QUESTION A2Billing - An Adventure in PBX Billing - Part 1

[ghurty]

Does there need to be a seperate extension created in freepbx for each "customer" in a2billing if they are connecting through thier piaf box connecting via sip/IAX to the a2billing box?

Thanks

 

[jroper]

Hi

Where A2Billing and FreePBX are installed on the same machine, FreePBX is generally only used to create and test trunks, so only one extension needed for that, and to pass DID to A2Billing, either as access numbers, or as DID.

In a standard A2Billing install, FreePBX is just there because the interface is less frightening than dealing with the asterisk dialplan directly.

SIP and IAX Peers are created in A2Billing.

Joe

 

[ghurty]

I get it.

This line from the walkthrough got me confused:
" If you’ve been following along, some time ago in this exciting adventure in A2Billing, we created our telephone extensions in FreePBX. (If you haven’t, go Make your Extensions in FreePBX, then come back here.)"

I was trying to figure out why that was necessary.

Thanks

 

[jroper]

Hi

In Tony's example, he was creating a system for his friends and family so that they could enjoy the benefits of FreePBX, but still bill for outbound calls.

The more usual use for A2Billing is to terminate VoIP calls from say IP PBX systems.

Joe

 

[tshif]

Hi

In Tony's example, he was creating a system for his friends and family so that they could enjoy the benefits of FreePBX, but still bill for outbound calls.

Joe

And Inbound calls as well!

 

[hurrymonkey]

followme not working

Hi,
I have successfully deployed a2billing as per tony's and joe's directions. So far everything works great except for followme to external calls. In those cases, it prompts for pin number.
Does anyone have any advice?

 

[hurrymonkey]

after trying and trying i officially give up on a2billing and piaf. Follow me is not the only thing that is broken. Call forwarding, transfers (blind), queues, ring groups. Also i suspect that for inbound calls, all feature codes are disabled

 

[jroper]

Hi

Your issue is that FreePBX authenticates to A2Billing in your scenario with the accountcode. However when you use Followme, the FreePBX dialplan does not pass the accountcode to A2Billing, so you are prompted for a PIN.

Theoretically, you could set up some dialplan to strip the first 10 digits of the followme, and set the accountcode, and at the same time, forward calls to A2Billing with the accountcode and the number to call.

Alternatively we had a module written by the FreePBX team that sets the accountcode for followme's but not necessarily ring groups or queues, as these do not have an accountcode assigned to them. Drop me a line for more details of this. But note that this module was obseleted by version 2.8 of FreePBX.


Tony, A2Billing 1.8.5 now supports A Leg billing (Billing for inbound DID) natively at a very simple level.

Joe

 

[hurrymonkey]

Hi

Your issue is that FreePBX authenticates to A2Billing in your scenario with the accountcode. However when you use Followme, the FreePBX dialplan does not pass the accountcode to A2Billing, so you are prompted for a PIN.

Theoretically, you could set up some dialplan to strip the first 10 digits of the followme, and set the accountcode, and at the same time, forward calls to A2Billing with the accountcode and the number to call.

Alternatively we had a module written by the FreePBX team that sets the accountcode for followme's but not necessarily ring groups or queues, as these do not have an accountcode assigned to them. Drop me a line for more details of this. But note that this module was obseleted by version 2.8 of FreePBX.


Tony, A2Billing 1.8.5 now supports A Leg billing (Billing for inbound DID) natively at a very simple level.

Joe

Thanks joe. I did have a way around it, where in followme, it would dial out with using a different outbound route then of a2billing.
Another major issue that i have now is that calls coming from a2billing are not transferable. I.E. if i get an incoming call, I cannot transfer the call to a different extension (it simply hangs up). Is this behavior typical for this a2billing-freepbx setup?

 

[bhuffman]

A2billing 1.8.5? The latest I see on either the star2billing or a2billing site is 1.8.1

 

[mkaamir]

outbound calledid to cell phone

Hello everyone how are you all doing i hope getting busy with X-Mas shopping.
Here is my issue here its very simple but i try to give you guys as much detail as possible first of everyone wants to know what system i am running so here is the detail about it.

PBX in a Flash Version = 1.7.5.5 │
│ FreePBX Version = 2.8.0.4 │
│ Running Asterisk Version = UNKNOWN │
│ Asterisk Source Version = 1.4.21.2 │
│ Zap/Dahdi Source Version = N/A │
│ Libpri Source Version = 1.4.11.3 │
│ Addons Source Version = 1.4.11 │
│ IP Address = on eth0 │
│ Operating System = CentOS release 5.5 (Final) │
│ Kernel Version = 2.6.18 - 32 Bit
Trunk voip.ms


i am trying to accomplish a simple thing for my client to set him a up a an IVR a very simple one. scenario: someone calls in and the calls come to PBX and the it goes to an IVR now IVR has two options press 1 for sales and press 2 for support. now both option send a call to my clients cell phone. to achieve that there are several options 1:findme followme 2:Misc Destination 3: Dial string in the extension like this (Local/9057822647@from-internal) and all of them work just fine and do the job but the problem is that i cant change the Outbound CID it always shows the number person calling on the cell phone for testing i use my Google voice with laptop but i have used the other phones as well in that case client cant tell if the call is coming from sales or support. now i tell you the things that i have tried and what were the results.
from IVR option 1 to extension that i created and from that extension Follow Me. Follow-Me List:9055555555# under the section
Change External CID Configuration

Mode:Fixed CID Value
Fixed CID Value:9055555555
and it works as long as i have any ten digits in the value field.
this is good but it takes lot of time to achive it and keep a track of all the clients bit hassel.
second I tried Misc Destination now the difference is that I get the id on the cell phone the one I put in the destination field.
Third I tried dial string in the extension



This device uses sip technology.

secret

dtmfmode

canreinvite no

host dynamic

type friend

nat yes

port 5060

qualify yes

dial Local/9055555555@from-internal

Custom Context All

Now this thing works and does not work let me explain how
From IVR to this extension no this does not work i get the calling party CID. But if I use my soft phone with this extension yes it works and I see the CID that i put is the
Outbound CID <9055555555> or whatever I put it in as long as I have ten digits.
I have tried many different combinations to achieve one simple thing but no luck so made me think is if calledid can pass thru with Followme then there is got to be an easy way out or a custom context or some manipulation in the config file. If you guys can give me a dial plan to put it in manually that’s fine too I can make the modification according to a client.
Anyways thanks in advance

 

[keyjey]

I can't find the script in a fresh install. So now what can I do ?

Thanks.

 

[blanchae]

Did you type "help-pbx" at the Linux command prompt? How about update-scripts and update-fixes (they may be similar like update-scripts16...). Just a note, don't do an update-source as it can break things if you don't know what you are doing.

 

[keyjey]

Yes, I tried it all, also tried silver and purple (one for proxmox, the other a simpli iso installer) and nothing different.

Also tried to install incredible pbx with that reported new a2billing installer (/root/nv/install-a2billing)and that script was missing also. Amazing !

I have a basic idea about linux and configuration, but really can't understand how can this happen. All videos and information about PIAF and IncrediblePBX talk about "easy a2billing installation" and after that nothing.

Neither found anything searching on google and forums and asking some other users. I sent a message to another user that posted a message here asking. That post had no reply, and I sent him a message asking. He said he could not find the solution.

I don't mind to install a new PIAF or Incredible PBX, but need to know what exactly version to download and follow to successfull install a2billing using the easiest way, so if you can help us we will appreciate it.

Since I saw there are some users that found this same problem, I think would be better to find a way to just download the installer script that is missing in the directory, if possible ...

Thanks in advance, and sorry for my english, is not the best.

 

[wardmundy]

Google is your friend. Then visit this thread.

 

[rjm]

Open extensions_custom.conf and add the following code to the bottom of the file: -

[macro-dialout-trunk-predial-hook]
exten => s,1,GotoIf($["${OUT_${DIAL_TRUNK}:4:4}" = "A2B/"]?custom-freepbx-a2billing,${OUTNUM},1:2)
exten => s,2,MacroExit
 
[custom-freepbx-a2billing]
exten => _X.,1,DeadAGI(a2billing.php|${OUT_${DIAL_TRUNK}:8})
exten => _X.,n,Hangup()

Now create a trunk in FreePBX over which we are going to pass billable calls.

If you are using Asterisk 1.6 and beyond, don't forget to change the PIPE to a COMMA to conform with the new Asterisk dial plan syntax. For example:

[custom-freepbx-a2billing]
exten => _X.,1,DeadAGI(a2billing.php,${OUT_${DIAL_TRUNK}:8})
exten => _X.,n,Hangup()

Little bugger had me pulling my hair out for a while...

 

[powerontech]

Here are some install from scratch instructions (no scripts) I created for RHEL5/Asterisk1.8/FreePBX2.9+/A2Billing1.9.4
http://www.powerpbx.org/content/a2billing-install-guide-v1

Still testing/revising. Let me know if you find any errors.

 

[Ashay Choudhary]

hello dear members,
I have been a member of PIAF since I came to know about Anveo and Ward, Then I joined PIAF forum and I am more than glad to be a part of this awesome community.
Now coming to the point, Have deployed A2B and FreePBX for a commercial environment, A2B outbound works like charm but when dialing inbound DID which has been set up following the beginning of this thread. I am getting the extension unreachable but if the extension is put directly under inbound route instead of custom destination it works great and rings and can answer the call and talk without a fuzz.
Let me briefly describe my current configuration
I have freePBX 12 with Asterisk 11.25
A2B version 2.2.1
installed on a dedicated instance on vultr
the provider is Alcazar Networks.

Inbound working like charm directly in FreePBX since the provider does not require username password authentication.
I am not able to figure out whats wrong
Once again I'd like to thank all the great people here who helped/helping newbies like me