Re: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist Phones
2006/3/29, John Novack [EMAIL PROTECTED]: The reality is, of course, that telephone systems have provided thisfunction for many years. A DSS/BLF is available on MANY so called legacysystems, so until this function is readily available , customers that require a receptionist will continue to go elsewhere.Perhaps it is time to rethink the way data is exchanged between the CPUand the DSS/BLF?As someone said a very long time ago:Results, not excuses. With user count growing, I think receptionist could evolve from hardware to hardware-software combination the same as receptionist job changes from assisting call transfers (check if someone is available before transfer) to blind call transfering (forward anyway and take the call back if nobody answers). If my understanding is correct, in the later case, a receptionist doesn't really need BLF : he or she simply forward the call.He or she mainly needs a directory application helping him or her to find the right person within the organisation. And I don't think anyone could have the patience to harphone BLF labels every 2 weeks to keep up large site permanent user moves, adds and changes. So the perfect receptionist application hardware-software combination should include a mix between directory application and softphone, and provide comfortable hardware to support these.My opinion is I don't think market trends are at works now to make this perfect combination happen anytime soon : - from my point of view, it could take years to gather inputs from receptionist around the world to provide them an effective software-hardware combination.- no one around the world really targets receptionist tools market (is it a market ?) : some companies sell headphones or hardphones but receptionnist account for such a tiny part of sales that these companies cannot really hear receptionists demands and design specific products. - even if someone ever decide to focus on this, it would be difficult for someone to convince companies to improve receptionist tools once receptionist are trained and used.Maybe, a standard PC+headphone + a couple of software would be the best way to go ? Even on that, obstacles remain such as :- how do you monitor legacy PBX users along Asterisk users ?- how do you monitor a distant Asterisk server whitout any Data link between both locations ?Regards ___ --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
Re: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist Phones
Olivier Krief wrote: 2006/3/29, John Novack [EMAIL PROTECTED]: The reality is, of course, that telephone systems have provided this function for many years. A DSS/BLF is available on MANY so called legacy systems, so until this function is readily available , customers that require a receptionist will continue to go elsewhere. Perhaps it is time to rethink the way data is exchanged between the CPU and the DSS/BLF? As someone said a very long time ago: Results, not excuses. With user count growing, I think receptionist could evolve from hardware to hardware-software combination the same as receptionist job changes from assisting call transfers (check if someone is available before transfer) to blind call transfering (forward anyway and take the call back if nobody answers). If my understanding is correct, in the later case, a receptionist doesn't really need BLF : he or she simply forward the call. He or she mainly needs a directory application helping him or her to find the right person within the organisation. And I don't think anyone could have the patience to harphone BLF labels every 2 weeks to keep up large site permanent user moves, adds and changes. So the perfect receptionist application hardware-software combination should include a mix between directory application and softphone, and provide comfortable hardware to support these. My opinion is I don't think market trends are at works now to make this perfect combination happen anytime soon : - from my point of view, it could take years to gather inputs from receptionist around the world to provide them an effective software-hardware combination. - no one around the world really targets receptionist tools market (is it a market ?) : some companies sell headphones or hardphones but receptionnist account for such a tiny part of sales that these companies cannot really hear receptionists demands and design specific products. - even if someone ever decide to focus on this, it would be difficult for someone to convince companies to improve receptionist tools once receptionist are trained and used. Maybe, a standard PC+headphone + a couple of software would be the best way to go ? Even on that, obstacles remain such as : - how do you monitor legacy PBX users along Asterisk users ? - how do you monitor a distant Asterisk server whitout any Data link between both locations ? Regards >From a sales perspective, one needs a system that is capable of many different configurations. a small business wants shared line appearances, since that has been proven to work for them. Our of an office, imagine a retail store, where everyone on the floor needs to be able to answer, redirect a call, not know if another station is busy or not, be able to do an all call page, or an off hook voice announce, to name a few features. Square hybrid works well here. In a larger establishment that has a receptionist who is used to a DSS/BLF, before the sale there is a good chance he/she will be consulted, and reject anything that requires a great deal of change. Soft BLF, as someone else pointed out, can be a real problem when the desktop is busy, has crashed, or the BLF window closed accidently Trying to jam someone into an IP system WILL meet with resistance. There are too many good systems out there that long ago overcame these problems, and many of them are NOT that expensive. Use the correct tool for the job. There are many places where Asterisk works, and many where it is a square peg in a round hole JMO John Novack ___ --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
Re: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist Phones
I've been quiet on this discussion for a few days and reading everybody's thoughts. But since I brought this subject up in the first place I thought I would bring it to a close with the results summarized. 1. The polycom phones do support attendant stations, but there is some incompatibility between their phone and asterisk that currently limits the number of monitored stations to 7. They are aware of this limitation and are currently working on fixing it. 2. The Snom phones work and do not seem to suffer from this limit. 3. Snom phones give you up to 54 monitored lines currently, but there is indication on their website (use of the word currently) that they are trying to find a way to bring this number up (possibly linking more than one add-on module together). 4. Old style switchboards (such as DSS attendant stations) are a thing of the past and will likely die off in the future, but the world is not there yet, people still want them. 5. Computer based, on-screen monitoring systems are the future for large organizations as they are easy to change and easy to customize to fit exactly what you want. But there are some things to resolve before the average user can use them without a dedicated computer screen to reduce frustration. I have no doubt that as more companies move to VoIP systems these old DSS units will become a thing of the past, we just are not quite there yet. 6. Most people (not all, but most) who are given the option of a new way to monitor line status vs. the old way will probably eventually use the new way (some kind of FOP display). But those same people will refuse to like the new way if the are forced to use it or nothing, just the way people are. I don't doubt that we could slowly train our receptionists to use the new system while they have access to the old and simply wait until they say, you know what, we don't use that old box anymore, it just takes time. :) So my original question was answered long ago, but I have enjoyed the thoughts and opinions of everybody that has contributed to this discussion. Regards, Daniel Hazelbaker ___ --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
Re: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist Phones
The reality is, of course, that telephone systems have provided this function for many years. A DSS/BLF is available on MANY so called legacy systems, so until this function is readily available , customers that require a receptionist will continue to go elsewhere. Perhaps it is time to rethink the way data is exchanged between the CPU and the DSS/BLF? As someone said a very long time ago: Results, not excuses. JMO John Novack Christian Stredicke wrote: Well the problem with the sidecar is simple. Just try to light all lights three times within one second. If you have 50 keys there is already hell breaking loose. If you cascade side cars and say have 100 LED, this is a real Xmas tree. The CPU drowns in XML notifications. We already had trouble, and we don't want to double it at this time. Good work, IETF. BTW this is not only a problem if the phone. If the PBX has to supply 50 phones with 50 LED and e.g. they are going off hook at the same time, we are talking about a burst of 50 * 50 = 2500 messages which will have some impact of the PBX CPU as well. We need to do something about this first before we can start having 100 or 150 LED on a device. Christian - yes I am from snom. -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of mustardman29 Sent: Tuesday, March 28, 2006 8:47 PM To: 'Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion' Subject: RE: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist Phones So how did the Polycom with sidecars work? I like the idea of a dedicated FOP display but not sure why you would need it if you have a Polycom with sidecars. -Original Message- From: Jerry Jones [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, March 28, 2006 7:28 AM To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist Phones We installed a snom with 3 sidecars. Kinda worked, but had so many quirks they had us replace with a Polycom. All their other phones were of the poly variety. We installed a dedicated lcd running FOP for display. Receptionist was much happier. One of the key problems was she like to set the handset on her desk. But then the snom would not ring. On Mar 28, 2006, at 9:01 AM, Bob McDowell wrote: Can you chain these to get more that 42 buttons? I need about 60... Bob McDowell -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Darrell Long Sent: Monday, March 27, 2006 4:32 PM To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist Phones The 360 has an expansion unit. It adds 42 extensions. Darrell S. Long BestWeb Corporation Daniel Hazelbaker wrote: Hmm, which phone from Snom are you using for this? I've looked around their website and I can only find 3 VoIP phones, the 300, 320 and 360. The 360 by the looks of it only has 12 buttons you can assign to different extensions; am I missing something or is that the phone and you just do 12 per phone? Daniel On Mar 27, 2006, at 2:28 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Yes - set up about 10 of them at a business last year. Monitoring is fine - picking up calls is a bit iffy at the best of times. (that is, picking up a ringing call by pushing the extension button. *8 works fine) Paul Hales Technical Manager AsteriskIT ___ --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 ___ --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 ___ --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 ___ --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 ___ --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 ___ --Bandwidth and Colocation provided by Easynews.com -- Asterisk-Users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo
Re: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist Phones
Because we still have to live with - the current - seven only limitation. We have found that training generally results in folks understanding how to use a PBX vs a key system For many years I installed large PBX systems, Rolms, ATT, Nortel, etc and often no blf/dss was available, or management did not wish to purchase. Users at first were unhappy, but got used to working with the PBX. In fact most had to give up key phones with lots of buttons/ lights and oonly had a stnadard 2500 set to do everything with. On Mar 28, 2006, at 7:33 PM, mustardman29 wrote: So how did the Polycom with sidecars work? I like the idea of a dedicated FOP display but not sure why you would need it if you have a Polycom with sidecars. -Original Message- From: Jerry Jones [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, March 28, 2006 7:28 AM To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist Phones We installed a snom with 3 sidecars. Kinda worked, but had so many quirks they had us replace with a Polycom. All their other phones were of the poly variety. We installed a dedicated lcd running FOP for display. Receptionist was much happier. One of the key problems was she like to set the handset on her desk. But then the snom would not ring. On Mar 28, 2006, at 9:01 AM, Bob McDowell wrote: Can you chain these to get more that 42 buttons? I need about 60... Bob McDowell -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Darrell Long Sent: Monday, March 27, 2006 4:32 PM To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist Phones The 360 has an expansion unit. It adds 42 extensions. Darrell S. Long BestWeb Corporation Daniel Hazelbaker wrote: Hmm, which phone from Snom are you using for this? I've looked around their website and I can only find 3 VoIP phones, the 300, 320 and 360. The 360 by the looks of it only has 12 buttons you can assign to different extensions; am I missing something or is that the phone and you just do 12 per phone? Daniel On Mar 27, 2006, at 2:28 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Yes - set up about 10 of them at a business last year. Monitoring is fine - picking up calls is a bit iffy at the best of times. (that is, picking up a ringing call by pushing the extension button. *8 works fine) Paul Hales Technical Manager AsteriskIT ___ --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 ___ --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 ___ --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 ___ --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 ___ --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
RE: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist Phones
I agree that some of these features which are considered quite basic on legacy phone systems are a major weakness on the Asterisk system. It seems to me that more time should be put into getting the basics working nicely rather than all the work going into the whiz bang bells and whistles. Just an observation not a complaint. I am not a coder so maybe I don't understand some of the challenges. -Original Message- From: John Novack [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, March 29, 2006 6:08 AM To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist Phones The reality is, of course, that telephone systems have provided this function for many years. A DSS/BLF is available on MANY so called legacy systems, so until this function is readily available , customers that require a receptionist will continue to go elsewhere. Perhaps it is time to rethink the way data is exchanged between the CPU and the DSS/BLF? As someone said a very long time ago: Results, not excuses. JMO John Novack Christian Stredicke wrote: Well the problem with the sidecar is simple. Just try to light all lights three times within one second. If you have 50 keys there is already hell breaking loose. If you cascade side cars and say have 100 LED, this is a real Xmas tree. The CPU drowns in XML notifications. We already had trouble, and we don't want to double it at this time. Good work, IETF. BTW this is not only a problem if the phone. If the PBX has to supply 50 phones with 50 LED and e.g. they are going off hook at the same time, we are talking about a burst of 50 * 50 = 2500 messages which will have some impact of the PBX CPU as well. We need to do something about this first before we can start having 100 or 150 LED on a device. Christian - yes I am from snom. -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of mustardman29 Sent: Tuesday, March 28, 2006 8:47 PM To: 'Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion' Subject: RE: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist Phones So how did the Polycom with sidecars work? I like the idea of a dedicated FOP display but not sure why you would need it if you have a Polycom with sidecars. -Original Message- From: Jerry Jones [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, March 28, 2006 7:28 AM To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist Phones We installed a snom with 3 sidecars. Kinda worked, but had so many quirks they had us replace with a Polycom. All their other phones were of the poly variety. We installed a dedicated lcd running FOP for display. Receptionist was much happier. One of the key problems was she like to set the handset on her desk. But then the snom would not ring. On Mar 28, 2006, at 9:01 AM, Bob McDowell wrote: Can you chain these to get more that 42 buttons? I need about 60... Bob McDowell -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Darrell Long Sent: Monday, March 27, 2006 4:32 PM To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist Phones The 360 has an expansion unit. It adds 42 extensions. Darrell S. Long BestWeb Corporation Daniel Hazelbaker wrote: Hmm, which phone from Snom are you using for this? I've looked around their website and I can only find 3 VoIP phones, the 300, 320 and 360. The 360 by the looks of it only has 12 buttons you can assign to different extensions; am I missing something or is that the phone and you just do 12 per phone? Daniel On Mar 27, 2006, at 2:28 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Yes - set up about 10 of them at a business last year. Monitoring is fine - picking up calls is a bit iffy at the best of times. (that is, picking up a ringing call by pushing the extension button. *8 works fine) Paul Hales Technical Manager AsteriskIT ___ --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 ___ --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 ___ --Bandwidth and Colocation provided by Easynews.com
RE: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist Phones
Could you please explain this limitation. Why would Polycom sell a sidecar if it does not work or is this specific to Asterisk? -Original Message- From: Jerry Jones [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, March 29, 2006 8:05 AM To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist Phones Because we still have to live with - the current - seven only limitation. We have found that training generally results in folks understanding how to use a PBX vs a key system For many years I installed large PBX systems, Rolms, ATT, Nortel, etc and often no blf/dss was available, or management did not wish to purchase. Users at first were unhappy, but got used to working with the PBX. In fact most had to give up key phones with lots of buttons/ lights and oonly had a stnadard 2500 set to do everything with. On Mar 28, 2006, at 7:33 PM, mustardman29 wrote: So how did the Polycom with sidecars work? I like the idea of a dedicated FOP display but not sure why you would need it if you have a Polycom with sidecars. -Original Message- From: Jerry Jones [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, March 28, 2006 7:28 AM To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist Phones We installed a snom with 3 sidecars. Kinda worked, but had so many quirks they had us replace with a Polycom. All their other phones were of the poly variety. We installed a dedicated lcd running FOP for display. Receptionist was much happier. One of the key problems was she like to set the handset on her desk. But then the snom would not ring. On Mar 28, 2006, at 9:01 AM, Bob McDowell wrote: Can you chain these to get more that 42 buttons? I need about 60... Bob McDowell -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Darrell Long Sent: Monday, March 27, 2006 4:32 PM To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist Phones The 360 has an expansion unit. It adds 42 extensions. Darrell S. Long BestWeb Corporation Daniel Hazelbaker wrote: Hmm, which phone from Snom are you using for this? I've looked around their website and I can only find 3 VoIP phones, the 300, 320 and 360. The 360 by the looks of it only has 12 buttons you can assign to different extensions; am I missing something or is that the phone and you just do 12 per phone? Daniel On Mar 27, 2006, at 2:28 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Yes - set up about 10 of them at a business last year. Monitoring is fine - picking up calls is a bit iffy at the best of times. (that is, picking up a ringing call by pushing the extension button. *8 works fine) Paul Hales Technical Manager AsteriskIT ___ --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 ___ --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 ___ --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 ___ --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 ___ --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
RE: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist Phones
-Original Message- From: mustardman29 [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, March 29, 2006 4:08 PM To: 'Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion' Subject: RE: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist Phones Could you please explain this limitation. Why would Polycom sell a sidecar if it does not work or is this specific to Asterisk? mustardman: Here's a couple of email quotes from a discussion I had with a Polycom employee. If you'd like the full text of the email let me know and I can send it to you directly. You can quite clearly see it's a Polycom limitation. Others have reported being about to 'buddy' more than 7 extensions with other phones with Asterisk. Douglas, There is slated to be a large increase to the amount of buddies (48) with sip 2.0 towards the end of May. At this time we have sip 1.6.5, but it does not include any of those enhancements. - and - Yes at this time the limit is 7, but that should increase with newer releases of software. ___ --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
RE: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist Phones
Can you chain these to get more that 42 buttons? I need about 60... Bob McDowell -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Darrell Long Sent: Monday, March 27, 2006 4:32 PM To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist Phones The 360 has an expansion unit. It adds 42 extensions. Darrell S. Long BestWeb Corporation Daniel Hazelbaker wrote: Hmm, which phone from Snom are you using for this? I've looked around their website and I can only find 3 VoIP phones, the 300, 320 and 360. The 360 by the looks of it only has 12 buttons you can assign to different extensions; am I missing something or is that the phone and you just do 12 per phone? Daniel On Mar 27, 2006, at 2:28 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Yes - set up about 10 of them at a business last year. Monitoring is fine - picking up calls is a bit iffy at the best of times. (that is, picking up a ringing call by pushing the extension button. *8 works fine) Paul Hales Technical Manager AsteriskIT ___ --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 ___ --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 ___ --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
Re: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist Phones
We installed a snom with 3 sidecars. Kinda worked, but had so many quirks they had us replace with a Polycom. All their other phones were of the poly variety. We installed a dedicated lcd running FOP for display. Receptionist was much happier. One of the key problems was she like to set the handset on her desk. But then the snom would not ring. On Mar 28, 2006, at 9:01 AM, Bob McDowell wrote: Can you chain these to get more that 42 buttons? I need about 60... Bob McDowell -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Darrell Long Sent: Monday, March 27, 2006 4:32 PM To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist Phones The 360 has an expansion unit. It adds 42 extensions. Darrell S. Long BestWeb Corporation Daniel Hazelbaker wrote: Hmm, which phone from Snom are you using for this? I've looked around their website and I can only find 3 VoIP phones, the 300, 320 and 360. The 360 by the looks of it only has 12 buttons you can assign to different extensions; am I missing something or is that the phone and you just do 12 per phone? Daniel On Mar 27, 2006, at 2:28 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Yes - set up about 10 of them at a business last year. Monitoring is fine - picking up calls is a bit iffy at the best of times. (that is, picking up a ringing call by pushing the extension button. *8 works fine) Paul Hales Technical Manager AsteriskIT ___ --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 ___ --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 ___ --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 ___ --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
Re: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist Phones
Bob McDowell wrote: Can you chain these to get more that 42 buttons? I need about 60... Bob McDowell 42+12 is fairly near the 60 target. -- Best regards Peer Oliver Schmidt PGP Key ID: 0x83E1C2EA ___ --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
RE: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist Phones
Very true. I am currently debating whether or not to offer it as an option for my employer's system. As it currently stands, we do not have everyone's extensions on a button. With the snom 360 plus the expansion we still don't have them all. While I'm sure it would be 'better than nothing' from my own point of view, it might also be setting up the receptionist for a disappoint. As this system is new, I'm working hard to portray it as the 'limitless future', as opposed to the proprietary and very limited system we were on before. The receptionist not having a sidecar is present my fault, due to lack of finding a good one. Bob McDowell -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Peer Oliver Schmidt Sent: Tuesday, March 28, 2006 9:50 AM To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist Phones Bob McDowell wrote: Can you chain these to get more that 42 buttons? I need about 60... Bob McDowell 42+12 is fairly near the 60 target. -- Best regards Peer Oliver Schmidt PGP Key ID: 0x83E1C2EA ___ --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 ___ --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
Re: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist Phones
What I read on snom's website was the _currently_ only one sidecar can be hooked up at a time. It sounds like they are working on getting multiple sidecars chained together but have not got all of the bugs worked out. I am kind of in the same boat. Our current system offers 60 buttons on the sidecar. It is full but they already don't have everybody. Talking to the receptionists (we have a split office setup, one on each side of the building) they figure it would not be hard for them to remove the extensions that are not used very much to get the number down to the 54 currently allowed on the snom phone. Particularly since it is a short term solution. I expect either snom to get multiple sidecars working fairly soon or polycom to get the issue with its 7-button limit figured out (or Asterisk, as the case may be), and then be able to upgrade their phones to an unlimited button phone. And the price of the snom setup is not bad at all. $235 for the phone and $140 for the expansion module = $375. Not a hard sell to say that they may have to toss a $140 expansion module if they end up going with a different solution later. The phone would still be perfectly good. Daniel On Mar 28, 2006, at 8:12 AM, Bob McDowell wrote: Very true. I am currently debating whether or not to offer it as an option for my employer's system. As it currently stands, we do not have everyone's extensions on a button. With the snom 360 plus the expansion we still don't have them all. While I'm sure it would be 'better than nothing' from my own point of view, it might also be setting up the receptionist for a disappoint. As this system is new, I'm working hard to portray it as the 'limitless future', as opposed to the proprietary and very limited system we were on before. The receptionist not having a sidecar is present my fault, due to lack of finding a good one. Bob McDowell ___ --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
RE: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist Phones
So how did the Polycom with sidecars work? I like the idea of a dedicated FOP display but not sure why you would need it if you have a Polycom with sidecars. -Original Message- From: Jerry Jones [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, March 28, 2006 7:28 AM To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist Phones We installed a snom with 3 sidecars. Kinda worked, but had so many quirks they had us replace with a Polycom. All their other phones were of the poly variety. We installed a dedicated lcd running FOP for display. Receptionist was much happier. One of the key problems was she like to set the handset on her desk. But then the snom would not ring. On Mar 28, 2006, at 9:01 AM, Bob McDowell wrote: Can you chain these to get more that 42 buttons? I need about 60... Bob McDowell -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Darrell Long Sent: Monday, March 27, 2006 4:32 PM To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist Phones The 360 has an expansion unit. It adds 42 extensions. Darrell S. Long BestWeb Corporation Daniel Hazelbaker wrote: Hmm, which phone from Snom are you using for this? I've looked around their website and I can only find 3 VoIP phones, the 300, 320 and 360. The 360 by the looks of it only has 12 buttons you can assign to different extensions; am I missing something or is that the phone and you just do 12 per phone? Daniel On Mar 27, 2006, at 2:28 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Yes - set up about 10 of them at a business last year. Monitoring is fine - picking up calls is a bit iffy at the best of times. (that is, picking up a ringing call by pushing the extension button. *8 works fine) Paul Hales Technical Manager AsteriskIT ___ --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 ___ --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 ___ --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 ___ --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
RE: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist Phones
Well the problem with the sidecar is simple. Just try to light all lights three times within one second. If you have 50 keys there is already hell breaking loose. If you cascade side cars and say have 100 LED, this is a real Xmas tree. The CPU drowns in XML notifications. We already had trouble, and we don't want to double it at this time. Good work, IETF. BTW this is not only a problem if the phone. If the PBX has to supply 50 phones with 50 LED and e.g. they are going off hook at the same time, we are talking about a burst of 50 * 50 = 2500 messages which will have some impact of the PBX CPU as well. We need to do something about this first before we can start having 100 or 150 LED on a device. Christian - yes I am from snom. -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of mustardman29 Sent: Tuesday, March 28, 2006 8:47 PM To: 'Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion' Subject: RE: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist Phones So how did the Polycom with sidecars work? I like the idea of a dedicated FOP display but not sure why you would need it if you have a Polycom with sidecars. -Original Message- From: Jerry Jones [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, March 28, 2006 7:28 AM To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist Phones We installed a snom with 3 sidecars. Kinda worked, but had so many quirks they had us replace with a Polycom. All their other phones were of the poly variety. We installed a dedicated lcd running FOP for display. Receptionist was much happier. One of the key problems was she like to set the handset on her desk. But then the snom would not ring. On Mar 28, 2006, at 9:01 AM, Bob McDowell wrote: Can you chain these to get more that 42 buttons? I need about 60... Bob McDowell -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Darrell Long Sent: Monday, March 27, 2006 4:32 PM To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist Phones The 360 has an expansion unit. It adds 42 extensions. Darrell S. Long BestWeb Corporation Daniel Hazelbaker wrote: Hmm, which phone from Snom are you using for this? I've looked around their website and I can only find 3 VoIP phones, the 300, 320 and 360. The 360 by the looks of it only has 12 buttons you can assign to different extensions; am I missing something or is that the phone and you just do 12 per phone? Daniel On Mar 27, 2006, at 2:28 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Yes - set up about 10 of them at a business last year. Monitoring is fine - picking up calls is a bit iffy at the best of times. (that is, picking up a ringing call by pushing the extension button. *8 works fine) Paul Hales Technical Manager AsteriskIT ___ --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 ___ --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 ___ --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 ___ --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 ___ --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
Re: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist Phones
For those of us that only need a small handful of these receptionist phones (for me it is 2), it should not be nearly as much of a problem, correct? For example I only need 2 phones with 60 (well, I can get 54 atm, but would like to expand even more). Assuming everybody picked up their phone at the same time that would only be 180 (60 * 2, plus I am assuming some message to the phone that was picked up) messages. I can't imagine putting a sidecar on every single phone. If average joe really wants to know if somebody is on the phone they can log into a web page that will tell them the status of a phone. Daniel - Good to hear that people from the manufacturing companies traffic these lists! On Mar 28, 2006, at 6:29 PM, Christian Stredicke wrote: Well the problem with the sidecar is simple. Just try to light all lights three times within one second. If you have 50 keys there is already hell breaking loose. If you cascade side cars and say have 100 LED, this is a real Xmas tree. The CPU drowns in XML notifications. We already had trouble, and we don't want to double it at this time. Good work, IETF. BTW this is not only a problem if the phone. If the PBX has to supply 50 phones with 50 LED and e.g. they are going off hook at the same time, we are talking about a burst of 50 * 50 = 2500 messages which will have some impact of the PBX CPU as well. We need to do something about this first before we can start having 100 or 150 LED on a device. Christian - yes I am from snom. ___ --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
[Asterisk-Users] Receptionist Phones (was 3Com Phones)
Thanks for all the comments on the 3Com phones. Thankfully, there is a large number of phones out there to dig through looking for the right solution. What I have not been able to find, after spending all weekend looking, is a good solution for an attendant console. We have 2 receptionists that need to be able to view all 60+ phones (we could probably weed it down a bit if we had to, but would like to be able to cover all the phones) and see who is on the phone already. I would like to avoid a software solution as those tend to be confusing and hard for non-computer savvy people to deal with. I have seen that the polycom setup (601+sidecar) works but only for up to 7 phones. Does anybody have a recommendation for a solution for this? I find it hard to believe that nobody makes a compatible phone (or add-on) that is compatible with Asterisk. It seems like such a common thing. Daniel Hazelbaker ___ --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
Re: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist Phones (was 3Com Phones)
We would be interested in the same. We have had only limited success getting Snom's phones to do this. And, you're right, this is such a common thing, there MUST be something out there that can do the job. Darrell S. Long BestWeb Corporation Daniel Hazelbaker wrote: Thanks for all the comments on the 3Com phones. Thankfully, there is a large number of phones out there to dig through looking for the right solution. What I have not been able to find, after spending all weekend looking, is a good solution for an attendant console. We have 2 receptionists that need to be able to view all 60+ phones (we could probably weed it down a bit if we had to, but would like to be able to cover all the phones) and see who is on the phone already. I would like to avoid a software solution as those tend to be confusing and hard for non-computer savvy people to deal with. I have seen that the polycom setup (601+sidecar) works but only for up to 7 phones. Does anybody have a recommendation for a solution for this? I find it hard to believe that nobody makes a compatible phone (or add-on) that is compatible with Asterisk. It seems like such a common thing. Daniel Hazelbaker ___ --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 ___ --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
RE: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist Phones (was 3Com Phones)
-Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Daniel Hazelbaker Sent: Monday, March 27, 2006 1:32 PM To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion Subject: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist Phones (was 3Com Phones) Thanks for all the comments on the 3Com phones. Thankfully, there is a large number of phones out there to dig through looking for the right solution. What I have not been able to find, after spending all weekend looking, is a good solution for an attendant console. We have 2 receptionists that need to be able to view all 60+ phones (we could probably weed it down a bit if we had to, but would like to be able to cover all the phones) and see who is on the phone already. I would like to avoid a software solution as those tend to be confusing and hard for non-computer savvy people to deal with. I have seen that the polycom setup (601+sidecar) works but only for up to 7 phones. Does anybody have a recommendation for a solution for this? I find it hard to believe that nobody makes a compatible phone (or add-on) that is compatible with Asterisk. It seems like such a common thing. Daniel Hazelbaker ___ --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 Have you looked that the flash operator panel? http://www.asternic.org/demo.html I know you mentioned not wanting a software solution because of confusion but I think that would be pretty easy to understand. Curt ___ --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
Re: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist Phones (was 3Com Phones)
We may end up using a software solution, but there are two main issues with a software solution (for us at least): 1) For us in particular, our receptionists have ALWAYS (for the past 15 years at least) used a physical switchboard style for routing and seeing availability. From past hardware-software changes we know that it will be very frustrating for them. For us, it is much more worth it to spend $1,000 to buy each of the two receptionists a really nice phone that supports these features rather than get a cheap software (though very nice) solution. 2) Having a software solution can cause grief and frustration to an already overworked receptionist. Just a few examples (these are not as uncommon as one might think): User quits web browser after finishing looking something up on-line, doesn't realize they just closed out their switchboard until they need it and it is not there. User gets lost trying to find the right window while trying to not sound like an idiot to the person on the phone. Computer has frozen, or otherwise has problems, and must be rebooted. I do like the look of Asternic, it is very old-style and easy to get used to, but we would still prefer a hardware solution if possible. We may end up having to say, sorry but you need to deal with this for a while until some bugs in the system are resolved (i.e. the 7 line problem), but as soon as a hardware solution is available we will switch you back to it. Hopefully we can find something before we switch, but if not it is good to know that software solutions are a viable alternative. Have you looked that the flash operator panel? http://www.asternic.org/demo.html I know you mentioned not wanting a software solution because of confusion but I think that would be pretty easy to understand. Curt ___ --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 ___ --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
Re: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist Phones (was 3Com Phones)
On 3/27/06, Daniel Hazelbaker [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I have seen that the polycom setup (601+sidecar) works but only for up to 7 phones From what I've seen, each sidecar supports up to 14 additional stations. Three of those along with the 5 buttons on the 601 comes up to 47 on my calculator. Is there a known problem with the 601+sidecars and * that prevents the user from being able to monitor more than 7 extensions? Just curious as I've been leaning toward this for our receptionist as well (only 12 extensions to monitor...) -- Justin Moore aka wantmoore --- www.wantmoore.com ___ --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
Re: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist Phones
Yes, I keep reading on the mailing list archives and the wikis that (wether or not it is indeed a Asterisk issue) Polycom keeps saying that an issue with Asterisk prevents you from monitoring more than 7 total (not per sidecar) extensions. Daniel On Mar 27, 2006, at 12:08 PM, Justin Moore wrote: On 3/27/06, Daniel Hazelbaker [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I have seen that the polycom setup (601+sidecar) works but only for up to 7 phones From what I've seen, each sidecar supports up to 14 additional stations. Three of those along with the 5 buttons on the 601 comes up to 47 on my calculator. Is there a known problem with the 601+sidecars and * that prevents the user from being able to monitor more than 7 extensions? Just curious as I've been leaning toward this for our receptionist as well (only 12 extensions to monitor...) -- Justin Moore aka wantmoore --- www.wantmoore.com ___ --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 ___ --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
Re: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist Phones
Using a Snom phone, you can monitor a lot more extensions, so I figure it's got to be a Polycom issue. Paul Hales Technical Manager AsteriskIT - Original Message - From: Daniel Hazelbaker [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion asterisk-users@lists.digium.com Sent: Tuesday, March 28, 2006 6:28 AM Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist Phones Yes, I keep reading on the mailing list archives and the wikis that (wether or not it is indeed a Asterisk issue) Polycom keeps saying that an issue with Asterisk prevents you from monitoring more than 7 total (not per sidecar) extensions. Daniel On Mar 27, 2006, at 12:08 PM, Justin Moore wrote: On 3/27/06, Daniel Hazelbaker [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I have seen that the polycom setup (601+sidecar) works but only for up to 7 phones From what I've seen, each sidecar supports up to 14 additional stations. Three of those along with the 5 buttons on the 601 comes up to 47 on my calculator. Is there a known problem with the 601+sidecars and * that prevents the user from being able to monitor more than 7 extensions? Just curious as I've been leaning toward this for our receptionist as well (only 12 extensions to monitor...) -- Justin Moore aka wantmoore --- www.wantmoore.com ___ --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 ___ --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 ___ --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
Re: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist Phones
Do you have experience with the Snom phones? We have not had much success getting them to work under Asterisk as a receptionist phone. Specifically, the ability to monitor and pick up calls ringing on other extensions has been a problem. Darrell S. Long BestWeb Corporation [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Using a Snom phone, you can monitor a lot more extensions, so I figure it's got to be a Polycom issue. Paul Hales Technical Manager AsteriskIT - Original Message - From: Daniel Hazelbaker [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion asterisk-users@lists.digium.com Sent: Tuesday, March 28, 2006 6:28 AM Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist Phones Yes, I keep reading on the mailing list archives and the wikis that (wether or not it is indeed a Asterisk issue) Polycom keeps saying that an issue with Asterisk prevents you from monitoring more than 7 total (not per sidecar) extensions. Daniel On Mar 27, 2006, at 12:08 PM, Justin Moore wrote: On 3/27/06, Daniel Hazelbaker [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I have seen that the polycom setup (601+sidecar) works but only for up to 7 phones From what I've seen, each sidecar supports up to 14 additional stations. Three of those along with the 5 buttons on the 601 comes up to 47 on my calculator. Is there a known problem with the 601+sidecars and * that prevents the user from being able to monitor more than 7 extensions? Just curious as I've been leaning toward this for our receptionist as well (only 12 extensions to monitor...) -- Justin Moore aka wantmoore --- www.wantmoore.com ___ --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 ___ --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 ___ --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 ___ --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
Re: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist Phones
Yes - set up about 10 of them at a business last year. Monitoring is fine - picking up calls is a bit iffy at the best of times. (that is, picking up a ringing call by pushing the extension button. *8 works fine) Paul Hales Technical Manager AsteriskIT - Original Message - From: Darrell Long [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion asterisk-users@lists.digium.com Sent: Tuesday, March 28, 2006 7:21 AM Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist Phones Do you have experience with the Snom phones? We have not had much success getting them to work under Asterisk as a receptionist phone. Specifically, the ability to monitor and pick up calls ringing on other extensions has been a problem. Darrell S. Long BestWeb Corporation [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Using a Snom phone, you can monitor a lot more extensions, so I figure it's got to be a Polycom issue. Paul Hales Technical Manager AsteriskIT - Original Message - From: Daniel Hazelbaker [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion asterisk-users@lists.digium.com Sent: Tuesday, March 28, 2006 6:28 AM Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist Phones Yes, I keep reading on the mailing list archives and the wikis that (wether or not it is indeed a Asterisk issue) Polycom keeps saying that an issue with Asterisk prevents you from monitoring more than 7 total (not per sidecar) extensions. Daniel On Mar 27, 2006, at 12:08 PM, Justin Moore wrote: On 3/27/06, Daniel Hazelbaker [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I have seen that the polycom setup (601+sidecar) works but only for up to 7 phones From what I've seen, each sidecar supports up to 14 additional stations. Three of those along with the 5 buttons on the 601 comes up to 47 on my calculator. Is there a known problem with the 601+sidecars and * that prevents the user from being able to monitor more than 7 extensions? Just curious as I've been leaning toward this for our receptionist as well (only 12 extensions to monitor...) -- Justin Moore aka wantmoore --- www.wantmoore.com ___ --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 ___ --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 ___ --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 ___ --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 ___ --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
Re: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist Phones
Hmm, which phone from Snom are you using for this? I've looked around their website and I can only find 3 VoIP phones, the 300, 320 and 360. The 360 by the looks of it only has 12 buttons you can assign to different extensions; am I missing something or is that the phone and you just do 12 per phone? Daniel On Mar 27, 2006, at 2:28 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Yes - set up about 10 of them at a business last year. Monitoring is fine - picking up calls is a bit iffy at the best of times. (that is, picking up a ringing call by pushing the extension button. *8 works fine) Paul Hales Technical Manager AsteriskIT ___ --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
Re: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist Phones
You can get an extension module that adds another 42 buttons. Paul Hales Technical Manager AsteriskIT - Original Message - From: Daniel Hazelbaker [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion asterisk-users@lists.digium.com Sent: Tuesday, March 28, 2006 8:22 AM Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist Phones Hmm, which phone from Snom are you using for this? I've looked around their website and I can only find 3 VoIP phones, the 300, 320 and 360. The 360 by the looks of it only has 12 buttons you can assign to different extensions; am I missing something or is that the phone and you just do 12 per phone? Daniel On Mar 27, 2006, at 2:28 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Yes - set up about 10 of them at a business last year. Monitoring is fine - picking up calls is a bit iffy at the best of times. (that is, picking up a ringing call by pushing the extension button. *8 works fine) Paul Hales Technical Manager AsteriskIT ___ --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 ___ --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
Re: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist Phones
The 360 has an expansion unit. It adds 42 extensions. Darrell S. Long BestWeb Corporation Daniel Hazelbaker wrote: Hmm, which phone from Snom are you using for this? I've looked around their website and I can only find 3 VoIP phones, the 300, 320 and 360. The 360 by the looks of it only has 12 buttons you can assign to different extensions; am I missing something or is that the phone and you just do 12 per phone? Daniel On Mar 27, 2006, at 2:28 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Yes - set up about 10 of them at a business last year. Monitoring is fine - picking up calls is a bit iffy at the best of times. (that is, picking up a ringing call by pushing the extension button. *8 works fine) Paul Hales Technical Manager AsteriskIT ___ --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 ___ --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
[Asterisk-Users] Receptionist phones
Ive been playing with Asterisk for a few weeks and its working great. I have a question about getting multi-line receptionist phones working. I was thinking about getting one of these expansion ports: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/phones/ps379/products_data_sheet09186a008008883d.html What are people using for receptionist phones that show all the extensions in use, etc? Is that even possible with Asterisk right now? Anyone play around with this thing yet? Bill ___ --Bandwidth and Colocation sponsored by Easynews.com -- 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
RE: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist phones
Nevermind I found a note about Hint which can be used for this purpose. Bill From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Bill Gibbs Sent: Wednesday, November 09, 2005 11:52 AM To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion Subject: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist phones Ive been playing with Asterisk for a few weeks and its working great. I have a question about getting multi-line receptionist phones working. I was thinking about getting one of these expansion ports: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/phones/ps379/products_data_sheet09186a008008883d.html What are people using for receptionist phones that show all the extensions in use, etc? Is that even possible with Asterisk right now? Anyone play around with this thing yet? Bill ___ --Bandwidth and Colocation sponsored by Easynews.com -- 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
RE: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist phones
The SNOM 320s with 12 buttons work fine and they are relatively inexpensive, although the indications are not as fine grained as on the Cisco. Basically light on=in use, light off=not in use. You get into diminishing returns on the value of a line indicator sidecar in inverse proportion to the number of users. On our Mitel sets, we have a double daisy-chained sidecar with 64 lights. Its stupid, confusing, and messy as hell. My strategy has been to emphasize the use of DIDs + IVR for the staff so the bulk of calls never hit reception. One of the receptionists balked when I took away her sidecar, and told her that if she wanted to transfer a call, she would have to enter Transfer + 4 digit DID. I reasoned with her and told her that every single call in the company can come through her and she could transfer each one with a sidecar (300-400 calls a day) or she could use this DID method, and I would guarantee that her call volume would drop to ~80 calls a day, max. She saw the light, and shes been happy ever since. Your company culture, however, will dictate your approach. Reason Im down on sidecars is that in a medium to large organization they are not practical. Especially one, like the one I work in, where there is high staff churn, we were constantly futzing with the sidecar. hth -Original Message- From: Bill Gibbs [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, November 09, 2005 9:52 AM To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion Subject: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist phones Ive been playing with Asterisk for a few weeks and its working great. I have a question about getting multi-line receptionist phones working. I was thinking about getting one of these expansion ports: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/phones/ps379/products_data_sheet09186a008008883d.html What are people using for receptionist phones that show all the extensions in use, etc? Is that even possible with Asterisk right now? Anyone play around with this thing yet? Bill ___ --Bandwidth and Colocation sponsored by Easynews.com -- 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
RE: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist phones
I have a question about getting multi-line receptionist phones working. I was thinking about getting one of these expansion ports: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/phones/ps379/products_d ata_sheet09186a008008883d.html What are people using for receptionist phones that show all the extensions in use, etc? Is that even possible with Asterisk right now? Is there a list of phones with working hint support being maintained anywhere? We have an install coming up in a few weeks where there will be a requirement similar to Bill Gibbs' for a pair of multi-line receptionist phones. The client is rather reluctant to spend the many £ on the 7960+7914 given that they'll be frequently used by temp staff in an environment where they're not likely to get the loving care phones of that price deserve. Thanks in advance. Regards, Chris -- C.M. Bagnall, Director, Minotaur I.T. Limited This email is made from 100% recycled electrons ___ --Bandwidth and Colocation sponsored by Easynews.com -- 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
Re: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist phones
With CVS, you also get a flashing led when the phone is ringing. PaulH - Original Message - From: Colin Anderson To: 'Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion' Sent: Thursday, November 10, 2005 4:24 AM Subject: RE: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist phones The SNOM 320s with 12 buttons work fine and they are relatively inexpensive, although the indications are not as fine grained as on the Cisco. Basically light on=in use, light off=not in use. You get into diminishing returns on the value of a line indicator sidecar in inverse proportion to the number of users. On our Mitel sets, we have a double daisy-chained sidecar with 64 lights. Its stupid, confusing, and messy as hell. My strategy has been to emphasize the use of DIDs + IVR for the staff so the bulk of calls never hit reception. One of the receptionists balked when I took away her sidecar, and told her that if she wanted to transfer a call, she would have to enter Transfer + 4 digit DID. I reasoned with her and told her that every single call in the company can come through her and she could transfer each one with a sidecar (300-400 calls a day) or she could use this DID method, and I would guarantee that her call volume would drop to ~80 calls a day, max. She saw the light, and shes been happy ever since. Your company culture, however, will dictate your approach. Reason Im down on sidecars is that in a medium to large organization they are not practical. Especially one, like the one I work in, where there is high staff churn, we were constantly futzing with the sidecar. hth -Original Message-From: Bill Gibbs [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]Sent: Wednesday, November 09, 2005 9:52 AMTo: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial DiscussionSubject: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist phones Ive been playing with Asterisk for a few weeks and its working great. I have a question about getting multi-line receptionist phones working. I was thinking about getting one of these expansion ports: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/phones/ps379/products_data_sheet09186a008008883d.html What are people using for receptionist phones that show all the extensions in use, etc? Is that even possible with Asterisk right now? Anyone play around with this thing yet? Bill ___--Bandwidth and Colocation sponsored by Easynews.com --Asterisk-Users mailing listAsterisk-Users@lists.digium.comhttp://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-usersTo UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users ___ --Bandwidth and Colocation sponsored by Easynews.com -- 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
