Fallover to mobile phone

Hello.

I'm finishing a setup with 7 SIP phones connected to PBXes. (7 extentions). And all incoming/outgoing calls is done by 1 SIP account. Works fine.

All 7 extiontions is connected from the same internet connection (with no fallover internet connection).

So if (or when) the internet fails at the office. I'm without incoming phone connection. (Outgoing is offcourse possible from a cellphone).

Is there a smart way to have my PBX transfer the calls to 1 or more cellphones? But only if the 7 phones aren't connected?

RE: Fallover to mobile phone

Well, you could do this via a ring group or queue failover, but I think you'll have the least problems (from my experience, at least) by creating a classic extension xxxx for the cellphone and calling *92xxxx from each SIP phone.

http://www1.pbxes.com/wiki/index.php/Codes

RE: Fallover to mobile phone

I need it to be transparant.. I can't dial any number from the SIP phones if the internet is down....

Doing this thru ring groups or queue failover seems more intersting - Did you have any specific suggestion?

RE: Fallover to mobile phone

Actually - I just browsed the link you sent on *92 - maybe that's excactly what I'm looking for..

So, classical extention - and *92 to that sounds like something that might work - I'll test it out..

Thanks.

RE: Fallover to mobile phone

Let me know how it turns out for you. Good luck!

RE: Fail-over to mobile phone

Well, the *92 method is a good measure in case of a broadband outage, but it doesn't help if you truly want to get the calls to your mobile, when you are not in the office. It was primarily designed for smart-phone SIP clients, which have both a WiFi and a GSM connection available, so an incoming call can be forwarded to the GSM number via a Classic extension and the use of a Trunk, when the handset is no longer covered from a WiFi network.

A Ring Group with its' "Destination if no answer" set to a Classic extension, helps you answer the call every time as aibrado pointed out. The only parameter you need to fine-tune on it is the "ring time" of the Ring Group, in case you have VoiceMail enabled.

RE: Fallover to mobile phone

Ah, no wonder it works great for me... I do have a WiFi+GSM phone.

(OT) Hmmm. Maybe that's why I've been having problems with hunt groups. I guess I have to recheck how total ring time for the group is affected by the "Number of seconds to ring phones before sending callers to voicemail" General Setting...

RE: Fallover to mobile phone

I have created an extention (2080) which points to my cell phone number.

My SIP is on extention 208. If i dial 2080 from my SIP phone, it dials the mobile phone fine.

On my SIP phone, i dialed *922080 - It tells me that extention 208 is forwarded to 2080.

Right now im testing, so incomming route is only dialing 208.

So i try disconnecting the network cable from my 208 extention. Wait 1 minute or so, and from another phone i try and dial my pbx.. Nothing happens, the call is not forwarded.

I'm guessing that either i made a mistake, or the system has not yet registeret that 208 is disconnected. If so, how much time would it take to realize it? I was hoping for it to be instantly?

Thanks.

RE: Fallover to mobile phone

You have to enable connectioncheck in extensions to make this work. I have added this to DOCS - Codes.

RE: Fallover to mobile phone

Thank you, I'll try that.

RE: Fallover to mobile phone

Your doc, related to *92, explains that

"the "Follow Me" number can easily be edited over the Web (no need for dialing *92 for changes any more). "

But I do not see an option to edit the "Follow Me" number under that extension. Where on the web can you edit this number?

Thank you.

RE: Fail-over to mobile phone

The "Follow Me" number is the Classic extension, which you created with the PSTN number of your Mobile. Having dialed *92 xxxx once where xxxx is the number of the Classic extension, you can change the number later on over the web interface, from anywhere you are.

So if you stay in France for a week pick up a local SIM card, change the number of the Classic extension and your calls will reach you on your French mobile number. No need to dial *92 xxxx from all your SIP User Agents again.

RE: Fallover to mobile phone

Could you clarify how to set *92 forward using web interface?

RE: Fail-over to mobile phone

Setting up the "Call Forwarding on Unavailable" feature, is a two step process, and is very useful on hybrid mobile extensions which vanish frequently. It is not however useful for extensions which remain registered by nature.

Hybrid mobile extensions usually have two interfaces, and sometimes one of them has no coverage, therefore one of their extensions is unavailable. A hybrid extension might be unavailable, which is not usual for ATAs and IP phones, that remain registered and available for incoming calls to ring them, and might later on send the caller to voice mail.

Setting up hybrid extensions for "Call Forwarding on Unavailable" requires dialing *92 and a number, from the user interface of the particular SIP User Agent. So in the case of a smart phone, their SIP client which is registered to PBXes.

The number dialed after the *92 can either be a PSTN number, or an extension number. If you choose an extension number associated with a Classic extension, then its' PSTN number can be changed over the web interface of your PBXes account.

The *92 sequence to activate & the *93 to de-activate the "Call Forwarding on Unavailable" feature, has to be dialed from the SIP User Agent of the registered extension, and this cannot be achieved via the web interface of PBXes.

RE: Fail-over to mobile phone

Zitat:

Originally posted by Diafora The *92 sequence to activate & the *93 to de-activate the "Call Forwarding on Unavailable" feature, has to be dialed from the SIP User Agent of the registered extension, and this cannot be achieved via the web interface of PBXes.

Thanks for detailed answer...
This is really sad... Failover is rather important feature when connection between SIP user agent and PBX is less then stable, but inability to manage it by admin... sigh.
When people are connected from home, it's rather hard to ask them one by one to dial some strange sequence, and then to find a way to test it because you never know whether it was dialed correctly, and entered into the system or not...

RE: Fail-over to mobile phone

The Mobile SIP User Agent configuration, for which this feature was intended for, should be done when the users are in the office. Their mobile clients are by definition very portable.

If you are trying to use this feature to substitute for a reliable Internet connection for home users, use a Ring Group instead which was designed for that purpose.

When your users are at home, you can verify what they dialed via the Call Monitor. Even if you do this on a small scale, go through a list of all the configuration changes including the *xx codes and dial them, while you provision the SIP UAs.

Hindsight is always 20/20.

RE: Fallover to mobile phone

There's a big difference between "No Answer" and "Not Available".

What you're suggesting - ring groups is suitable for "No Answer" case. It's user controllable - if user goes out he knows he may miss call. And he may opt not to set any forwarding for "no answer" - there's voice mail for that.

"Not available" due to network or power problems is totally different because it's invisible to user - he can sit at his desk and wait for an important call, while his extension is down - and user has no idea about that.
This is why it's important to be able to set some default failback for such cases even if user doesn't do it himself.

This post has been edited 1 time(s), it was last edited by dor on 19.08.2008 at 04:31.

RE: Fail-over to mobile phone

You are exactly right: "There's a big difference between "No Answer" and "Not Available".

If there is a power loss, the user will know immediately. If his extension is not registered, the light on his IP phone will alert him immediately.

An inbound call sent on a Ring Group consisting of a single extension and a "Destination if no answer" set to a Classic extension with the user's Mobile or Fixed line number, will provide him with the fail-over functionality you require.

RE: Fallover to mobile phone

Call forwarding has been completely redesigned (see SETUP > Extensions and DOCS > Codes).

RE: Fallover to mobile phone

Guys this is fantastic! Thank you so much!
This service becomes absolutely indispensable!

Could you elaborate on what effect have Call Forking and Call Waiting fields?

This post has been edited 2 time(s), it was last edited by dor on 18.09.2008 at 01:28.