I'm in need of some information regarding the 2820 IPPBX and hope I might receive the answers here.

It appears that the PSTN/FXO port can now be used as a PSTN Gateway. But how? In a Dial Plan I can specify the route, but is the PSTN Gateway listed here alongside the ISDN ports and any VOIP trunks?

It is of fundamental importance that this can be selected in order to automatically route the calls according to number dialled etc. It should NOT be up to the user to have to make the decision and then dial some prefix just to get the dial tone. This should be done automatically.

I see that it is possible to set up schedules for answering incoming calls and also barring outgoing calls, but is it possible to use schedules in Dial Plans?

What I need to be able to do is e.g:-

- All local calls routed out via the PSTN Gateway, at any time

- other calls via PSTN Gateway after 6 and at weekends, by VOIP any other time.

To me this is a fundamental requirement, but so far impossible to achieve. Does the Vigor offer this functionality?

Is it possible to have a Hunt Group ring a group of extensions for a set time, then another group (may contain the same extensions as first group) for a specified time?

I think I can see a way to implement this by having one HuntGroup's Overflow rule just leading to a different HuntGroup. But is it possible to handle this within just a single HuntGroup?

When a trunk registers to the VOIP provider's SIP server, does it do this directly via the WAN port or is the PBX effectively on the LAN side and so such registration and any calls have to negotiate NAT?

What about extensions?

Would it be possible to have a SIP client registered when on the LAN and also when away from the LAN and the connection would have to be via the Internet? Not simultaneously of course, but if the SIP client device is portable, like an iPhone.

Having installed the latest firmware for the 2820 IPPBX (3.5.5_232201) as an upgrade and not a full system reset I can answer as follows, but because of this I may well stand corrected by some other forum user!

UKenGB wrote: It appears that the PSTN/FXO port can now be used as a PSTN Gateway. But how? In a Dial Plan I can specify the route, but is the PSTN Gateway listed here alongside the ISDN ports and any VOIP trunks?

For now I pressume by dialing the trunk directly. There is currently no specified route for the PSTN in the Dial Plan

UKenGB wrote: It is of fundamental importance that this can be selected in order to automatically route the calls according to number dialled etc. It should NOT be up to the user to have to make the decision and then dial some prefix just to get the dial tone. This should be done automatically.

That would be a welcomed feature but for now I cannot see that there is a pre-configured way to do this

UKenGB wrote: I see that it is possible to set up schedules for answering incoming calls and also barring outgoing calls, but is it possible to use schedules in Dial Plans?

Not currently, No

UKenGB wrote: What I need to be able to do is e.g:-

- All local calls routed out via the PSTN Gateway, at any time

- other calls via PSTN Gateway after 6 and at weekends, by VOIP any other time.

To me this is a fundamental requirement, but so far impossible to achieve. Does the Vigor offer this functionality?

Not currently

UKenGB wrote: Is it possible to have a Hunt Group ring a group of extensions for a set time, then another group (may contain the same extensions as first group) for a specified time?

I think I can see a way to implement this by having one HuntGroup's Overflow rule just leading to a different HuntGroup. But is it possible to handle this within just a single HuntGroup?

Yes, it can be handled within a single huntgroup rule but you will still need 2 groups to be defined to achieve this.

UKenGB wrote: When a trunk registers to the VOIP provider's SIP server, does it do this directly via the WAN port or is the PBX effectively on the LAN side and so such registration and any calls have to negotiate NAT?

I would say that it is behind the NAT, but I could be wrong!

UKenGB wrote: What about extensions?

Would it be possible to have a SIP client registered when on the LAN and also when away from the LAN and the connection would have to be via the Internet? Not simultaneously of course, but if the SIP client device is portable, like an iPhone.

Yes, this should be possible.

So what you are saying regarding the PSTN gateway is that in order to dial out by the PSTN, you have to dial the gateway, wait for a dialtone and then dial the number you want to call? Hm, no good at all.

I currently am using snomONE (nee pbxnsip) as the PBX and a PSTN gateway is just another trunk so anything you configure to use a trunk can use one of the SIP trunks or the PSTN Gateway. You just dial the number and it follows the rules. If they say go out via the PSTN Gateway (or any other Gateway you have configured), it does so with no having to faff about with waiting for dialtones etc.

Still, the Vigor IPPBX does appear to have other advantages over snomONE so I'll keep thinking about it. If anyone else can add to the answers it would help.

I'm getting closer to trying out the Vigor IPPBX, but still hoping for some more answers, especially now that users have had far more time to learn all about it.

I still REALLY want to be able to have the PBX automatically route a call out different ports/interfaces according to the day and/or time. So e.g. during office hours it would use a VOIP/SIP trunk and revert to FXO at other times. So here's what I'm thinking:-

If a dial plan has a route and back up route specified and when a call is made that would normally be routed via the first, default Route, but this route is currently 'barred', would the dial plan instead send it out the backup route? I am hoping this would be the case as that would possibly mean I can set up what I want. What does a Dial Plan do if the first Route is barred?

Also, in the previous post Lee has said that you can configure a single Hunt Group to ring some extensions first, then start ringing some other ones after a set interval. I can see how this could be done with 2 Hunt Groups, but not how it can be achieved with a single Group. Could Lee, or anyone else explain how to do this?

Finally, what does a Hunt Group do with a call when it has no currently registered extensions? Does it still ring for the set time, or does it immediately skip to the timeout action?

Thanks.

UKenGB wrote: It appears that the PSTN/FXO port can now be used as a PSTN Gateway. But how? In a Dial Plan I can specify the route, but is the PSTN Gateway listed here alongside the ISDN ports and any VOIP trunks?

Yes. I'm using f/w 3.5.5.1 and in the Dial Plan you can specify PSTN, ISDN1, ISDN2, VOIP1-VOIP6 as the route out for any call type.
There is no time of day functionality though.

UKenGB wrote: It is of fundamental importance that this can be selected in order to automatically route the calls according to number dialled etc. It should NOT be up to the user to have to make the decision and then dial some prefix just to get the dial tone. This should be done automatically.

Yes it does and this is exactly what I wanted. It does work. There is a delay when dialling a number though as it captures that number, selects the route and then you can hear the tones at the number is sent on the trunk.

UKenGB wrote: I see that it is possible to set up schedules for answering incoming calls and also barring outgoing calls, but is it possible to use schedules in Dial Plans?

No it doesn't have this.

Re-awakening this thread as I am now in the process of configuring the Vigor 2820 IPPBX and having to deal with these issues.

Hunt Groups. I was trying these in 3.5.6 and it was a bit of a disaster. Here are the issues:-

When the call is switched between extensions and/or hunt groups, the call is terminated and then re-created to the next ext. or HG. E.g. I might send incoming calls to an extension which rings for the set period then passes to a HG, which times out eventually and overflows to another HG. But, the original extension is also in both HGs, so even when eventually answered while the call is in the second HG, the extension registers 2 missed calls, which quickly clogs up the extension's call history. When a call 'overflows' like this, it should simply add in any additional extensions and leave the call with any extensions that exist on both sides of the transition. It's nonsense for almost every call to also register a missed call.

Even when a HG is set to 'simultaneous', the included extensions do not start ringing at the same time. I've not been able to determine any pattern as to what the order is, but it's certainly not simultaneous.

Worse, I've discovered that it is unreliable. One extension in the HG (first one to ring in fact) often will stop ringing as another extension in the group starts and sometimes simply doesn't ring at all. This is of course a hopeless situation. The prime function of any telephone system is to ring the correct phones when a call is received. If it cannot do this reliably then it's not worth wasting time with.

I've tried to configure the HG to send its name as the called ID but each test call seems to randomly get a different ID. So consecutive calls from the same phone via the same trunk that is delivered to the same HG with same extensions will behave differently. As above, sometimes one extension doesn't ring and the called ID is different each time. Sometimes it's the first HG name, sometimes the second HG name and then next call it's just "9". It just seems quite random what is displayed.

Are all dial plans global? I need to set up some rules that apply only to some extensions. I definitely do NOT want them messing with outgoing calls from some other extensions. I find it hard to believe that they're all global as it seems to me that makes the whole feature totally useless. But, I cannot see how to restrict dial plans to specific extensions. I rather expected that an extension could be set to use any particular dial plan (as with some other PBXs), but I cannot see how to do that. To be honest, I've not studied this in depth, so am I missing something? Can I apply a dial plan to a specific extension?

I have just upgraded to 3.5.7.1 which of course may change some or all of the above. I will be checking that today. Will there be any nice surprises?