Asterisk Servers - many to one?

[frederic]

If I may, I have a theoretical question for you folks.

As we all know, we can peer asterisk servers a variety of ways, typically with the IAX2 protocol. Users on both servers appear local to one another, via trunking and dialplans. I just tried this with a customer PBX (and mine) I have sitting here on my test bench and this worked very well.

So I got to thinking... is there a way to define an extension on ALL of my customer PBX systems... say extension 500, and that extension, regardless of which customer or how many, would ring my helpdesk, on MY PBX instead of theirs.

This way all of my customers could dial "5000" on their PBX, and my help desk folks would appear local to them, even though they aren't.

What do you think... is that doable in some way? It would only need to be a one-way mechanism: client --> vendor. Returned calls could be done by normal channels as it is now.

This is not a "must have", just a random thought I figured I'd run by those more verse in PIAF than myself.

Thanks!

 

[jroper]

Hi

Yes, this can be done via a number of methods.

The IAX method is maybe the most reliable.

Create a IAX trunk in FreePBX, call it anon.

Leave peer details blank

In user context, type guest

In user details put
type=user
context=from-trunk

In inbound routes, create an inbound route and in the DID field put Frederic-Support and point the destination to your support destination. (FreePBX will complain at this point but don't worry)

Open port 4569UDP on your external firewall and forward the port to your PBX.

At each PBX, create an extension of type Custom and give it an extension of 5000

In the Dial String, type iax2/YourPBXHostName/Frederic-Support

Replace YourPBXHostName as required.

Now when people just dial 5000, and your phone rings.

the .../Frederic-Support is the DID that is delivered, so calls sent via IAX to your PBX will only get through if they match one of your inbound routes. This goes a little way to stopping just anyone calling via this method.

Clearly if you have a catch all, anyone can call you from anywhere with any DID, which in the future may become a nuisance for SPIT.

Joe

 

[frederic]

fantastic - works excellent! Thank you very much!

 

[compuguy]

I have done a similar thing myself even with customers who don't hae asterisk but have ip phones. But i use 4357 as the number to dian (H-E-L-P) on the dial pad so they just simply dial help

 

[jmullinix]

Mine is 2911. I set up a custom extension on each system I have that points them to the Dundi route to my box. I make them navigate the IVR though.