, several methods have been employed to address the situation, including but not limited to using local channels, generating call files, and setting up a ring group. Unfortunately, all these approaches have not resulted in the desired outcome.

Despite leveraging the FreePBX GUI to manage Asterisk, which might potentially restrict the direct use of Asterisk commands, the issue persists. We continuously receive a busy signal when attempting to use the custom dialplan to dial two numbers at the same time.

I would indeed be more than willing to consult a FreePBX specialist as you suggested. However, I have been unable to register for the FreePBX forum due to persistent authorization errors. “Sorry, there was an error authorizing your account. Please try again.” I remain optimistic that the valuable insights obtained from the Asterisk community, such as your helpful contribution, can still guide us toward a resolution.

As a recent step, we tried to implement your suggestion directly into the dialplan via SSH to the server. The updated dialplan configuration is as follows:

[custom-multiple-call]
exten => 7878,1,Verbose(2,Starting custom multiple call)
; Check if the calling user is allowed to use this custom extension
exten => 7878,n,GotoIf($["${CALLERID(num)}" != "MY-EXTENSION"]?hangup)
same => n,Dial(PJSIP/908XXXXXXXXX@provider&PJSIP/918XXXXXXXXX@provider,30)
same => n,Hangup()

After applying the changes and reloading the dialplan, we still encountered the issue - a busy signal and no response.

It’s important to note that our setup doesn’t have any known issues with NAT, networking, permissions, or firewalls. The SIP trunk is working perfectly, and the firewall is completely disabled. Unfortunately, the logs haven’t yielded any helpful clues. The SIP messages we expected to see (“SIP INVITE”, “SIP ACK”, “SIP CANCEL”, “SIP BYE”, “SIP REGISTER”, “SIP NOTIFY”) are not present in the logs.

Once again, thank you for your support and patience. Any further advice or insight would be immensely appreciated.

4

Entering ‘pjsip set logger on’ in an Asterisk console should display SIP packets as they are received and sent.

Personally, for anything beyond a cursory inspection, I prefer to capture with tcpdump and view with sngrep.

5

What is the end goal here? It looks to me like a queue or ring group with both external numbers should do the job just fine.

6

Peer support for FreePBX is provided on https://community.freepbx.org/ not here.

1 Like
7

Thank you for your continued support and patience with this issue. Our ultimate goal is to initiate a call from an internal extension, specifically dialing two external numbers simultaneously.

As per your suggestion, we did try setting up a ring group and a follow-me feature to achieve this, unfortunately, without success. I agree with you, in most cases, these methods should do the job.

Regarding queues, while they indeed offer a wide range of features and are typically used to distribute inbound calls, they are not ideally designed for dialing multiple external numbers simultaneously. While it’s theoretically possible to include external numbers in a queue by creating custom extensions for those numbers, we fear that we might run into similar issues as encountered with the ring groups.

We remain open to any further suggestions or insights that you may have. We deeply appreciate your willingness to assist us in this matter.

8

This sounds like an issue with your provider.

As mentioned before, the FreePBX forums would be the appropriate place for this. Please create a topic there and make sure to include a call trace.

9

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