Screening/privacy mode

Hello everyone. I have been messing with the p option of the dial application which enables the privacy mode. For those who don’t know about this, it forces the caller to state their name when they call someone. The one called is then played back the name and given the option to accept the call or send it to voicemail, etc. So far everything works exactly as it says.

My problem is this. After a person records their name, they can hear the ringing as the connection is attempted. When the called individual picks up the phone and the options are being played back to them, the caller hears nothing until either the person accepts the call or sends them to voicemail. Is there a way to playback something while the called individual is deciding to either accept or reject the call? Maybe On Hold Music or have it continually ring. Is there an option I’m overlooking? One other thing.

I notice it only does it when the person is required to record their name. If their name is already recorded in /var/lib/asterisk/sound/priv-callerintros then asterisk will playback a ring while the called person is hearing the privacy mode options. As always any help given is appreciated.

I guess this is a feature of asterisk that is not widely used. I admit, if it were up to me I wouldn’t use this feature only because I think it is rude to the caller. But if anyone has any suggestions?

Ok. So judging by the number of responses I’ve gotten, which is none, I’m guessing there is no fix short of going in and messing with the app_dial.c code which I don’t feel comfortable doing. This will be my last reply to this. Thanks to all who took the time to look at this post.

I don’t use the p option. Maybe try adding the m option for music hold in the dial string? If that doesn’t work you could probably do the same thing with a little dialplan coding instead of using the p option. Then use the M option on the dial command to have a macro which does the press 1 to accept thing.