Distinctive Ring for Internal Vs External Calls

[David Trad]

Hi All,

I hope the subject heading is not to ambiguous, but I am struggling with a particular issue that is causing me some headaches, simply because the System is not working as advertised and I have no clean explanation to the client as to why I cannot get it to work (Maybe its just me I don't know).

The Landscape:

• 1X PRI Circuit 20 Channels
• Incoming calls go to a blast group
• All phones within the premises are in the same blast group
• All phones set to the same default ring tone
• Phones are SPA-509G
• Latest SW Pack with inclusive firmware for the phones
• Purely built with CCA end-2-end

Client Request:

Client requires that External calls have a different Ring tone or at worst a Distinctive ring to that of an Internal call, they would have liked that an incoming call can have one Ring Tone and an Internal Call have another Ring Tone... This is a fair request since the majority of the competitor Digital PBX phone systems can do this, and it is what they are used to.

Understanding of the System feature:

As is promoted, the system is supposed to support Distinctive Ringing, this as I understand it is supposed to be set by default in the system where the Cadence is altered to have a distinctive ring on Internal Vs External calls.

The Issue:

Unable to produce this result, either on our LAB/Demo system or on the clients system, I have tried multiple ring tones and all generate the same result, same ringing tone, there is no distinction between them.

Is this a bug in the system? Or is it possibly a bug with the phones load?? Do others have this working???

Is it not possible that in the ringer settings you can choose a default Ring Tone and then scroll down and choose the Blast Group Extension number and apply a different Ring tone? There is logic in having this feature and simply baffled as to why you cannot choose it.

Previously in the past you could create a Shared DN and send all the calls to this and emulate a Blast Group type of environment, you could also set a different Ring Tone for this shared DN so it sounded different to an Internal call, but even if I could do this with this client, it is not an option as they need all the button real estate... And I am not sure you can do the Shared DN with different ring tone anymore anyway as it was always done via CLI.

Is there a solution? Am I missing something here??

Any HELP on this matter would be greatly appreciated to find a solution to this problem would make life easier, at least until I can lobby Cisco to alter the ringing functionality to parallel that of other competing systems.

Thanking you in Advance

Cheers,

David.

[David Trad]

Hi Jay,

Since discussing with the client the only option available to them, they have agreed to burn a button, so here is the scenario that can be done..

Using a Blast Group:

• Point Incoming calls to the Blast Group
• Create a secondary Extension on the phone, if possible in a different range I.E if their person extension is 1XX then make the secondary Personal Extension in the 2XX range
• Remove the personal Extension from the Blast Group and then add the secondary personal extension to the blast group
• In the phones settings where you change the ring tone, choose one ring tone for the personal extension button and then a different one for the secondary personal extension

Ok..Ok I am making it sound simple, whilst it is in a way, it may be a little tricky to get it to work but it is fully CCA compliant and supported by SBCS because it was actually created by CCA.

Direct To Extension:

• Same as above except that you point the incoming call to point to the secondary personal extension
• In this scenario it would be advisable to try and have the two buttons side-by-side, in my scenario this is not possible, it will look stupid but hey it will work and get the client of my back...

I find it disturbing that an Avaya, or an LG and hell even a Samsung phone system can do this without so much trouble/fuss, the LG Avaya techs I work with have a field day mocking the Cisco Phone system all day because of all these little annoying configuration issues, even though they have some nasty ones themselves, but still this should have been a support configuration on a single button from day one...

Cheers,

David.

[jmuraglia]

David

Thanks for the info, i will try and let you know the outcome.

Thanks Again

Jay

[loeweuk01]

Hi David,

I was following your method for "Direct To Extension"

Say if someone phoned in on an external call and the call was being directed to the "Secondary" Extension. What if no one answered, is there a way to forward the call onto the "Primary" extensions voicemail?

Otherwise you would have to create a mailbox and record another greeting for the "Secondary" Extension and you would essentially be looking after 2 mailboxes. One for internal calls and one for External calls.

Hopefully there is another way round it if anyone knows?

Best regards

Robert

[David Trad]

Hi Robert,

Mate just change the CFNA to point to the primary extension using the call steering digit, also called "TransfVM"

Example:

Your extension range is 1XX

Your secondary button for external calls is 2XX

And your "TransfVM" is "6"

And your Voice Mail pilot is 199

Then your CFNA on extension 2XX should be 61XX < Where "X" represents the users extension, there internal one if you will.

Further to that if you are watching another extension for BLF, then it is advisable to watch the Internal extension so as to be able to also use it as a speed dial button :-)

Hope that helps you :-)

Cheers,


David Trad.

[loeweuk01]

Hi David,

Makes total sense, totally forgot than you can direct calls straight to an extensions voicemail using the TransfVM.

Will give this a bash today and let you guys know the results.

Thank you very much.

Best regards

Robert

[loeweuk01]

Worked a charm.

Thanks very much David.

Best Regards

Robert