How can assistant see second call if the boss is on the first line?

[jeanne.cooney]

Issue: Assistant does not see second call if the boss is on the first line.

Prior to Cisco IPT (using Call Manager Express), I used Nortel and NEC. In those worlds one assigned two keys to each person: the primary number, which was a DID and a secondary number that was not from the DID range and then utilized a short hunt up the keys. When an assistant needed to cover the lines, both lines were added to the assistant's phone. In this case the assistant could pick up a second call to the boss as it would hunt up to the next key. The way we have CME programmed the assistant has only one line appearance so the second call is only presented to the boss and not the assistant.

How do I get around this limitation? Should I remove the dual-line and more or less follow the same idea as I have used in the past in the Nortel and NEC environments? Does anyone have sample configs of how this would be? Would I have to build additional e-phone dns and then configure some huntstops or would I build additional e-phones and change the original e-phone to CFB to the new number and the new number would have CFB and CFNA to voice mail? Is there a best practices method for this type of config?

Current Configs:

!

ephone-dn 9 dual-line

call-waiting ring

number 2120

name Loida

call-forward max-length 4

call-forward busy 2139

call-forward noan 2139 timeout 15

!

!

ephone-dn 10 dual-line

call-waiting ring

number 2121

name Lisa

call-forward max-length 4

call-forward busy 2139

call-forward noan 2139 timeout 15

!

!

ephone 9

no multicast-moh

device-security-mode none

description Associated to ephone-dn 9

mac-address 0022.905C.6F48

ephone-template 1

codec g711ulaw

type 7975

button 1:9

!

!

!

ephone 10

no multicast-moh

device-security-mode none

description Associated to ephone-dn 10

mac-address 0022.905B.8FAA

ephone-template 1

codec g711ulaw

type 7975

button 1:10 2:9

[Marwan ALshawi]

if the case u want two phones have a shared line and each phone has its own line with DID

u could do it like for example :

ephone-dn 1 dual-line

number 1000

ephone-dn 2 dual-line

number 2000

ephone-dn 9 dual-line

number 9000

ephone 9

butten 1:1 2:9

ephone 10

butten 1:2 2:9

now both phones will share line number 9000

if helpful Rate

good luck

[jeanne.cooney]

Actually I am looking to provide coverage for the boss not a shared line scenario. I need the assistant to be able to pick up the second call that is allowed in a dual line config.

[Rob Huffman]

Hi Jeanne,

There are some great examples here;

There is a good example of Overlays in this thread;

http://forum.cisco.com/eforum/servlet/NetProf?page=netprof&forum=Unified%20Communications%20and%20Video&topic=IP%20Telephony&topicID=.ee6c829&CommCmd=MB%3Fcmd%3Dpass_through%26location%3Doutline%40%5E1%40%40.2cbeb27e/2#selected_message

And from Paul @ Cisco;

http://forum.cisco.com/eforum/servlet/NetProf?page=netprof&forum=Unified%20Communications%20and%20Video&topic=IP%20Telephony&topicID=.ee6c829&CommCmd=MB%3Fcmd%3Dpass_through%26location%3Doutline%40%5E1%40%40.2cbef1a5/2#selected_message

I hope this helps!

Rob

[Marwan ALshawi]

rob i like those links really interesting

ofcourse 5+ :)

[Rob Huffman]

Hey Marwan,

Thanks buddy! The sharing of good ideas like the ones from the great NetPros in the threads I attached are just another example of what makes these Forums so valuable :) And the addition of more and more members like yourself, who are willing to help others will no doubt add to the growing value one finds here! +5 points for your helpful tips here and for your further participation.

Cheers!

Rob

[Marwan ALshawi]

thanks and amzing words ... :)

[jeanne.cooney]

Hi Rob....

First, thanks very much for the links. I have used these and countless others and am not too sure how much better off I am. Trying things may be the only way, but this too has stymied me as I am remote to the CME and each thing I want to try I have to have someone on site try.

Initially I followed the overlay concept, but ran into issues (some may have been training, but there was definitely an issue with being unable to do a shared-line direct call pickup -- the client also preferred to see one line for each call). See e-phone dns 50 and 51 below.

I then went back to trying the ephone-dn as a single line, but ran into trouble exactly as was stated by p.bevilacqua in one of the threads you suggested I look at .... "never configure ephone-dn as a single line because you will be unable to do consultive call transfers and ad-hoc conferencing with it. Use "huntstop channel" instead. To have a shared line present further calls to all phones, the only solution is to configured call forward buys to another extension. This extension is usually configured in overlay with call-waiting (c separator) on the same button. Before I realized I could not conference or transfer things were looking up as I confirmed each phone had two appearances of the shared line and were able to use each line, either could put the call on hold and allow the other to pick up. At this point it is a trade off I do not feel happy about. See e-phone dns 52 and 53 below.

I am of the impression there may be some combination of these things that I could put together to reach the desired result. Do you have any ideas or other links you might be able to refer me to. Also, I am a newbie to the CME/CUE product as well as to the Cisco NetPro Forum. I was wondering if you had any hints on searches I could/should do before making a post on what may seem like a duplicate topic.

Thanks very much for your assistance.

....jeanne

ephone-dn 50 dual-line

number 2130

call-forward max-length 4

huntstop channel

no huntstop

!

!

ephone-dn 51 dual-line

number 2130

preference 1

call-forward max-length 4

huntstop channel

!

!

ephone-dn 52

number 2131

call-forward max-length 4

call-forward noan 2139 timeout 15

no huntstop

!

!

ephone-dn 53

number 2131

preference 1

call-forward max-length 4

call-forward busy 2139

call-forward noan 2139 timeout 15

!

!

ephone 10

no multicast-moh

device-security-mode none

description Associated to ephone-dn 10

mac-address 0022.905B.8FAA

ephone-template 1

codec g711ulaw

type 7975

button 1:10 2:9 3c50,51 4:52

button 5:53

!

!

ephone 15

no multicast-moh

device-security-mode none

description Associated to ephone-dn 15

mac-address 0022.905C.6D9C

ephone-template 1

username "Open2126"

fastdial 1 6565 name home

codec g711ulaw

type 7975

button 1:15 2c50,51 3:52 4:53

[Rob Huffman]

Hi Jeanne,

Have you looked into upgrading CME to 4.3/7.0 that offers this new feature. I think it would offer the functionality you desire;

Octo-Line

An octo-line directory number supports up to eight active calls, both incoming and outgoing, on a single phone button. Unlike a dual-line directory number, which is shared exclusively among phones (after a call is answered, that phone owns both channels of the dual-line directory number), an octo-line directory number can split its channels among other phones that share the directory number. All phones are allowed to initiate or receive calls on the idle channels of the shared octo-line directory number.

Because octo-line directory numbers do not require a different ephone-dn for each active call, one octo-line directory number can handle multiple calls. Multiple incoming calls to an octo-line directory number ring simultaneously. After a phone answers a call, the ringing stops on that phone and the call-waiting tone plays for the other incoming calls. When phones share an octo-line directory number, incoming calls ring on phones without active calls and these phones can answer any of the ringing calls. Phones with an active call hear the call-waiting tone.

After a phone answers an incoming call, the answering phone is in the connected state. Other phones that share the octo-line directory number are in the remote-in-use state.

After a connected call on an octo-line directory number is put on-hold, any phone that shares this directory number can pick up the held call. If a phone user is in the process of initiating a call transfer or creating a conference, the call is locked and other phones that share the octo-line directory number cannot steal the call.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/voice_ip_comm/cucme/admin/configuration/guide/cmebasic.html#wpxref93951

Hope this helps!

Rob

[jeanne.cooney]

Hi Rob....

Thanks again for your feedback. The octo-line looks very promising. I followed the link you sent which led me to even more good info. However, I am confused about one thing: is there a relationship between the huntstop channel defined on the ephone-dn and the busy-trigger-per-button defined on the ephone?

Using the example from the link:

ephone-dn 7 octo-line

number 2001

name Smith, John

huntstop channel 4

!

!

ephone 10

max-calls-per-button 3

busy-trigger-per-button 2

mac-address 00E1.CB13.0395

type 7960

button 1:7

!

!

ephone 11

max-calls-per-button 4

busy-trigger-per-button 3

mac-address 0016.9DEF.1A70

type 7960

button 1:7

With a dual-line, I understood the idea of preventing an inbound call from getting to the second channel --- 1) the exclusive rights to the 2nd channel for the person on the 1st channel as well as the ability to reserve this channel for conferencing and consultative transfer. However, with an octo-line, why do you need huntstop channel on the ephone-dn if you have the ability to control the number of calls with the busy-trigger-per-button on an individualized basis? Is the huntstop channel defined to control the max inbound calls anyone having the ephone-dn can have and the ephone definitions can be up to and including, but never exceeding the number associated with the huntstop channel? Is there a best practices concept for using the max-buttons-per-call feature (i.e.should you always have 2 x busy-trigger-per-button so each call presented has a virtual line to use for conference or transfer?

BTW - is there any way to have a delayed ring at the assistant's desk (i.e. at the boss' phone you hear ring cycles 1-4 while at the assistant's desk you only hear ring cycles 3-4)?

Thanks very much.

....jeanne

[Rob Huffman]

Hi Jeanne,

You are very welcome :)

The Huntstop Channel # command with Octo-Lines does control the "Total" number of Incoming calls that can be distributed among all of the ephones that share this DN.

Router(config-ephone-dn)# huntstop channel 4

(Optional) Enables channel huntstop, which keeps a call

from hunting to the next channel of a directory number if

the first channel is busy or does not answer.

• channel number-Number of channels available to

accept incoming calls. Remaining channels are

reserved for outgoing calls and features such as call

transfer, call waiting, and conferencing. Range: 1 to 8.

Default: 8.

• Number argument is supported for octo-line directory

numbers only.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/voice_ip_comm/cucme/admin/configuration/guide/cmebasic.pdf

The rule of thumb would be similar to CCM Max Calls/Busy Trigger where one of the "standard" defaults is the 2 to 1 relationship you spoke of.

I'm sorry but none of these type of Shared Line setups have any type of Ring delay :(

Perhaps the original thought that you had to try to feature match a Nortel "Secretarial Hunt" using secondary DN's with Forward No Answer and Forward Busy might be another good fit.

Hope this helps!

Rob

[jeanne.cooney]

Hi Rob....

First, do yourself a favor, go get a cup of coffee :-)

It looks like the octo-line scenario allows me to accomplish the shared-line direct call pickup and the conference/consultative transfer --- basically it addresses the limitation associated with dual-line ephone-dns [not able to do shared-line direct call pickup] and the limitations associated with single line ephone-dns [not able to do consultative transfers and ad-hoc conferencing]. I will include configs in another post. However, I still have a couple of questions:

[1] do you know of any other limitations with the octo-line?

[2] since my goal was to provide two calls to each phone, does my "huntstop channel 4" make sense? should it have been 2? does it matter since " busy-trigger-per-button 2" is set wherever I have defined the ephone-dn?

[3] does my "max-calls-per-button 3" make sense? I copied from a sample config, but also wonder if that limits me ....

a) it only gives me one additional talk path that can be used to transfer/conf one of the active lines (probably does not happen often) or to make a call

b) it limits the number of people I can bring in on an ad-hoc conference calls (i.e. if we wanted to allow 4 party conference within our organization - would we have to define max-calls at something like six with four for the conference and the other 2 to make calls or make one receive one

Are there best practices or am I over analyzing this and should simply do what works until it no longer works?

[3] is the transfer feature limited to ephone dns on the system (i.e. no transfer out of the system -- or at least no trunk to trunk transfer)?

[4] since the "max-calls-per-button" is defined at the ephone instead of the ephone-dn, are you not able to define different criteria per ephone-dn (i.e. I might want to have the opportunity to have 4 "channels" for my own line while only 2 channels for the phones I cover)?

[5] is the "max-calls-per-button" feature only available in an octo-line config (i.e. is it simply ignored for single line or dual-line configs

For now, I think I am set with the octo-line, but the client contact did like the two button scenario I tested (used single line with CFB to the second button) until we ran into issues with the conferencing. I had already seen a blurb on the "secondary DN" .... "Configuring a secondary number supports features such as call waiting, call transfer, and conferencing with a single ephone-dn", but not really sure how this is employed and why it makes things work (maybe again I am making it more difficult again --- maybe the secondary dn does the same as a dual-line -- basically creates a virtual port using a different number --- not sure if this occurred as an evolutionary process as Cisco learned things were not exactly as the telephony experienced people expected --- ephone-dn, then ephone-dn dual-line and now ephone-dn octo-line with each iteration overcoming some prior deficiencies). Do you secondary DNs for any purpose -- I ask based on your comment .... "I'm sorry but none of these type of Shared Line setups have any type of Ring delay :( Perhaps the original thought that you had to try to feature match a Nortel "Secretarial Hunt" using secondary DN's with Forward No Answer and Forward Busy might be another good fit.". From the links, I did not get the idea that it was any different than a dual-line idea -- except that it actually had two different numbers -- I honestly did not really follow it. And hopefully I will not need to do any testing with it until I have a CME close by instead of always trying remotely with someone at the site. BTW - was the "ring delay" comment related to the next point (secondary DN)?

Again, thanks very much for your feedback and your painstaking attention to detail that allowed me to greatly reduce my learning curve.

....jeanne

[jeanne.cooney]

Configs (did not fit in my long winded reply)

ephone-dn 9 octo-line

call-waiting ring

number 2120

call-forward max-length 4

call-forward busy 2139

call-forward noan 2139 timeout 15

huntstop channel 4

!

!

ephone 9

no multicast-moh

device-security-mode none

description Associated to ephone-dn 9

mac-address 0022.905C.6F48

ephone-template 1

max-calls-per-button 3

busy-trigger-per-button 2

codec g711ulaw

type 7975

button 1:9

!

!

ephone 10

no multicast-moh

device-security-mode none

description Associated to ephone-dn 10

mac-address 0022.905B.8FAA

ephone-template 1

max-calls-per-button 3

busy-trigger-per-button 2

codec g711ulaw

type 7975

button 1:10 2:9