I have installed a new PIAF PBX for a client supporting 60 Polycom phones. Twenty of these phones are used by agents for inbound calls. We have queue #600 configured for this inbound call center group. The system is working OK but we have run into an issue that needs resolution. It seems that agents.conf is no longer used with this release of asterisk (1.4) and so we must login to the queue only with the extension of the phone that the agent is using. If the agent mistakenly logs in with a wrong or invalid extension number, the system allows it and starts sending calls to that number. For instance, if the agents phone extension is 1236 and he logs in as 1239 (because he missed the 6 key) then the calls start going to x1239 or x123 or whatever number he happened to press. And this problem is exacerbated when the queue ring strategy is “leastrecent” because then the invalid extension is getting all new incoming calls and they never get answered!! Has anyone else run into problems like this and found a solution? Thanks for any ideas.
Ron,
a couple options. First, you can use the REGEX filter to filter what numbers are valid. Probably not perfect, but it at least catches completely bogus entries.
Next, 2.6 (which is trunk, but within a couple weeks or less I want to make a tarball and kick it off) there are other options to restrict to extensions only and some other stuff. Still not quite what you want but between the two, it covers most issues.