Newbie question here… I’ve been searching the forum here and pbxinaflash.com and couldn’t find the answer. I need to use the PSTN call forwarding feature in night mode as opposed to forwarding the callers using the PBX. I have 5 lines from the PSTN on my Rhino card I currently immediate call forward an “afterhours” Extension to my answering service that only gives me two incoming calls before I don’t have any outbound routes. How would I go about having night mode (or preferably time conditions) dial *721NPANXXXXXX on the first line on hunt group (dahdi chan 1) and forward the calls on the PSTN side? The PSTN allows multiple call paths and is a cheaper alternative than adding additional outbound routes via voip or pstn trunks. I would also need to dial *73 the following morning to put back into day mode.
PBX in a Flash Version = 1.7.5.5
FreePBX Version = 2.8.1.0
Running Asterisk Version = Asterisk 1.8.2.4
I had already ran some analog ports from the phone room to the receptionist as a backup, guess I’ll plug in an analog phone and dial from there until I get this figured out.
Maybe if I put the *721NPANXXXXXX followed by a # in the follow me settings that would work? although I would have to build dial plan to hit that trunk and channel as well… has anyone configured your PBX to use the telco’s call forwarding feature instead of internal lines?
I had trouble with the dial strings so I configured a route to dial out manually to the first Dahdi Channel it worked fine (except when the system is in night mode the PBX would answer the telco notifier ring and try to transfer the call to the answering service as well.) The main problem I was having was trying to make that configuration automatic, I suppose a cron job to dial *73 in the mornings or maybe setup the reminders application to dial an extension call forward immediate to *73 on that trunk… It was getting pretty complicated so I convinced the owner to get some SIP trunks as back up for the call transfers at night… with only using them for after hours calls I don’t need and extensive voip plan and it also gives them more accurate Call Details to better plan employee coverage and to also respond to any prospects that may not leave a message with an answering service. It’s a service business so one call can pay for the entire telecom bill each month.
Try creating a couple of custom extensions – 772 to start call forward, 773 to end call forward.
In the dial field, for 772 try something like ZAP/g0/*721NPANXXXXXX and for 773, *731NPANXXXXXX.
I’ve got an older box with “ZAP” channels, so you’d use the appropriate dial string for DAHDI. I think it is the same replacing DADHI for ZAP.
If you’re unsure what the dial string is, you can go to the asterisk command line and watch the log output as you dial a number. You’ll see the syntax to use.
It MIGHT be necessary to put a “w” (wait) command or two in the dial string after the *72 and *73.
Once you have this working you may use the 772 and the 773 extensions in your dial plan, like setting up a “Day/Night” button on the phone.