Monitoring Extensions

Asterisk Asterisk Support
1

On regular phone systems such as Avaya’s Partner system, When someone picks up a line, all the other phones capable of using that line see a solid light indicating there is a phone using that line.

How can I make it so that if a phone in the office is picked up, All the phones see a light indicating it. Also, when a call is placed on hold, the light usually blinks. Can I have it blink on all extensions and all phones?

2

That’s how an older system with shared line appearance works. An IP PBX system is designed for far more flexibility than the limited functions in that type of systems. Although you can emulate some of that with Asterisk and certain phones, the concept of all of the lines in the system being shown on all the phones is an outdated concept. The “new” way of thinking is “why do I care which line is in use or if someone put somebody on hold”, you only get the information on your phone that is relevant to you.

3

I am interested in seeing parked calls because In this company I may need to pick up one if it has been on hold for a significant period. Can a BLF feature be implemented using Asterisk?

4

I am interested in seeing parked calls because In this company I may need to pick up one if it has been on hold for a significant period. Can a BLF feature be implemented using Asterisk?

5

Yes, you can use BLF buttons to monitor the state of parked calls.

Check the following for details of how to set up Asterisk hints for the parking lot: http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/view/Asterisk+presence

Let us know how you get on.

6

Thanks, will do!

7

K I have successfully configured a Snom phone to work with parked calls in Asterisk 2.4… This is how I did it.

You must type ‘include => parkedcalls’ in extensions.conf inside the context tha you are defining your phones in

Then you type in that same context…

exten => 701,1,ParkedCall(701)
;exten => 701,hint,Local/701@parkedcalls
exten => 701,hint,park:701@parkedcalls

exten => 702,1,ParkedCall(702)
;exten => 702,hint,Local/702@parkedcalls
exten => 702,hint,park:702@parkedcalls

On the Snom phone, you must configure one of the feature keys to be park orbit. This is the button you press when parking a call. Then two other feature keys as destinations 701 and 702. These are where the calls get parked to.

To test it, make a call to your phone. Answer it and then press the PARK ORBIT feature key. Hangup, and the 701 feature light should light up. Good Luck!