Best PBX Software?
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All of the things you disliked were legacy key system features that only still persist in PBX systems that have that legacy mindset.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
One of the biggest issues I had, still have, wrapping my head around asterisk solutions is that phones don't really seem to be centrally controlled by PBX. What I mean by this is... when you use the DND button on a Yeah link phone, the phone itself goes into a DND mode, but the PBX has no idea that the phone is in DND. When you call the extension, you just get a busy signal back from what I assume is the phone endpoint itself.
Now, if you use the feature codes of FreePBX (*76) this would toggle the DND status off at the PBX level and other phones would give you a display status of the person being on DND.
Basically you have two different features. The phone itself has DND and the PBX does. You have more options and need to configure what you want. Mitel, I guess, just limits the options so that you have less to think about. Remember that SIP phones work without a PBX so have to have those features on their own. They can't rely on a PBX to provide them. But when you have the PBX, you can decide where and how to handle it.
It's just more power.
The other phones only know about status through a subscription to the PBX. So if you don't properly configure the DND feature code in your phone, it would be no surprise the no other system knows your phone is not available. I mean even the PBX did not know you were unavailable and would have sent the call to the extension only to get bounced back. When the proper coded were put in the phone, then the PBX would never even try to send the call.
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@JaredBusch said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
One of the biggest issues I had, still have, wrapping my head around asterisk solutions is that phones don't really seem to be centrally controlled by PBX. What I mean by this is... when you use the DND button on a Yeah link phone, the phone itself goes into a DND mode, but the PBX has no idea that the phone is in DND. When you call the extension, you just get a busy signal back from what I assume is the phone endpoint itself.
Now, if you use the feature codes of FreePBX (*76) this would toggle the DND status off at the PBX level and other phones would give you a display status of the person being on DND.
Basically you have two different features. The phone itself has DND and the PBX does. You have more options and need to configure what you want. Mitel, I guess, just limits the options so that you have less to think about. Remember that SIP phones work without a PBX so have to have those features on their own. They can't rely on a PBX to provide them. But when you have the PBX, you can decide where and how to handle it.
It's just more power.
The other phones only know about status through a subscription to the PBX. So if you don't properly configure the DND feature code in your phone, it would be no surprise the no other system knows your phone is not available. I mean even the PBX did not know you were unavailable and would have sent the call to the extension only to get bounced back. When the proper coded were put in the phone, then the PBX would never even try to send the call.
I understand that, NOW....
But you're saying that other PBXs have this old school mind set - ok fine.. and so do MANY IM clients that are software only.
I'm willing to pay for an autoconfiguration utility that will program my phones to basically become dumb devices like old digital phones, and have all the brains be in the PBX itself - in a corporate environment, do I really need the phone to have more local smarts?
It's one thing to use a stand alone VOIP phone with a direct connected SIP trunk, but I don't know any corporations that operate their phone systems that way.
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@Dashrender said:
It's one thing to use a stand alone VOIP phone with a direct connected SIP trunk, but I don't know any corporations that operate their phone systems that way.
So don't configure that for use. It's not a negative, it's just an extra feature.
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@Dashrender said:
- parking lots are a great way to lose calls
I never understood your lock up on this. Parking lots have been standard for decades. They will not lose a call because once the call has reaching the parking lot timeout, it will ring back to the ext of the person that parked it. If that person does not answer, it will ring back to a default extension. The call never goes away.
With the proper phone, it is simple to see which parking spots have calls. On top of that, I believe that I worked up a method of creating a huge parking lot that you cold use to replicate your behavior with minimal retraining.
Also just in case, you can have a dedicated person or two using something like FOP2 to see all parked calls easily.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
It's one thing to use a stand alone VOIP phone with a direct connected SIP trunk, but I don't know any corporations that operate their phone systems that way.
So don't configure that for use. It's not a negative, it's just an extra feature.
Your phone talks to the PBX over a standard SIP trunk.
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@JaredBusch said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
It's one thing to use a stand alone VOIP phone with a direct connected SIP trunk, but I don't know any corporations that operate their phone systems that way.
So don't configure that for use. It's not a negative, it's just an extra feature.
Your phone talks to the PBX over a standard SIP trunk.
Right. I thought that he was talking about the DND on the Phone feature.
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@Dashrender said:
I'm willing to pay for an autoconfiguration utility that will program my phones to basically become dumb devices like old digital phones, and have all the brains be in the PBX itself - in a corporate environment, do I really need the phone to have more local smarts?
It's one thing to use a stand alone VOIP phone with a direct connected SIP trunk, but I don't know any corporations that operate their phone systems that way.
Autoconfiguration is not hard, but it will be manual for the level of configuration that you want. Even 3CX could not do all the things you want without manual configuration.
But once you setup the config files, you only need replicate them for the new extension when you add users so that work is not hard.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@JaredBusch said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
It's one thing to use a stand alone VOIP phone with a direct connected SIP trunk, but I don't know any corporations that operate their phone systems that way.
So don't configure that for use. It's not a negative, it's just an extra feature.
Your phone talks to the PBX over a standard SIP trunk.
Right. I thought that he was talking about the DND on the Phone feature.
I was - I am saying I want the phone to be completely dumb - all functions should be passed along to the PBX - which I was definitely working toward.
I had managed to disable most of the default configurations. You're right it's not a negative, just a feature I don't need.
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@JaredBusch said:
@Dashrender said:
I'm willing to pay for an autoconfiguration utility that will program my phones to basically become dumb devices like old digital phones, and have all the brains be in the PBX itself - in a corporate environment, do I really need the phone to have more local smarts?
It's one thing to use a stand alone VOIP phone with a direct connected SIP trunk, but I don't know any corporations that operate their phone systems that way.
Autoconfiguration is not hard, but it will be manual for the level of configuration that you want. Even 3CX could not do all the things you want without manual configuration.
But once you setup the config files, you only need replicate them for the new extension when you add users so that work is not hard.
yep, and I had that working before I bailed on it.
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@Dashrender said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@JaredBusch said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
It's one thing to use a stand alone VOIP phone with a direct connected SIP trunk, but I don't know any corporations that operate their phone systems that way.
So don't configure that for use. It's not a negative, it's just an extra feature.
Your phone talks to the PBX over a standard SIP trunk.
Right. I thought that he was talking about the DND on the Phone feature.
I was - I am saying I want the phone to be completely dumb - all functions should be passed along to the PBX - which I was definitely working toward.
I had managed to disable most of the default configurations. You're right it's not a negative, just a feature I don't need.
You'd be amazing how many customers, in the same vein, demand that the phone do multiway calling and refuse to let the PBX do it.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@JaredBusch said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
It's one thing to use a stand alone VOIP phone with a direct connected SIP trunk, but I don't know any corporations that operate their phone systems that way.
So don't configure that for use. It's not a negative, it's just an extra feature.
Your phone talks to the PBX over a standard SIP trunk.
Right. I thought that he was talking about the DND on the Phone feature.
I was - I am saying I want the phone to be completely dumb - all functions should be passed along to the PBX - which I was definitely working toward.
I had managed to disable most of the default configurations. You're right it's not a negative, just a feature I don't need.
You'd be amazing how many customers, in the same vein, demand that the phone do multiway calling and refuse to let the PBX do it.
what is multiway calling? Does that have the SIP trunks connected directly to a phone? can a single trunk be connected to more than one phone?
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@Dashrender said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@JaredBusch said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
It's one thing to use a stand alone VOIP phone with a direct connected SIP trunk, but I don't know any corporations that operate their phone systems that way.
So don't configure that for use. It's not a negative, it's just an extra feature.
Your phone talks to the PBX over a standard SIP trunk.
Right. I thought that he was talking about the DND on the Phone feature.
I was - I am saying I want the phone to be completely dumb - all functions should be passed along to the PBX - which I was definitely working toward.
I had managed to disable most of the default configurations. You're right it's not a negative, just a feature I don't need.
You'd be amazing how many customers, in the same vein, demand that the phone do multiway calling and refuse to let the PBX do it.
what is multiway calling? Does that have the SIP trunks connected directly to a phone? can a single trunk be connected to more than one phone?
A single phone can connect to more than one trunk (often used to connect to multiple PBXs) and a single trunk can connect to more than one phone.
When using the PBX, it is a conference room / bridge. But we have customers who demand to do it from their phones instead of the PBX. I have no idea why, makes no sense to me. None that do it with more than one SIP trunk, though.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@JaredBusch said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
It's one thing to use a stand alone VOIP phone with a direct connected SIP trunk, but I don't know any corporations that operate their phone systems that way.
So don't configure that for use. It's not a negative, it's just an extra feature.
Your phone talks to the PBX over a standard SIP trunk.
Right. I thought that he was talking about the DND on the Phone feature.
I was - I am saying I want the phone to be completely dumb - all functions should be passed along to the PBX - which I was definitely working toward.
I had managed to disable most of the default configurations. You're right it's not a negative, just a feature I don't need.
You'd be amazing how many customers, in the same vein, demand that the phone do multiway calling and refuse to let the PBX do it.
This was a big feature of the Yealink phones that I installed that was required. They worked great at doing this but people complained that when they wanted to do more then 3 people on a call they couldn't just add them in.... I setup conference lines just for that instance.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@JaredBusch said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
It's one thing to use a stand alone VOIP phone with a direct connected SIP trunk, but I don't know any corporations that operate their phone systems that way.
So don't configure that for use. It's not a negative, it's just an extra feature.
Your phone talks to the PBX over a standard SIP trunk.
Right. I thought that he was talking about the DND on the Phone feature.
I was - I am saying I want the phone to be completely dumb - all functions should be passed along to the PBX - which I was definitely working toward.
I had managed to disable most of the default configurations. You're right it's not a negative, just a feature I don't need.
You'd be amazing how many customers, in the same vein, demand that the phone do multiway calling and refuse to let the PBX do it.
what is multiway calling? Does that have the SIP trunks connected directly to a phone? can a single trunk be connected to more than one phone?
A single phone can connect to more than one trunk (often used to connect to multiple PBXs) and a single trunk can connect to more than one phone.
When using the PBX, it is a conference room / bridge. But we have customers who demand to do it from their phones instead of the PBX. I have no idea why, makes no sense to me. None that do it with more than one SIP trunk, though.
LOL - how do they even know that type of thing can be done? Seems weird!
How do you conference/bridge with a single SIP trunk?
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@coliver said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@JaredBusch said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
It's one thing to use a stand alone VOIP phone with a direct connected SIP trunk, but I don't know any corporations that operate their phone systems that way.
So don't configure that for use. It's not a negative, it's just an extra feature.
Your phone talks to the PBX over a standard SIP trunk.
Right. I thought that he was talking about the DND on the Phone feature.
I was - I am saying I want the phone to be completely dumb - all functions should be passed along to the PBX - which I was definitely working toward.
I had managed to disable most of the default configurations. You're right it's not a negative, just a feature I don't need.
You'd be amazing how many customers, in the same vein, demand that the phone do multiway calling and refuse to let the PBX do it.
This was a big feature of the Yealink phones that I installed that was required. They worked great at doing this but people complained that when they wanted to do more then 3 people on a call they couldn't just add them in.... I setup conference lines just for that instance.
What advantage do you get conferencing through the endpoint over conferencing through the PBX?
Is it like my DND example, doing it through the PBX is not as simple as just hitting line two, then conference/bridge?
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@Dashrender said:
How do you conference/bridge with a single SIP trunk?
What do you mean? A SIP trunk doesn't (usually) limit you to a certain number of inbound or outbound calls. At least not in my experience. I think Vitelity had a soft limit of 10 but you could lift that by talking to support.
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@Dashrender said:
@coliver said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@JaredBusch said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
It's one thing to use a stand alone VOIP phone with a direct connected SIP trunk, but I don't know any corporations that operate their phone systems that way.
So don't configure that for use. It's not a negative, it's just an extra feature.
Your phone talks to the PBX over a standard SIP trunk.
Right. I thought that he was talking about the DND on the Phone feature.
I was - I am saying I want the phone to be completely dumb - all functions should be passed along to the PBX - which I was definitely working toward.
I had managed to disable most of the default configurations. You're right it's not a negative, just a feature I don't need.
You'd be amazing how many customers, in the same vein, demand that the phone do multiway calling and refuse to let the PBX do it.
This was a big feature of the Yealink phones that I installed that was required. They worked great at doing this but people complained that when they wanted to do more then 3 people on a call they couldn't just add them in.... I setup conference lines just for that instance.
What advantage do you get conferencing through the endpoint over conferencing through the PBX?
Is it like my DND example, doing it through the PBX is not as simple as just hitting line two, then conference/bridge?
Pretty much this. It was a feature our legacy phones had that users wanted. They wanted it to be near instantaneous and didn't want to have to call someone and transfer them to a conference line.
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@coliver said:
@Dashrender said:
How do you conference/bridge with a single SIP trunk?
What do you mean? A SIP trunk doesn't (usually) limit you to a certain number of inbound or outbound calls. At least not in my experience. I think Vitelity had a soft limit of 10 but you could lift that by talking to support.
Ok - that sounds familiar - I'm still pretty brand new to the workings of SIP trunks. I'm so used to TDM.
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@coliver said:
@Dashrender said:
@coliver said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@JaredBusch said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
It's one thing to use a stand alone VOIP phone with a direct connected SIP trunk, but I don't know any corporations that operate their phone systems that way.
So don't configure that for use. It's not a negative, it's just an extra feature.
Your phone talks to the PBX over a standard SIP trunk.
Right. I thought that he was talking about the DND on the Phone feature.
I was - I am saying I want the phone to be completely dumb - all functions should be passed along to the PBX - which I was definitely working toward.
I had managed to disable most of the default configurations. You're right it's not a negative, just a feature I don't need.
You'd be amazing how many customers, in the same vein, demand that the phone do multiway calling and refuse to let the PBX do it.
This was a big feature of the Yealink phones that I installed that was required. They worked great at doing this but people complained that when they wanted to do more then 3 people on a call they couldn't just add them in.... I setup conference lines just for that instance.
What advantage do you get conferencing through the endpoint over conferencing through the PBX?
Is it like my DND example, doing it through the PBX is not as simple as just hitting line two, then conference/bridge?
Pretty much this. It was a feature our legacy phones had that users wanted. They wanted it to be near instantaneous and didn't want to have to call someone and transfer them to a conference line.
This is how any Yealink phone works by default with any Asterisk PBX
- I am on a call
- I want to conference on someone else
- I push the conference button
- I dial the ext of the person I wish to add
a. via button or dial - I wait for them to answer
- i push conference again and we have a conference call
