Hotdesking - V69

[RichardDCG]

Topics are getting a bit mixed up.

On a lab server I have a Yealink T41P as ext. 107 and a hotdesk license.  I can dial *70 and add 107 and every time I get the message 'service is inactive'. 

I can dial *70 and add ext. 108 as a user (regular license) and I can dial other ext. or an external number.  If I set 108 as a Hotdesk license I can't dial an ext. or an external number.

I can dial 107 or 108 from other phones, when they are a hotdesk license they can't dial back.  

My understanding of a hotdesk is that a company may have a set number of desks in the office that are allocated as hot desks. These hot desks are not assigned to any particular employee but may be used by employees who do not have a permanent desk allocated to them.  They then log into the phone and use it as a normal desk phone with the same functionality as other desk phones.

The Vodia hotdesk ONLY allows you to call an emergency number. 

[Vodia PBX]

Right. The idea is that there is this office space where people come and go and just grab a desk in the morning. Each desk has a VoIP phone, and that phone is just waiting for someone to grab it and log in (there is an option for the tenant to reset the hot desk at midnight for those who forget to log out). You can also set the hot desk from the PC app, so that you can enjoy the usually better audio quality on a VoIP phone (setting the hot desk might be a feature that also finds its way into the mobile apps). 

[mskenderian]

4 hours ago, Vodia PBX said:

Right. The idea is that there is this office space where people come and go and just grab a desk in the morning. Each desk has a VoIP phone, and that phone is just waiting for someone to grab it and log in (there is an option for the tenant to reset the hot desk at midnight for those who forget to log out). You can also set the hot desk from the PC app, so that you can enjoy the usually better audio quality on a VoIP phone (setting the hot desk might be a feature that also finds its way into the mobile apps). 

This isn’t something I am interested in but to fix the problem for @RichardDCG is having. Can a phone have a default extension. Let’s say extension 199. That extension it’s applied to all phones that the agent logs out of a hot desk phone. It becomes the default extension on all hot desk phones. That way they are able to still dial out and the calls gets logged to a single default extension.

[RichardDCG]

the main issue with the hotdesk ext. license is that I can ONLY dial an emergency number, no other numbers.  I cant dial other extensions, nor can I dial any external numbers.  In Australia, I can dial 000 ... thats it.  At the moment I can get great audio quality but only when I am talking to emergency services! 

[Vodia PBX]

2 hours ago, RichardDCG said:

the main issue with the hotdesk ext. license is that I can ONLY dial an emergency number, no other numbers.  I cant dial other extensions, nor can I dial any external numbers.  In Australia, I can dial 000 ... thats it.  At the moment I can get great audio quality but only when I am talking to emergency services! 

IMHO that's okay, maybe even a feature. Someone grabbing a desk in the morning would otherwise easily forget to login (or don't care), and then assigning the records to that user will be impossible. And people would call that person back on the hot desk extension, just to find out that the next day that person has changed the number—again!

[RichardDCG]

Just so I get this clear.  Your vision of a hotdesk user is that they come in and all they will ever dial is an emergency number?  How does a person change their number when they are given a specific ext. and and password??  Surely if you don't login then you cant make any calls .. at all.  It's just a phone shell with no details.

[Scott1234]

While reading some other Yealink doc's I came across doco on something that could work better as a hot desking function, all though not intended for that.  As I too have had issues with 'hot desking' which for functionally reasons I need to do it not using the pbx's vison of hot desking.

Yet to investigate fully, but my thinking is you could use PIN code AutoP where you have a base common config, then the pin CFG files (hot desk users) stored alongside in the backend of the pbx. 

Yealink SIP IP Phones Auto Provisioning Guide V1.0.pdf

Refer to, Auto Provisioning via Activation Code & Auto Provisioning via PIN Code, then you can treat each user load like it was a separate device with its own config. 

But without yet testing not sure if the user workflow trying to do it this way would be acceptable, its on my list at some point to try out. 

 

 

[RichardDCG]

e.g. I am user with ext. 104. 

On V68 I can login to any phone, provided I have extension 104 set with a PIN. I can then use the phone as my extension (104) as a normal phone, make/receive calls as normal.

The same on V69 ... unless my ext. 104 is set as a Hotdesk Ext.  I can then ONLY make an emergency call.  I can't call other extensions, I can't call any external numbers.  I can be called by other extensions.  If my ext. 104 is set as a regular ext. then I can use it as a normal phone. 

The restriction on the Hotdesk ext. to only call emergency numbers make this extension type useless. 

My expectation of a hotdesk phone is that it would only have the capacity to accept a *70 code until it is logged in. It should have no config at all until a user logs in.  When they logout the phone is 'wiped' again, ready for the new user.  But each user should be able to use the phone as a standard desk phone and call other extensions and external number.

[Vodia PBX]

On 6/20/2023 at 10:02 PM, RichardDCG said:

My expectation of a hotdesk phone is that it would only have the capacity to accept a *70 code until it is logged in. It should have no config at all until a user logs in.  When they logout the phone is 'wiped' again, ready for the new user.  But each user should be able to use the phone as a standard desk phone and call other extensions and external number.

100 %. There were some builds where that did not work as it should but that is as it should work. 

We are contemplating changing the way it works to reassigning MAC addresses instead of hijacking the registration. This might also help addressing the problem that button profiles need to be linked to devices and not to extensions. However before starting a new adventure, we want to have a release where the hotdesk in is just working as it should.

[RichardDCG]

Hotdesk is still not working, it seems to circle a working format without ever actually being one..

HD ext. 107.  

IP phone ext. 108.

Login to IP (Grandstream and HTek) with*70 and use 107 and get message 'service is now active' ... but calling out is from IP ext. 108, not  HD 107.  I dont seem to have logged into anything.

Using *70 to "logout" I keep getting 'service is now active'.

[Vodia PBX]

After logging into hot desking, please double check in the users account (not the VoIP phone on the hot desk) that there is the hot desking at ... set to the hot desk phone. Same after logging out, then it should be clear. 

And in order to avoid confusion (maybe from previous tests) that the VoIP phone itself is not hot desking anywhere else.

[RichardDCG]

How should the phone be setup to be ready for hotdesking?   I currently have a Yealink T41P set with ext. 107 registered.  Ext. 107 is allocated a hotdesk ext.  I cannot logout of the Yealink since I assume there is nothing for the phone to revert to?  So will be forever 'registered' to 107. 

I can log in and out as ext. 108 (also a HD ext.) on the Yealink and it is also setup on another phone (Grandstream GXP2135).  I can call either ext. 107 or 108 and get to the Yealink.  The GS does not ring when registered on the T41.  It does when I log 108 out of the T41.  I can dial *70 107 on the GXP2135 and get the message 'Service is now active' but the account still rings on the Yealink T41.

*70 and the ext. 107 or 108 on an HTek U926 plays the message 'service is now active' but neither account is accessible on the phone.

I think I will give up on the Hotdesk, it can ONLY dial an emergency number anyway so will be completely useless to us.  Too much time wasted on an extension that has no value. But it does seem to indicate there is still a way to go for V69 to be production ready.

[Vodia PBX]

14 hours ago, RichardDCG said:

How should the phone be setup to be ready for hotdesking?   I currently have a Yealink T41P set with ext. 107 registered.  Ext. 107 is allocated a hotdesk ext.  I cannot logout of the Yealink since I assume there is nothing for the phone to revert to?  So will be forever 'registered' to 107.

Yes the phone needs to be registered to the PBX in order to have control over that phone. That is what the hot desking account is for. It might be better to use a name like "hotdesk-107" because nobody is supposed to call this extension or from that extension.

IMHO there must be something else confusing going on, maybe a redirect all or multiple device registrations.

In any way, hot desking makes only sense in specific setups. For a regular office where users have their own phone, there is no need for hot desking and hot desking accounts.

 

[RichardDCG]

8 hours ago, Vodia PBX said:

because nobody is supposed to call this extension or from that extension.

Can you confirm (yes/no) that the ONLY number a hotdesk user can call is to emergency services?

[Vodia PBX]

On 6/27/2023 at 7:04 PM, RichardDCG said:

Can you confirm (yes/no) that the ONLY number a hotdesk user can call is to emergency services?

No—you can also call the hotdesk star code. But that's it: Emergency calls or logging in. We'll also remove the possibility to call the hot desking phone without anyone hot desking there in order to avoid further confusion. The hot desking account is really, really just for getting the actual user extension log into the phone and nothing else. IMHO hot desking extensions should no even have account numbers like 41, 42 or 43 and better call them hd-1, hd-2 and so on.

[RichardDCG]

16 minutes ago, Vodia PBX said:

No—you can also call the hotdesk star code. But that's it: Emergency calls or logging in

Thanks.  That will mean it is an extension type we will never use.  I'd actually be interested in what business setting that would actually be used.

[Vodia PBX]

17 hours ago, RichardDCG said:

Thanks.  That will mean it is an extension type we will never use.  I'd actually be interested in what business setting that would actually be used.

I would dare to say that most of the installations will never use it. That's totally fine. It's for the "shared office" environment (aka WeWork, MindSpace, Regus, etc) or maybe for large companies that have huge downtown offices where you get another desk every day you decide to come in. 

[mskenderian]

Also real estate office use this type of setup. Where most agent don’t come in to the office. But when they do. They can use the phone.

[RichardDCG]

On 7/1/2023 at 8:34 AM, mskenderian said:

Also real estate office use this type of setup. Where most agent don’t come in to the office. But when they do. They can use the phone.

and all they will want to use it for is to dial emergency services?  That is the ONLY number this extension type can call.

[mskenderian]

they ussually login to the phone, just like the computer at the station. they need to login to use it. there is no Guest user on the machines.

I get what you are saying. why dont u make a regular seat, and assign that that phone with two identities, one with hotdesk and one with regular user, assign one line key for the regular user and the other for hotdesk? use the same regular user for all the hotdesks.

[RichardDCG]

anyone who logs in with a hotdesk extension license can only call emergency services.  They cannot call any other numbers. I am struggling to understand where that would ever be used.