Ringing incoming calls on multiple phones

[mike]

Hi all,

After a lot of hours of research, I have decided to post my question here as I believe I have confused myself more trying to figure this out on my own.

Here is the situation...

I have a client that is using at Cisco 2851 Router with CME 7.1 and Unity Express 7.0. They have multiple phones. The way it's setup right now is all incoming calls to the main line will ring on the receptionist phone. If it's not answered or it's busy, it is set to forward to another extension. They currently are running without a receptionist and am needing to make a couple of changes until they get someone hired. They want the reception phone to ring twice and if there is no answer, it forwards to 2 different extensions simultaneously and rings both phones. Then whoever of the two is available will be able to take the call. I am sure there is a way to make this happen, I'm just not sure how. I am needing some help. Is there somewhere in Unity that I can do this? Or is it only through CLI? Either way is fine with me. I am just not familiar with the telephony side of Cisco. I have been able to take care of just about all of their issues till now.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Mike

[Rob Huffman]

Hi Mike,

For a very quick and simple solution, I would recommend just adding

a new DN (target-number) to the "Backup" phones. Then configure the Forward No Answer

on the current reception phone to point to this "new" number and roll over

after two rings

call-forward noan

To configure call forwarding so that incoming calls to an extension (ephone-dn) that does not answer are forwarded to another number, use the call-forward noan command in ephone-dn or ephone-dn-template configuration mode. To disable call forwarding, use the no form of this command.

call-forward noan target-number timeout seconds (*set the timeout seconds to 6 for two rings)

timeout seconds - Sets the duration that a call can ring with no answer before the call is forwarded to the target number. Range is from 3 to 60000. There is no default value.

From this good CME doc;

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/voice_ip_comm/cucme/command/reference/cme_c1ht.html#wp1063669

Cheers!

Rob

[mike]

Hi Rob,

Thanks for your quick reply. I also like the link you sent. Through all of the hours of research I was doing, I never ran across that doc.

I am still a little confused about your first sentence..."For a very quick and simple solution, I would recommend just adding

a new DN (target-number) to the "Backup" phones." I am not sure what that means exactly.

Here is what I currently have for dns below. Ephone-dn 1 is the reception line. I need it to forward to ephone-dn 3 and 12.

ephone-dn  1  dual-line

number 500 secondary 5551234567

label Main Number - 500

description 5551234567

name Main Number

call-forward max-length 4

call-forward busy 598

call-forward noan 598 timeout 15

corlist incoming Call-InternalLocalLongDist

ephone-dn  3  dual-line

number 515 secondary 5552345678

label Kay Smith - 515

description 5552345678

name Kay Smith

call-forward max-length 4

call-forward busy 1000

call-forward noan 1000 timeout 15

corlist incoming Call-InternalLocalLongDist

hold-alert 30 originator

ephone-dn  12  dual-line

number 543 secondary 5553456789

label Lori Jones - 543

description 5553456789

name Lori Jones

call-forward max-length 4

call-forward busy 550

call-forward noan 1000 timeout 20

corlist incoming Call-InternalLocalLongDist

hold-alert 30 originator

My understanding of your first sentence is to create a new ephone-dn number and associate the two extensions I want forwarded? Or am I way off on that. Am I making it harder than what it should be?

Thanks for your help with this.

Mike

[Rob Huffman · Accepted solution]

Hey Mike,

No worries my friend!

What I meant (although poorly written and explained) is that hopefully

there is a "Spare" line button on each of Kay and Lori's phones. Create a new DN

let's say it's 455. Add 455 to the spare button on each phone and change the "Main"

phone as follows;

ephone-dn  1  dual-line

number 500 secondary 5551234567

label Main Number - 500

description 5551234567

name Main Number

call-forward max-length 4

call-forward busy 598

call-forward noan 455 timeout 6

corlist incoming Call-InternalLocalLongDist

Does this make more sense?

Cheers!

Rob

[mike]

Thanks Rob,

I believe I am starting to understand.

I should be able to create a "dummy" ephone-dn, for example...

ephone-dn  51

number 455

park-slot timeout 120 limit 4

Once that is created, I can then program one of the overlay buttons on there phones to that number 455 and set it to normal ring. Once that is done, it should then forward the calls to both of their phones at the same time. Then whoever answers it obviously gets the call.

I will give this a go and let you know how it turns out. I really appreciate your patience with me on this as well as your help. 

Mike

[mike]

THANK YOU ROB!! 

I went in and created a dummy dn and setup a button on each of the phones to forward to that newly created dn with normal ring set. I just called and it all worked.

I have marked your last post as the correct answer.

I appreciate all your help and your patience.

Have a great day!

Mike