We are using a FreePBX box to overlay a queue service on top of an existing Avaya deployment. To make things simple (and to make the caller ID match) we made the FreePBX extensions mirror the Avaya stations and just FMFM to the original Avaya station. (The Avaya station phone number is 111.111.1111, so we made the FreePBX extension 111.111.1111 with a FMFM to the Avaya phone via 111.111.1111#).
What I am noticing is when we try to have an agent transfer a call to another agent, they dial 111.111.1111 and the call fails instead of hitting the FMFM, even with the # suffixed.
When I change the FMFM to a number different from the extension number, such as 1.111.111.1111# and have an agent transfer to 111.111.1111, it works. I thought the # told FreePBX that the FMFM was external, but that doesn’t seems to be the case.
It is not a outbound dial pattern issue, it only happens if the FMFM entry xxx.xxx.xxxx# matches the FreePBX extension.
You probably need to have the outbound route have a prefix of some sort. This way the system doesn’t get confused when you try to call 111.111.1111. Without the prefix or a different numbering scheme in the PBX the FreePBX will have no way to know whether you are trying to call the Avaya extension or the FreePBX extension. Add FMFM to that and you essentially create a loop that never leaves the FreePBX system.
I am essentially doing that on the extension level by moving them to 11 digit (1.111.111.1111#), but I was hoping for something a little more global. IS there a way to have a trunk with a matching dial pattern bypass the “extension check” and just jump straight to outside? It seems like the “#” suffix was supposed to allow for this, but maybe doesn’t anticipate that the outside number might match an internal extension.