Sorry for being a dunce...

[zachary]

Sorry for being stupid about this but I am quite confused.

I am running a piaf server version 1.2.3 with asterisk 1.4.21.1. The phones installed with this server are Aastra 57i CT.

My question is in relation to the lines on the phone. Can someone please explain to me what the purpose of the lines are and what they may be used for?

Also, can someone please explain how I may update to version 1.3 of piaf? I have run update-scripts, update-source and update-fixes but it does not seem to update piaf to 1.3.

Thank you kindly for your assistance.

 

[jroper]

Hi

If you have run update-scripts and update-fixes, then you are on the latest version.

However, some parts of the OS, and your version of Asterisk will not be current. You can update this using update-source, but I advise against this, unless you have something you want to fix, or are just testing.

In respect of the line buttons on the phone. The phones are built to be all things to all people as far as is possible. e.g. they can stand alone with multiple SIP accounts assigned to each line, or they can be attached to a SIP PBX such as PiaF.

Asterisk have never seen fit to do Shared Line Appearances (SLA) so the buttons do not work in the way you might expect as per an old fashioned key system.

When purchasing a phone for the office, it is usually a requirement to have at least 2 lines on your sip phone, for 2 concurrent calls, so you can do attended transfers easily.

Joe

 

[troycarpenter]

Higher end Aastra phones like yours have 9 line instances, which means you can assign up to 9 different extensions to the phone. However, I've never done that before so I don't know how that works in practice.

Instead, I just have one extension per phone, assigned in the "Global SIP" section of the provisioning. At that point, the phone uses the same number for all lines, and any calls ring on the next available line.

Check your Aastra documentation for examples and instructions on provisioning multiple lines.

 

[thunderheart]

Lines = concurrent calls

Joe and Troy said this though not explicitly. The "lines" on the phone represent concurrent calls. With a 4 line phone for instance, assuming the phone registers to only 1 SIP account (extension), you can answer call #1, put it on hold, answer call #2, put it on hold etc. up to 4 calls. Then go back and pick up any of the calls. Subsequent call attempts to that extension will ring busy while those 4 calls are on hold.

That's why you need at least 2 lines. You can answer a call on one line, then do an attended transfer to another extension on the second line. I personally don't like attended transfers and prefer using a parking lot approach to emulate a "key system". We have a 4 slot parking lot and each phone monitors the lot using BLF keys. The receptionist answers a call, parks it and then announces it to whoever needs to answer. The appropriate line lights up on the phone (actually all the phones) and you can just pick it up and go.

Dallas