Can anyone tell me how I can configure Freepbx so that if i dial a 9 i hear a dial tone?
I have Linksys SPA921 phones
Thanks,
Brad
That is so 1980’s - it can be done, but it really shouldn’t be done. A properly designed system will not require you to dial access codes developed in the days of step-by-step switches.
Having said that, however, if you’re bound and determined to create a phone system that simulates an antique electromechanical PBX, then normally a comma character in the SPA921 dial plan should produce a second dial tone - for example if you currently have a pattern that looks like 1[2-9]xx[2-9]xxxxxxS0 for 11 digit calls, using 9,1[2-9]xx[2-9]xxxxxxS0 will give a second dial tone after the 9 PROVIDED THIS IS A NON-AMBIGUOUS PATTERN and will transmit the entire number dialed INCLUDING the leading 9 to FreePBX. What do I mean by a non-ambiguous pattern? That means you can’t have any other pattern that would also match 9 on the first digit unless it also has the comma in the same position. For example, if you use three digit extensions, you can’t have a pattern like XXXS0, but you could have one like [1-8]XXS0 that would specifically exclude 9 as the first digit.
Remember that you will also need patterns to macth both 9,11 and 9,911 (since in an emergency someone might, or might not, forget to dial the leading 9) and handle both appropriately - just another reason not to use the antiquated “dial 9” convention invented back in your great-great-grandfather’s day, so that President Lincoln’s staff could use the same phone to make calls both within the White House and to the other government buildings in Washington. 
(Kids - don’t write that last part on your school history essays - in the spirit of St. Patrick’s Day yesterday I may have been kissing the Blarney Stone a wee bit!)
I’d prefer not to have to dial 9 to get out. However I wasnt sure how to setup Freepbx so that I dont have to.
With that said what kind of changes need to be made so i dont have to dial 9?
Thanks for your help btw!!
opps hit submit twice
also, if im not dialing 9 to get an outside line what happens if:
I want to dial ext 180
I want to dial 1-800-555-1234
does the system dial 180 any time i try to dial a 1800 number? how does that work?
As a rule, a SIP telephone will send the entire number at once to the phone server. FreePBX/Asterisk is smart enough to route the call correctly. It will check to see if you dialed a local extension first, but it looks at the entire dial string so when it doesn’t find an extension 1800NXXXXXX, it moves on to the outbound routes.
the answer depends on the phones you are using. If they live dial the yes every time you dial 180 it will dial extension 180, but if it is a decent phone it takes the number pattern you dial and only when you have completed dialing does it send the whole string in one packet to be dialed. This is more efficient and uses fewer network packets.
When we set up the endpoints (mostly PAP2’s but those would be similar to your Linksys phone) we use timeouts on short patterns - for example, suppose you did this:
(911S0|[2-9]xxxxxxS0|1[2-9]xx[2-9]xxxxxxS0|[*x][*x].S4)
This is just an example, you’d probably want something a bit different in actual practice, but it would send calls to 911, seven digit local numbers, and 11 digit calls to other area codes immediately after the last digit is dialed. For every other pattern there is a four second timeout - pause four seconds or dial # at the end of the number and whatever you have dialed to that point gets sent to Asterisk.
Note that it would be possible to use non-conflicting extension numbers if you only had a few extensions. For example, if you added the pattern 11xS0 after the one for 911 calls, you could have up to ten extensions (110-119) and there would be no conflict with any existing U.S. area code. For twenty extensions you might be able to use 1[01]xS0 and have extensions 100-119. Or if you used four digit extensions, you could use 1[01]xxS0 and have extensions 1000-1199, or a total of 200 extensions with no conflict between extension numbers and U.S./Canadian numbers (since no area codes begin with 0 or 1). The “S0” at the end of the pattern would then allow those calls to go through with no delay. But since we have more than 20 extensions and use three digit numbers, we just use the timeout - dialing, say, 134# takes no more keypresses than than 1134 and it gives us the flexibility to group extensions in certain ways that we could not if we used the 11xx pattern. But it’s a matter of personal preference - some people just seem to hate the “# for timeout” convention, so if the other method floats your boat, go for it!