Asterisk and hash signs get picked up as codes instead of being dialed out

Hi, I have a trixbox/freepbx system with 4 Linksys SPA-942 phones and 2 simple old-style phones (connecting with a phone cable rather than a LAN cable). I have a couple problems that I know are simple, but haven’t been able to find solutions for them.

The first problem is, when we dial out to voicemail we are required to enter the passcode beginning with the hash sign. Once the hash is pressed, the system picks it up, thinking a transfer has been initiated. I’d like to keep the ability to transfer with #, but how do I keep it from trying to transfer when we just want to check voicemail?

The 2 simple phones are not able to dial numbers beginning with the * sign. Once they dial 9* they are automatically cut off, getting a busy signal. The smart phones are able to dial numbers beginning with *. Here is the dialplan on each smart phone’s individual interface:

(xxxxx|[3469]11|0|00|[2-9]xxxxxx|1xxx[2-9]xxxxxxS0|xxxxxxxxxxxx.|9xxxxxx)

The dial patterns for the outbound route in freepbx are:

9|.
9|_*.

Here are the module versions I am running:

Trixbox 2.8.0
FreePBX 2.6.1
Asterisk 1.4.21.2-2

Any help would be greatly appreciated… many thanks in advance.

…bump…
Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated :slight_smile: thanks to anyone who may be able to help.

Hi gzevspero

These dial patterns:
9|. allows you to dial 9 to get an outside line, then you can dial 1 more of anything.

9|_*. allows you to dial 9 to get an outside line, then you can dial a _ (if you know how) and then an * and finally any other something.

Also, what are the Dial Rules in your Trunk?

I have a crazy system that is inside another system. Here is my dial pattern:

9|901144XXXXXXXXXX (9 gets to the outside PBX, the second 9 gets an outside line and allows a call to the UK.

9|91NXXNXXXXXX (9 gets to the outside PBX, the second 9 gets an outside line and allows a long distance call in the U.S. (where are you by the way).

9|9XXXXXXX (9 gets to the outside PBX, the second 9 gets an outside line and allows a local call.

9|XXX (9 gets to the outside PBX, and allows you to call any of the 3 digit extensions on the outside PBX.

Well, I only read recently that Dial Rules can be left blank for a trunk. This by Eugene Blanchard who posts here often. He is more knowledgeable than I in this area. So be aware that this is coming from someone who has one working system and is a real tadpole, not like Eugene who should be a Leap Frog or Contributor…

http://www.cadvision.com/blanchas/Asterisk/AddingaFXOTrunk.html

That being said, I have read further and it looks as if 9|. will pass anything after the 9 to the outside. But I don’t see where the underscore is supposed to do anything. Can you tell me where you read that?

And as to whether putting special character * in there will allow it to go out, is beyond me, too. From what I have read, only digits are expected, so you may have a special case. For what it is worth, I understand your problem. If I spot a solution, I will let you know.

Hi Cliffster,

Thanks very much for your response.

My trunk has no dial rules - only the outbound route and the configs of the individual phones have dial patterns set up.

So according to my understanding of dial patterns, since I have a 9|_*. dial pattern, numbers beginning with asterisk should be allowed out, and not picked up by the system - is this correct? Yet on the simple phones they get blocked… could the _ in this dial pattern be blocking it in some way? My understanding of the _ is that it signifies a pattern rather than a specific number. Is there another meaning for it?

I’m located in Israel, by the way.

Thanks again.

I’ve been doing some more reading on this and have an idea of what the source of these problems could be… as far as the * not going through, I think this might be a problem with the order in which the system matches dial patterns. Because the system matches dial patterns from the top down, and 9|. was placed before 9|_*. , the 9|. catches everything and sends it right through, so the one with * never has a chance to get matched. I’ll change the order, and perhaps be more specific with dial plans in general, since the link below says it’s not advisable to have a blanket 9|.

http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/view/Asterisk+Dialplan+Patterns

This is also where I read about the _ signifying patterns by the way.

As far as the hash sign getting picked up, I believe this is because I have outbound dial commands set up with a T, meaning on outbound calls # can be pressed to transfer. I will remove it, but am just wondering what happens afterwards, when callers really do want to transfer an outbound call…

http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/view/Asterisk+cmd+Dial

Thanks again for the help :slight_smile: