How to set up extenstions to lines, hunt groups etc (basic questions and help needed)

[SFX Group]

Ive just managed to get SNOM ONE (free) working..... testing with 3CX softphone, will be getting at least one SNOM phone on the network, however i need to know the limits of this system to design the layout... so need help with this.

 

If i have 2 voip lines..... and a number of handsets that have extensions numbers.... a few questions..

 

- Is there a way of 1 physical phone having more than one extension number?

- Am i able to assign a voip line a "line" button on a phone or do i need something like "9" so the rules can work out which trunk to get the call to?

 

What i would like to do, is have a voip number (DID) ring at about 3 phones (can do this with a hunt group), however the voice mail (if no one answers) be accessible from any phone and that phone (or phones i want) be told there is a message waiting. I cant see this possible from a hunt group as there is a way of getting it to hunt on one phone for 1 second but that phone will be the one who gets the massage.

 

Also is there a way of having different mailbox messages depending on which line gets there (same extension gets calls from different DID so gets a different mailbox message), this is why i asked about 2 extensions on 1 phone, different DID going to different extensions (different mailboxes) resulting in the same physical extension, not sure this is possible though.

 

Many Thanks

Ashley

[Vodia PBX]

- Is there a way of 1 physical phone having more than one extension number?

 

Yes, there are (at least) two ways to achieve this. First you can set the list of account number(s) to something like "40 41 42" (list seperated by space). The first one will be the primary account.

 

Many phones (such as snom phones) support multiple registration on one phone. Then you can register multiple times to seperate accounts. If you want to use PnP, you can put the phone's MAC into the accounts that should be provisioned on the phone.

 

- Am i able to assign a voip line a "line" button on a phone or do i need something like "9" so the rules can work out which trunk to get the call to?

 

A lot of old PBX systems required something to dial an outbound number, primarily because those systems had to collect DTMF tones to find out what the user wants to dial. There the prefix was essentially a menu item that you could choose in the menu with the IVR "dial tone".

 

On new system like VoIP, the endpoint is typically smart enough (e.g. by having a display and edit keys) to figure out what the user wants to dial, so there is no need for such a prefix.

 

Also, the prefix is a pain in the neck when using address books or when calling back. Usually, incoming numbers dont have a prefix, and when you store them the device also does not add it. Then when you want to call them, there must be (complicated) rules to put something in front of it, no no. That is why in the PBX we decided that dialling should be pretty much like from a cell phone, where you dial the number tha you want to dial and thats it.

 

What i would like to do, is have a voip number (DID) ring at about 3 phones (can do this with a hunt group), however the voice mail (if no one answers) be accessible from any phone and that phone (or phones i want) be told there is a message waiting. I cant see this possible from a hunt group as there is a way of getting it to hunt on one phone for 1 second but that phone will be the one who gets the massage.

 

The PBX does have one prefix: If you want to dial an extension mailbox, you can dial 8 + extension (this is a domain setting). You can put the 8xx into the last stage of the hunt group, and voila the call goes directly into the mailbox of that extension. What most people do is set up a dummy extension just for that shared mailbox.

 

The mailbox also supports group mailbox functions, so that you can copy the message into regular mailbox accounts (I believe this is the setting "Allow Access for Extensions"). When one of those users reads or deletes the message, it will also be read/deleted in the copied instances (they share the same reference).

 

Also is there a way of having different mailbox messages depending on which line gets there (same extension gets calls from different DID so gets a different mailbox message), this is why i asked about 2 extensions on 1 phone, different DID going to different extensions (different mailboxes) resulting in the same physical extension, not sure this is possible though.

 

In that case I would choose the second method above where you provision multiple accounts on one device.