How to share one phone with two extensions and distinct ring

FreePBX Tips and Tricks
1

Hi,

Currently using Asterisk 1.4 and freepbx 2.3, all working fine for my little home system for the family, I’m using a linksys PAP2 and have created two extensions 303 for the kids and 302 for the parents, have setup a nice IVR so that when you call it sais dial 1 for the kids (Rachel or Judith) or 2 for the parents (Louis or Josee).

This all works fine, and I want to say thank you to all at FrePBX and Asterisk for the great initiative.

Things change in life, and at the beggining of the year 2009 me and my wife seperated, so I created a seperate extension 304 for Josee, I have it ring the same phone (SIP/302) as for my extention, so if no one is home it works fine, she has a personal voice mail sent to her personal email, but if I’m home I pick up the phone, and I have no way of knowing (except a quick glimpse at the caller id and a fast guess) if the user dialed 302 or 304, if I could set a distinctive ring on 304 I could know it’s for her and just let it ring, if she’s home (she does still come in on weekends some times) she could pick it up.

I am able to change the ring on the PAP2 by using Bellcore-r2 in alert info fileld but I have to do that throught the incomming trunk, so it does not work for my need. I tried this in extensions_custom.conf; (added at the end of the file)

exten => 304,1,NoOp(Setting_ainfo)
exten => 304,n,SIPAddHeader(Alert-Info:;info=Bellcore-r2))
exten => 304,n,Goto(ext-local,304,1)

but the system seems to ignore my change. Any clues suggestions would be appreciated. Many thanks, LD

2

Hi Louis,
Sorry to hear of the separation.
The best option would be to try marriage counseling, way better to have a wife than a phone system. No matter what has gone on in a relationship there is always a way to reconcile if we are willing to humble ourselves </gentle_encouragement>

That aside try a ring group
ring group numer = 1304 (anything except numbers you already have)
Ring Strategy: ringall
ext list: 304
Announcement: none
CID Prefix: JD: or WIFE: (callerid will show if it is a call for Josie e.g. JD:5551234
Alert info: info=Bellcore-r2
Confirm calls: (try this )
Remote Announce: (incoming call for Josie) at which point you press 1 to accept the call or leave it to go to voicemail
Destination if no answer: Josies Voicemail

I have not played much with confirm calls or alert info but it should work in theory, someone else on the forums may chime in if I am wrong.

All the best

Robin

3

Being humble isn’t always the solution; sometimes it is the problem!

If you mistakenly answer and the call is for her then you can dial ##*304 to have it go directly to her voice mail.

If she doesn’t live in the house then don’t have it ring your phone at all.
It will go directly to her voice mail and send her the message.

Using the confirm feature would also help since you can set the incoming call message and actually answer the phone and reject to voice mail.