I came across the same problem today. Phase one of our * project is to replace the PBX in one of our offices with *, and one of the extensions will be sent over VOIP to service representatives at a different location. But as a fallback, we want to dial directly if VOIP doesn't work (maybe the network is down) and if that doesn't work, send the caller to voicemail. And the same problems are happening.
I'm not sure if shmaltz's solution helps us here, during working hours at the place where the service reps sit, it will go into a PBX (not *), I think it will ring on the rep's desk, using Pavlovian techniques (e.g. send the ring voltage to their chair if they don't press a key), they can be trained to hit a key when they pick up the phone. But when the help desk isn't staffed, we want to ring someone's cellphone. Which is fine if he answers, but if he misses the call, or is already taking a call, we want it to go to his cellphone's voicemail (which is more accessable to him outside the office than his voicemail on the * server). Maybe we can put a DTMF digit into the cellphone voicemail greeting. On the other hand, maybe hitting any key while recording the greeting will stop recording. Then I was thinking about phase two of our project. In our main office, we currently have a PBX which we're not planning to replace, but we do want to replace our IVR/voicemail system that runs on Windows using a Dialogic card with an * system, the dialogic picks up incoming calls, transfers them (sending the PBX a flash followed by a local extension) to people, and detects if they answer or not. The Dialogic card knows how to detect ring, busy, no answer, no dialtone, congestion tone, and so on, so if the callee does not answer the call, it goes to voicemail (or to a different person, or back to the main menu so the caller can try someone else). It looks to me like we would have to have everyone in the office press a key every time any phone rings, I'm not sure if that's acceptable. Would call progress be any help? From what I've read, it can sometimes cause calls to be disconnected. _______________________________________________ Asterisk-Users mailing list Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users