Call Park
Extensions may hold
or park a call. When a call is hold, only the extension can pick the
call up again; when the call is parked other extensions may pick up
the call as well. Holding is done by pushing the hold button on the
extension, most SIP user agents support this feature with a special
key or a soft key. Parking a call will redirect the call to a park
orbit. Even if you disconnect the extension the call will stay there
until someone picks the call up or the caller disconnects.
Every hunt group
and extension has its own park orbit. The name of the orbit is the
same as the name of the account.
Usually user agents
don't have a special key for parking a call. If they have, this key
will essentially redirect the call to the park orbit with a blind
transfer. Therefore, extension may generally park a call by a blind
transfer to the park orbit. However, PBX users are used to star
codes that perform the transfer to the park orbit.
In SIP, a user
agent will first put the call on hold before it can send a star
code. Sending the star code is executed in a new call that has the
destination of the star code (e.g. <sip:*85@test.com>). When the PBX
receives such a call, it will search the last call that this
extension received or initiated and will perform the blind transfer
of that call to a matching park orbit. It will then play an
announcement that the call has been parked and hang up.
If the extension
subscribes for the LED status information, it will light up the
respective LED after the call has been parked on the park orbit.
Call Park
Retrieve
After a call has
been parked, there must be a way to retrieve the call from the park
orbit. The retrieve code will go through the list of park orbits of
the user and pick up the first park orbit where a call has been
parked.
Note that park
orbits may have more than one call parked. In this case the park
orbit acts as waiting queue. The call park retrieve will pick the
first call in the orbit, so that the callers will leave the queue
after the first-in-first-out principle.
Call Pickup
Call pickup
searches for unconnected calls and redirects them to the extension.
The other extension that might be ringing will be cancelled. The
typical case for call pickup is when a colleague is temporarily not
available, but you want to take the call.
The PBX searches
first the hunt groups where the extension is a member for a call
that can be picked up. If no call was found, it tries the
extension's park orbit. If the user specifies the park orbit after
the pickup code, the PBX will search only the indicated park orbit.
However, the extension must be member of a hunt group, where the
pickup destination is also a group member. This is necessary to
protect unauthorized call pickups.
Call Return
Call Return will
dial the last number that has been missed. This function is useful
for SIP devices that don't keep a lit of missed calls (e.g. ATA).
Most SIP devices with a display have this function built-in, and the
user may see the caller-ID in the screen before returning the call.
The call return
function stores only one number. When the extension makes a call
that gets connected, the call return number is cleared. This makes
sure that a number is called only once, and users can dial the call
return code without talking to the same number again.
Redial
The Redial is
similar to call return, but it does not call the last incoming
number, it calls the last dialled number again. The redial number is
never deleted, users can redial numbers even if the call
established. The redial number and the call return numbers are
stored independently.
Transfer
Some devices do not
have a transfer button. For examples, when using ATA there is
usually no way to initiate a transfer except dialling a special
code. The transfer code initiates a blind transfer of the last call
on hold to the provided destination. The destination must be entered
directly behind the star code.
Hot Desking
Users are able to
go to any handset and have their extension number follow them. Call
for more information.
Call Forward
There are three
events that may trigger the forwarding if a call:
All means that the
call is forwarded always, independently of an event. Busy means that
a call is forwarded if the extension is busy. The busy condition
must be returned by the device, the PBX does not check the internal
state for the busy condition. This makes it possible to handle the
busy condition if several devices register for the same extension
number. When several extensions are used, the busy condition checks
if all devices are busy.
No Answer means
that no device picked up after a certain timeout. The timeout is a
domain setting that can be overwritten by an extension setting.
There are six star
codes to handle the call forwarding. Three codes are used to enable
the call forwarding condition. If the user dials this star code, the
PBX will prompt the user for the redirection number.
The other codes are
used for turning the redirections off. When the user dials these
star codes, the user will hear a prompt that the feature has been
deactivated.
Block CID
By default, the PBX
will try to present the caller-ID on outgoing calls. Sometimes,
users don't want to show the extension number. By using the block
CID code the PBX will try to hide the CID on all subsequent calls
until the user deactivates the blocking.
Calls from one
extension to another extension will always show the caller-ID.
Block Anonymous
Calls
When the PBX
receives a call where the caller-ID is neither an extension number
nor consists of a valid caller-ID, it will assume that this is an
anonymous caller ID. A call-ID is treated as valid when it consists
only of the characters 0-9. It may have a '+' character in the
beginning.
By default, the PBX
will allow anonymous calls. However, some users don't like to
receive such calls. When the feature is enabled, those calls are
rejected with a IVR prompt which explains that the caller-ID could
not be identified and the user accepts only calls with a valid
caller-ID.
DND
Do Not Disturb (DND)
is used to temporarily reject all incoming calls for all devices
registered with this extension. The two star codes are used to turn
DND on and off.
DND also applies to
hunt groups. If a member of a hunt group has set its extension
number to DND, the hunt group will skip that extension. This is a
different to redirect all, which will not redirect calls from a hunt
group.
Many SIP devices
have a dedicated DND button. Most implementation handle DND locally
on the device. However, when this function is used, the DND applies
only to the specific device and not to the extension and it usually
does not survive reboot cycles.
If the codes for
DND on and off are the same, the PBX toggles between the two states.
This is useful if you have a phone that just has DND programmed as a
speed dial button.
Extension
Monitoring / Line Monitoring
Emulates a
commander system feature where you can assign mappable keys on your
handset to monitor call traffic on every extension.
Agent Login and
Logout
Agents can
explicitly login and logout for agent groups. Their extension stays
registered and is dial able independently from the agent login
status. The status applies to all agent groups of the extension.
If the codes for
Agent Login and Logout are the same, the PBX toggles between the two
states. This is useful if you have a phone that just has login and
logout programmed as a speed dial button.
If you put the
queue number behind the code, you can dynamically add or remove an
extension to the list of agents of the queue (this feature is
available since version 2.1.3). The agent list will be updated as if
someone entered the extension number from the web interface. In
order to control the access to the group, you must put the setting
"Extensions that may jump in or out" of the agent group.
Go To Voicemail
This star code is
just a quick way to get to the mailbox.
Intercom
By using the
Intercom prefix, you can directly call another extension. The other
phone is asked to pick up immediately and to establish a two-way
audio conversation.
Intercom is
different from Paging in the way that Intercom is two-way,
one-to-one communications while paging is one-way, one-to-many
communications.
Call Extension
Cell Phone
This is like a
speed dial code that you don't have to set up. By putting the code
for calling the cell phone in front of the extension number, you can
directly call that extension's cell phone (e.g. *00123 for dialling
the cell phone associated with extension 123). The caller will not
see the cell phone number, so that the extension's privacy is kept
regarding handing out cell phone numbers.
Record
Announcement
If you want to
record the prompt for an auto attendant, an agent group or an IVR
node, you can use the Record star code. The PBX differentiates three
cases:
Attendant: The
digits behind the code identify the auto attendant and will record
the announcement for the account (e.g. dial *98123 to record the
announcement for auto attendant 123).
IVR Node: The
digits behind the code identify the IVR Node and will record the
announcement for the account.
Agent Group: The
code needs two arguments. The first argument identifies the queue,
and the second argument the prompt. The arguments are separated with
a star symbol. The first prompt with index 0 is the welcome prompt;
it will not be repeated and it will be played for all callers, no
matter if they have to wait or not. The other prompts with the index
1-9 will be repeated in a loop and are only played while the caller
has to wait in the loop.
Clear Voice
Message Indicator
When the user dials
this star code, the PBX will delete the Message Waiting Indicator (MWI)
on the extensions. Usually it should not be possible to clear the
MWI indicator manually, but if the extension just does not want to
listen to the mailbox and keep the MWI indication silent, this star
code will turn the indicator off.
Send Voicemails
When the PBX
records a mailbox message, it may store it locally or it may send it
via email to the user. Please note that sending a voicemail message
per email requires that you have properly set up the email address
of the user and of the domain. With the activation and deactivation
of this feature you toggle between the methods.
Customer
Originated Trace
This useful feature
sends the call details of the last calls to the email account of the
extension. Instead of writing down the number on a notepad, the user
can instead send him an email that contains all the information.
The PBX will
include a link to the last number. If you click on this link, the
PBX will prompt you for your username and password. Please enter
your username in the form "user@domain". If your browser supports
saving the login information, the next time when you click on such a
link to dial a number you will immediately initiate the call to that
destination.
This feature works
only with user agents that support the REFER mechanism outside of
existing dialogs. Check out your phone if it is able to support this
feature. On some phones, you have to press "Ok" or lift up the
handset in order to acknowledge the dialling of the number. The
remote initiation of a call is a security-sensitive topic, as it
might turn your phone into a microphone. Therefore, you must
authenticate yourself during the initiation of the call and you may
have to acknowledge the initiation of the call.
Add White List,
Add Black List
These codes are
used to store the last caller in the "white" or "black" list. It is
a convenient way of keeping the address book updated with useful
information for further communications.
Conference Call
/ Call Barge-In
In call barge in,
two persons that are talking to each other are put into a kind of
conference with a third person. Typically, this third person is a
secretary reminding ("saving") the boss about another appointment.
Both parties will hear the third person come into the call ("knock
knock") and both parties will be able to hear what the third person
has to say. The existence of the barge in call depends on the
existence of the underlying conversation.
In order to barge
into a call, dial *81 followed by the extension number that you
would like to interrupt, then press dial.
Call Teach-Mode
In teach mode, only
one side of the call can hear the third party. This is typically
useful in a call centre when a trainer wants to give tips to a new
agent, so that the customer does not know about the teacher in the
background. This mode is also sometimes called whisper mode, because
the agent's phone must have a real good echo cancellation so that
the customer does not hear some background echo.
In order to start
the teach mode, dial *82 followed by the extension number that
should hear your voice, and then press dial.
Call Listen-In
The listen mode is
similar, but completely stealth mode. The two persons talking to
each other are not notified about the listen in and cannot hear what
the third person says on the phone (e.g. breathing).
In order to start
listening to calls, dial *83 followed by the extension number that
you would like to monitor.
Wakeup Call
This code is used
to program the wakeup call for this extension.