Does it support hotline IP phones, i.e. an IP phone that dials a preconfigured number as soon as it goes off-hook?
Can you have the same extension appear on multiple phones?
2a. If the answer to #2 is “Yes”, what happens if one person is using that extension? Is it still available to others who have that extension on their phones, or is it like a key system that locks everyone else out until the line is free again?
What provisions have been made for IP phone resiliency in case the primary Asterisk server becomes unavailable? Can the IP phones re-register to a backup server?
Do you PSTN connections have to terminate on a server? At first glance, it appears that I’d have to have an Asterisk server running everywhere I need to terminate phone lines of any sort.
Can I park a call at one location and pick it up at a different location?
Does Asterisk support MoH streaming over the network?
yes. this is a feature of the phone mostly. i’ve seen is supported in a few phones, but strangely enough, not most of the better ones.
like a ring group ? or multiple registrations from phones for the same account ? if the latter, then the last one to register gets the call. if the former, there are lots of ways to configure groups and queues that will probably suit.
2a. the concept of “lines” is best forgotten about with Asterisk. 1.4 is introducing SLA, but once users drop the idea and forget about their key/index system it’s not normally a problem.
some phones support server failover. most notably the Aastra range with the latest 1.4.1 firmware. i’ve yet to try it out though.
PSTN can terminate at a server or at an FXO device connected via ethernet (which turns it into SIP or IAX so you can create a trunk within Asterisk for it). you pays your money … applies here.
yes. not the same as SLA, but a useful alternative.
not Asterisk, but you can bolt on an media player that pipes it into Asterisk MoH.
Regarding the shared line issue, I’m just thinking of the ability for the same extension to appear on multiple phones. For example, an assistant may want to have an appearance of the manager’s phone. Or, as was the case at my previous job, if someone were to dial zero out of our voice mail the call woudl ring to a shared extension that appeared on the phones of everyone in our group. This was a Nortel feature called MCR. It’s similar to Cisco’s concept of shared lines.
I’ve been looking a bit at ShoreTel. They call this feature “Monitored Extensions”. Cisco has the best implementation of this around, so it may be hard to match.
I remembered another question. Does Asterisk support extensions of arbitrary length or are you locked into extensions of a certain length? In other words, can you have 3-digit and 4-digit extensions coexisting on the same system?
sounds like BLF, Busy Lamp Field, where you can see the status of a monitored extension, use the button next to the lamp to dial the extension, and optionally pickup a call ringing at that extension.
again, yes, but full functionality depends on the phone. Aastra and Snom work well, i don’t have a lot of experience (err … any !) with Polycoms. lots of cheaper phones have no BLF functionality at all.
most, if not all, and indeed, more (!!!) functionality than most systems can be created with the combined power of the inbuilt applications, dialplan logic and the addition of AGI and AMI interfaces. just be aware that it’s not plug-n-play, there is some work involved to get the features you want setup.
Does Asterisk support call stacking, i.e. multiple calls on a single extension? On my Avaya IP phone I can only have one call per line appearance. With Cisco IP phones, however, I can have a whole bunch of calls on a single line appearance.
Is it very easy to integrate Asterisk voicemail with Outlook?
What sort of teleworker features does Asterisk support? Does it have anything like Avaya’s Extend-to-Cellular feature that allows me to move back and forth from my desk phone to my cell phone during a call?
Does it support hotline IP phones, i.e. an IP phone that dials a preconfigured number as soon as it goes off-hook?
Depends on handset, Or can be doen via the dialplan
Can you have the same extension appear on multiple phones?
You can have a blf of them and then pickup the call or in 1.4 sla may provide this feature, there is no “multiline or multicall” keys like a Mitel.
2a. If the answer to #2 is “Yes”, what happens if one person is using that extension? Is it still available to others who have that extension on their phones, or is it like a key system that locks everyone else out until the line is free again?
If using the pickup method then no.
What provisions have been made for IP phone resiliency in case the primary Asterisk server becomes unavailable? Can the IP phones re-register to a backup server?
Aastra do in 1.4.1, I will be labbing this, this week If I get time. you can also use ucarp or similar.
Do you PSTN connections have to terminate on a server? At first glance, it appears that I’d have to have an Asterisk server running everywhere I need to terminate phone lines of any sort.
No use a fxo gateway or for ISDN use a ISDN gateway
Can I park a call at one location and pick it up at a different location?
Yes
Does Asterisk support MoH streaming over the network?
Yes via shoutcast, Never done but many do
Will Asterisk ever support QSIG?
Via Vegastream 400 shouldt be a problem now
Is it very easy to integrate Asterisk voicemail with Outlook?
All Vmail can be delivered to email, and dialing out can be by tapi
What sort of teleworker features does Asterisk support? Does it have anything like Avaya’s Extend-to-Cellular feature that allows me to move back and forth from my desk phone to my cell phone during a call?
At the moment during a call is a nono, this is a FMC feature and is reliant on th ecarrier pbx and handset.
