Best way to handle multiple incoming and outgoing numbers

[imekul]

Edit: I apologize for the somewhat-disjointed nature of the post! I had a hard time figuring out how to ask the question. So, my apologies if it's hard to follow.

I'm in the process of porting four phone numbers to my PIAF server, and I want to make sure I have my phones set up the most ideal way.

I have 14 Grandstream GXP-2000 phones. The 2000s can each support four lines, so I was thinking of having each number I port go to a different line of the 2000.

Here's my current setup:

Each phone has four extensions, one for each line -- for example, extension 200 is one line, 300 is another, 400, and 500. For another phone, it has extensions of 201, 301, 401, 501 for the four lines. The third phone has 202, 302, 402, and 502.... all the way to 214, 314, 414, and 514 for the 14th phone.

The 2xx extensions are dedicated to one number/DID -- Line One. The 300s are for Line Two, and so on.

So I have a ring group for Line One that rings all the 2xx extensions, then one for Line Two that rings the 3xx extensions. For outgoing, I have all the 200s show one caller ID, all the 300s show another, et cetera.

Anyway, this does all work, but I can't help but thinking there must be a more elegant way to accomplish this.

I realize I could put a caller ID prefix on incoming calls to show which "line" is being called. The main reason I'm doing it this way is because this allows me to have four outgoing "lines" -- where I can choose one of the four lines based on which outgoing caller ID I want to send on a given call.

I don't really like this solution, because it ends up forcing me to have each phone using four extensions, meaning these 14 phones end up showing up as 56 extensions in FreePBX. Maybe there wouldn't be any performance hit on the server with so many extensions, but I wonder if this is inefficient.

So at the end of the day, what I'm trying to figure out is if there is a better way to use all four "Line" buttons on the GXP-2000s. Or is this just the standard way to use them, to have multiple extensions for a multi-line phone?

Any advice would be appreciated!

 

[jmullinix]

What are you trying to accomplish? How are the 4 DID's that you are porting being delivered to you?

I usually set up one identity per phone and allow call waiting. The PBX and ring groups will take care of the rest.

 

[imekul]

Well, I have four physical phone lines right now. I'm porting them to voip.ms, and I'm going to add them as four trunks in FreePBX.

I then plan on adding inbound routes for each of the four lines / DIDs, where Line 1 will ring all of the Line 1s on the GXP-2000s (via a ring group). Line 2 will ring the Line 2s, etc.

I also want the outbound caller ID to reflect the chosen line. So if somebody picks to make an outbound call on Line 3, I want it to show a different caller ID than if they chose Line 1 or 2.

So far, the only way I have been able to accomplish this is by setting up four extensions for each phone. That way, one phone will have Extension 200 on Line 1, 300 on Line 2, 400 on Line 3, and 500 on Line 4.

Call waiting seems like it might work for inbound calls. I guess I'm just trying to figure out how else to easily make outbound calls on different "lines" -- that is, to show a different CID based on the outbound line I select.

Hoping this makes some sense! I might be making it more difficult than it needs to be. If there's a better way, please let me know!

 

[imekul]

The other way to do what you want is to require your users to prefix their dialing with a unique prefix for each caller ID. i.e. all calls using CID 'A' require a '6' prefix, calls using CID 'B' require a '7' prefix... etc then structure 4 separate outbound routes to strip the dialed prefix and then pass to the single voip.ms trunk. Using this method, you only need a single registration for each endpoint instead of 4.

This actually sounds like a great idea! Do you know what the dial pattern would look like if I wanted to use your suggestion, and make people dial 6 + 555-1212 or 6 + 618-555-1212 for CID A?

Thank you for chiming in!

 

[imekul]

Great stuff. Works very well!

I'm kind of going back and forth on whether to use multiple extension per phone or using your approach. I like yours as it is simple, but I wonder if the other would be easier for a less advanced user. All they would have to do is select "Line 1" or "Line 2," and the appropriate CID will be automatically sent.

Do you have any thoughts on whether having 56 (14 x 4) active extensions as opposed to 14 puts any significant stress on the server? I have an AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ system with 4 GB RAM and a 250 GB SATA HD.