On Wed, 2006-09-20 at 08:26 -0500, Eric "ManxPower" Wieling wrote: > joea, j4computers wrote: > > Ferguson, Michael<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Wrote on: 9/20/2006 8:03 AM: > >> G'Day List, > >> > >> Interesting article. Enjoy > >> > >> http://www.networkworld.com/news/2006/091206-von-sam-houston.html?t5 > >> > >> Mike > > > > The text states that asterisk cannot do "secretarial" functions, meaning > > one person, or admin, cannot answer multiple lines. > > > > This relates a bit to my recent post, asking about servicing multiple > > lines. > > > > Implication is that asterisk can do that, but I am now concerned that there > > is no "uber function" that can allow a single person answer any line, for > > reasons of convenience or design. Problem is, this was understood, rightly > > or wrongly, to exist, in preliminary inquiries (not here) and is a part of > > a potential clients desire. > > > > Can someone enlighten me? > > The problem with a BLF (Busy Lamp Field) is that it's hard to find a box > with 6,000 buttons on it, as would be required by above university. > > Asterisk has several methods of picking up remote lines. Group Call > Pickup, Directed Call Pickup, and the standard way Asterisk rings > multiple extensions at the same time via & in the Dial() Line, and BLF > > If you want the "traditional" Key System style of BLF, then you need a > phone that supports it. The Polycom 601 Sidecar supports it in a > limited way, and I've heard that SNOM supports it as well. > > What SPECIFICALLY are you trying to do that you are unable to do?
You are correct, to an extent. We do have extensions that ring multiple phones on campus, however, BLF and SLA don't work in the current 1.2 branch. I know they're doing SLA work in 1.4, so we're hoping that the point is moot by the time it comes out. There are a number of patches that allow the polycoms and aastra's to do directed pickup on a line that's "ringing" combined with hinting to get the illusion of SLA, however, without extensive testing we haven't had a chance to implement the software. The biggest problem we have with the hinting functions is that you have to have the phones registered to the same server, and with two identical servers that could theoretically serve any phone we have, it's a management nightmare to guarantee that any given phone will be on the same server as any other given phone. On that note, for a small office, it would probably work great, it's just not feasible for us just yet, so we're looking into other options as well. :) -- Aaron Daniel Computer Systems Technician Sam Houston State University [EMAIL PROTECTED] (936) 294-4198 _______________________________________________ --Bandwidth and Colocation provided by Easynews.com -- asterisk-users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
