Internal auto answer - For parked call retrieval. ($100 bounty anyone?)

Our receptionist has a Yealink T46G and 5x EXP40 modules. Unfortunately, the EXP modules lose their minds when they see >50 BLF statuses change simultaneously, and many buttons never update, and are unusable until the EXP is reset. Due to limitations and bugs in Yealinks firmware, I’ve setup our receptionist with Fop2.

One issue that’s come up though, is that when I use Fop2 to retrieve a parked call, it just rings the reception phone, and receptionist has to manually pick it up. I’ve discussed the issue of auto-answer on the forums before, but the answer has always been that it’s not possible with Yealink because of the firmware.

I just noticed today that FreePBX extension configuration has the option for “Internal Auto Answer”, which if set to “intercom”, seems to present the call to the extension, with some special header denoting that it is an intercom call. This of course, auto answers just fine on the Yealink firmware.

Now that I’m on this track, I’m wondering if anyone knows how to get more granular control over this functionality
EG: I’d love to be able to fire off that “intercom” header whenever I retrieve any call from Fop2. I’m not sure if this is something that should be done on the Fop2 side, or FreePBX, but it seems to me that if it was done on the FreePBX side of the world, it would solve a lot of frustration with phones that do not have auto-answer headers other than that for the intercom (ie: Yealink), without having to involve the manufacturer (who of course will never respond).

I’m thinking there must be a way I can craft an override of some sort, that includes the “intercom” header. Who knows how to do this? Hell, I’ll even put a $100 bounty on a solution that works well.

Ideally of course, I’d like to see a configuration inside FreePBX that would allow me to add the “intercom” header to any calls I please, as this seems like a good long term solution for a lot of people.

Am I way off base here, or looking in the right direction?

It would need to be something FOP2 has to do. I know for iSymphony it has a option you enable per extension.

I am not sure that FOP2 is the right basket to put all your eggs in to. I don’t want to get in to the why’s but I will say stability for a variety of reasons may be a concern.

We looked at iSymphony as well, but the interface is just painfully slow with >20 extensions (hell, it’s painful with 1 extension).
That said, how do you configure it to auto-answer park pickups?

Which version of iSymphony did you look at? Version 3 is written in html5, its very fast. I have a feeling you looked at Version 1.

Sound like you have something wrong on your setup then with iSymphony. Its all enterprise built and very fast.

1.4.9.3 - Comes with FreePBX.
I’ll look into the newer version.

V3 doesn’t install correctly? Install the FPBX module, but it didn’t open FW ports, nor did the server actually start. Errors out while trying to auth with manager. Says to take a look at security.xml, but it doesn’t exist.

Install docs state that “Asterisk API/Manager Users” module is required, but this does not exist. Could be the issue?

Yes you need to install that module.

I figured, but cannot find it anywhere.
I’ve got “Asterisk Manager Users” installed, but do not see anything about “Asterisk API”.
Docs reference it, but cannot find anywhere to download it.

I’ve found a few threads that suggest that Asterisk API was renamed to Asterisk Manager Users, which I do have installed.

That is the module. It’s name was changed from Asterisk API User to Asterisk Manager Users I thought that was clear from the forward slash but I suppose not.

If you found threads saying the name was changed I guess I am lost on what the problem is.

Problem is that iSymphony V3 server does not start.


Abnormal Termination:
iSymphonyServer launch failed. Removing Lockfile.
Starting iSymphonyServer… PID is 2130
[iSymphony Server Version: 2.8.2 Rev. 4975]
Loading Configuration
Configuration Loaded

Starting Server.
Loading Locations:
Loading Location “default”
Loading Tenant “default”
Loading Extension “220”
Loading Profile “220”
Attaching Extension “220”
Attempting to load license from file:
Connecting to manager.
Starting Client Listeners.
Server Started.
WARNING!!! Could not connect to manager:Unable to login: Authentication failed

Can’t find any documentation as to what user is supposed to be connecting to what here, other than that the installer should take care of everything.