Pick up horn to dial

[Jack Outside the Box]

Hey forum,

I used to have a 7912 series Cisco IP Phone on my desk, but I now have a 7960 Series. With the old one I could put in the number I wanted to call and it would dial this number when I picked up the horn. I really enjoyed this functionality. Now with the new phone I can't do that any more, pressing in numbers when the horn is on the hook just doesn't do anything.

Is there perhaps a way to enable this on my 7960 series phone? I would very much appreciate any answer.

- Jack

[Chris Deren]

It should work the same way. What happens when you press the buttons while on hook?

What system is the 7960 device registered to?

[Jack Outside the Box]

Hey Chris,

Thank you for your quick response!

When I press the numbers keys while on hook it just does not do anything at all and "NewCall" starts a call on speaker. The system is registered to asterisk with a FreePBX shell.

- Jack

[Chris Deren]

I cannot speak for Asterisk, but with Cisco PBX (CUCM, CME) you have ability to dial on-hook on all phone models, so I would venture to guess there is a setting on Asterisk controlling it.

[Jack Outside the Box]

Isn't it a setting in the phone itself?

- Jack

[Chris Deren]

No. These phones are pretty much a dummy terminals where the only things you can change on them vs. PBX is network configuration, i.e. assign static IP vs. DHCP, define TFTP address, etc.

[Jack Outside the Box]

I understand your thinking, but the extension number has been transferred from the old phone to the new one as well so I would assume that these kind of settings would also be applied to the new phone as well. I will look into it and google a little more and when I know more I'll let you know.

- Jack

[Jack Outside the Box]

According to this manual the option should be enabled. However, this manual is from 2015 and on the phone it says "(c) 2000-2009". For this reason I think it might be time to give it a firmware update, and I have no idea how to do that. I might someday look into it, but right now I unfortunately don't have the time.

Thank you very much for the help you've given me!

- Jack Outside the Box

[Chris Deren]

Keep in mind 7960 is very old model (13+ years), which was later replaced by 7961-->62-->65, all of which are now end of sale. Though the behavior of this particular "feature" has not changed.