Newbie question: Asterisk and incoming calls, line failover?

Is this a silly question?

  • Yes
  • No

0 voters

Hello,

I am relatively new to * here. I currently have asterisk setup with a TDM400 card with 4 FXO modules (connected to 4 standard POTS lines), and while I have gotten almost everything up and running so far (can receive calls, call out with SIP phones, etc.) my current problem is with our lines being busy.

Basically what I would like to do is the following: We currently have 3 main numbers that people call in on. If that line is busy (a call is being made to the line, or someone is calling out on that line) the customer receives a busy signal. Is there any way to pass the call onto a different line if the line is busy? Is this even something you can configure with Asterisk or is this a service that can be purchased from the phone company, or is there a seperate piece of hardware sitting in front of the asterisk box that can solve this?

Thanks,
-Dan

Most phone companies can setup hunting for you. if you main number is busy it will roll over to the next number(s) you specify. I know that SBC our local carrier has a call busy forward option that can be setup using an * key combo and enter the additional number. If memory serves me correctly I believe that option only works for one additional number. Many of the VOIP service providers will also offer this feature.

Thanks, that is what we ended up implementing, I was hoping that there would be some type of device we could get to fix this for us as opposed to having to deal with the phone company for this.

-Dan