Making DND softkey of SPA9xx work with Asterisk to create appropriate hint

[janpaulini]

hello,

i am wondering if there is a way to have the DND softkey enabled but instead of the phone handling DND send the desired feature code to the asterisk server to be able to see the DND status on a BLF of a SPA962 for example ? if i enable DND on the phone it does not communicate the DND status to the asterisk server and asterisk can not create the appropriate 'hint' to make the BLF show busy for that particular extension.

if it does not work with any of the SPA9xx is there a way with the SPA5xx series phones ?

Regards

Jan

[cameron.beattie]

Hi there

If you do a search on the Cisco support community you'll notice that this has been repeatedly requested over a number of years. Unfortunately I've not seen any interest from Cisco to implement this feature.

Other manufacturers offer this kind of functionality e.g. Snom.

Any comments from Cisco appreciated.

[EWielinga]

We also desire this feature very much for the SPA5xxx series...

(but I did't researched it yet, so I also don't know if there are any workarounds)

[erik]

Have seen all the questions with regard to the way SPA9xx and SPA5xx deal with vertical feature codes.

For DND and CF it would not be very difficult to use the original DND (that has the toggle option built-in), but sending a star code to the pbx instead of activating dnd locally.

the current local dnd has a lot of dissadvantages as many mention: calls are set up to the phone before the pbx finds out the phone is not available, Operator Panels (FOP) that are not aware of the DND status etc etc.

The workaround with adding a softkey that activates a PSK to notify the PBX has the disadvantage that there is no way to toggle the softkey or give a different indication.

So Cisco: can you keep up with the Grandstreams, Aastras and so on?

[EWielinga]

It stays very quiet from Cisco HQ...

But Erik, the Grandstreams and the Aastras, what are there disadvantages to the Cisco or SPA50X series?

I have to implement a working solution in Jan or Feb 2012...

[EWielinga]

BUMP BUMP BUMP

[Patrick Born]

Hi All,

We at Cisco are listening. Thanks for the input.

As a workaround, try the following:

1. Clear out the vertical services activation codes on the phone so that it does not attempt to perform DND.

2. Enable programmable soft keys (psk) on the phone

3. Configure a speed dial psk to send DND on star code to your call control

4. Configure a speed dial psk to send DND off star code to your call control

Regards,

Patrick

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[Patrick Born]

Another option is to use unused phone line keys as follows:

Assume you've a SPA504G with only extensions 1 and 2 registered.

1. Set to disabled, the line key extension under the phone tab. Voice tab > Phone tab > Line Key 3 > Extension: Disabled

2. Save the settings

3. Press and hold line key 3 once the phone has restarted

4. when prompted, supply the star code to enable dnd

5. repeat for key 4 for dnd disable

I understand that the phone will not know the dnd status from the call control. We're investigating this...

Regards,

Patrick

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[erik]

Hi Patrick,

Having checked the firmware (and release notes) of all versions in 2012 up 'till now I haven't seen anything that looks like a feature we could use to toggle DND (and other functions) on the PBX side instead of on the phone only. Did I miss something?

thanks, Erik

[virtualmyles]

Patrick-

While this option appears to be a temporary fix, I am curious if there has been any progress made at all with the development of the DND key being able to send a soft command to alert asterisk that it is in DND mode.
Any information would be

appreciated.

Sincerely,
M Blackwood

[cameron.beattie]

Thanks for the reply.

I would appreciate it if you would indicate whether Cisco will add this functionality to the product roadmap i.e. allow the DND key to be programmed to send a message to the server when pressed.

Regards

Cameron

[erik]

This is what I did indeed: make PSKs. The problem with those is that it is unclear to the user if the phone is in DND state or not. So with this solution the feature request would be to make a PSK 'toggleable'.

[Patrick Born]

Erik,

We've added this firmware feature request to our SPA500 and SPA300 phones' roadmap. The feature has a tentative availability date of October 2012.

The feature request is to support a PSK that toggles between two states, for example enable DND and disable DND, sending a different sequence for each parameter.

Thanks for the input.

Regards,

Patrick

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[erik]

That is excellent news, looking forward to the new version(s)!

Thanks,

Erik

[xtechdata]

I have disabled DND on all my phones, becuase our users forget that it is turned on as it is not obvious that DND is on. Some employees purposly turn it on and act stupid becuase it was not obvious. Yes it displays "Do Not Disturb" on the screen, but when the backlight is off, you don't notice it unless you are looking for it

.

The phone should have an option to flash lights or turn them all red or a different color to scream "DND is on!!!"

Without loud and clear DND notification, DND is useless to me. I have the users unplug thier phones, but that creates another set of issues. For the users that need DND, i'm going to have to investigate to see if other brands of phones offer a loud & clear DND notification.