Help: make 2 phones ring with same number on same network

[manocc]

Hello all.

I have a DSL connection at home that I push out 5km to a house in the countryside accross the valley. I use a couple of antennas from these guys http://www.ubnt.com/ (fantastic gear - unbeatable). This is the only way to get high speed internet to the country house right now and it works great.

What I would like to do is have one FPL number ring in both locations so I can get the call from either location, depending on where I am.

I've done some research and it seems like there are a number of ways to solve my problem, but I need something simple. For example, I'd rather not implement a PBX ( e.g. Asterix) if possible. I thought I would ask the board. How you would get this done with a simple and easily maintainable configuration?

In each location I have a Linksys WRT54GL that I use to distribute wired and wireless internet connections in each location. I can flash these with alternate firmware if necessary ( like openWRT, DD-WRT, Tomato ). The WRT54GL at home connects to the internet and manages PPPOE authentication. The one in the country house simply connects to the one at home via DHCP accross the antenna link. I can change the configuration from routed to bridged as necessary or make any other necessary changes. I haven't bought either ATA yet, so I can buy whatever works.

Nice people at FPL: I'd gladly buy a couple ATA's and a config or two if you can help me. If I'm not mistaken, one of the easier ways to do this would involve letting more than one ATA authenticate for the same number on your end.

Thanks!

[laurent]

I understand this is not going to be the exact solution you ask for, but a very simple workaround would be to get two FPL numbers and accounts, and use the FollowMe feature on account A with your "main" number forward to your B account when you don't answer. The caveat is that you would have to make A ring only 3 or 4 times so that people won't hang up before it calls B, and then on B you have to answer fast.

What you actually need is not yet in Canada, and that would be Google Voice.

[bridonca]

Another option might be to get a Voxalot account, pay $15 a year for the voxlite, and add freephoneline as a voice call provider. You can set up the same voxalot account on multiple ATA devices, so when a freephoneline call rings through voxalot, it will ring to all the accounts. You can also make calls through the freephoneline trunk with voxalot.

There is also a low tech solution I use. I set my home ATA on a timer. When I am at work, the timer turns the ATA off, thus allowing the work ATA to accept incoming calls.

[FONGO_steve]

There is also a low tech solution I use. I set my home ATA on a timer. When I am at work, the timer turns the ATA off, thus allowing the work ATA to accept incoming calls.

That's thinking outside the box!

@OP - I think Bridonca's solution sounds like the best for your situation. The other suggestion of forwarding two freephoneline numbers to each other won't work because we don't allow two of our numbers to be forwarded to each other to prevent number harvesting.

[cu2o2o2]

Hello all.

I have a DSL connection at home that I push out 5km to a house in the countryside accross the valley. I use a couple of antennas from these guys http://www.ubnt.com/ (fantastic gear - unbeatable). This is the only way to get high speed internet to the country house right now and it works great.

What I would like to do is have one FPL number ring in both locations so I can get the call from either location, depending on where I am.

...

Thanks!

manocc,

Welcome to the forum!

If I were you, I would first check for latency and jitter on the remote site before investing in VOIP. If too high, then forget about implementing VOIP on the remote site, it will bring you frustration.

You can try pingtest.net (there are others) to check the line quality of your remote site for VOIP.

Good luck!

[manocc]

Thanks to everybody.

this is all some great feeback!

Bridonca, I'm going to give your configuration a try. It looks like it could work nicely.

Regards,

manocc

[Jake]

I don't know if this would work, but it could be worth a go before signing up for something.

Does anyone know if you can register two devices to a sipsorcery account? I know it takes a bit to set up calling through sipsorcery, but if you could register two devices at the same time with them then you might find that both ring at the same time also.

It would be a bit more work than going the voxalot route, but it would save a little money.

[adamm]

I'm trying to set up both an ATA and a standalone IP phone at my house with my FreePhoneLine account as well. So you're saying that FPL accounts can not be registered on multiple devices simultaneously?

Is sipsorcery invite only ?

[Red89GT]

Is sipsorcery invite only ?

looks like they changed, before it was open to anyone.

[zombie999]

You can look at pbxes.org. You can register FPL with them and have several extensions. Basic account, that is just fine for what you want, is free.

[adamm]

You can look at pbxes.org. You can register FPL with them and have several extensions. Basic account, that is just fine for what you want, is free.

errr.. I signed up at pbxes.. any help with how to set that up?

[laurent]

Create an SIP extension and hook up your ATA to that account. Set it to extension #100 or something.
Create another SIP extension and hook up your IP phone. Set it to extension #101 perhaps.

Then, create a trunk and hook that up to your FreePhoneLine account.

Finally, create a general inbound route and outbound route rules to ring all extensions on inbound calls, and use the trunk for outbound.

Then when an inbound call comes in to FPL, it's PBXes that receives it. It forwards the call to both your PBXes SIP accounts, which are the two extensions.

You can have up to 5 extensions with them for free.

You can even add your cellphone as a 3rd extension that will also ring on inbound calls.

Edit: You also become bound to that service's limitations. For example, they limit outbound calls to 60 minutes. This can become a problem for chatty people, or some customer support lines...

[adamm]

ok.. sorry to be a n00b at this, but this is what I've done so far:

Extensions > Add Extension > SIP
- Extension : 100
- Display Name: myATA
Submit

Extensions > Add Extension > SIP
- Extension : 101
- Display Name: myIPphone
Submit

Trunks > Add SIP Trunk
- Trunk Name : Home
- Username : 14165551234
- Password : mypass123
- SIP Server : voip.freephoneline.ca
- Dial Rules : {my dial plan}
Submit

Finally, create a general inbound route and outbound route rules to ring all extensions on inbound calls, and use the trunk for outbound.

This is kinda where I get confused.

Inbound Routing > Add incoming route
- Trunk : ??
- Caller ID Number : ??
- Regular Hours Extension : 100
- After Hours Extension : 100

Do I make an incoming route for each extension?

Not sure what to do with outgoing route either.

Also, when you say "Create a SIP extension and hook up your ATA to that account", what do you mean "hook up your ATA to that account" ? where's the PBXes account info?

[laurent]

Finally, create a general inbound route and outbound route rules to ring all extensions on inbound calls, and use the trunk for outbound.

This is kinda where I get confused.

Inbound Routing > Add incoming route
- Trunk : ??
- Caller ID Number : ??
- Regular Hours Extension : 100
- After Hours Extension : 100

Do I make an incoming route for each extension?

Not sure what to do with outgoing route either.

Create a ring group that includes all the desired extensions, and then create one inbound rule to ring to that group. Leave caller ID empty so that ALL incoming numbers ring to that. See, with a PBX, you can have rules that ring specific destinations depending on who's calling. Leaving the box empty makes all calls adhere to the rule.

Also, when you say "Create a SIP extension and hook up your ATA to that account", what do you mean "hook up your ATA to that account" ? where's the PBXes account info?

Yes I meant to hook up the ATA device to your PBXes SIP extension for it. After you submit the creation, going back to the extension page will show you your login credentials to use.

In the end, the result is that your devices are connected to PBXes, not to FPL. It's PBXes that connects back to FPL.

[adamm]

... and then create one inbound rule to ring to that group. Leave caller ID empty so that ALL incoming numbers ring to that.

What about the Trunk field in the Inbound rule? The tip says:
"Define the expected trunk on incoming calls. For most providers this is the trunk name, but for some it's the username of the trunk. Leave this blank to match calls from any trunk."

So do I use the name of the Trunk I created, i.e. "Home"? Or my FPL phone number?

After you submit the creation, going back to the extension page will show you your login credentials to use.

I went to the extension page. Are you referring to the Username and password fields in each extension? The password fields are currently blank? So do I just make a password for each extension and input that info into each device? What do I use for the inbound/outbound server in my devices?

[laurent]

What about the Trunk field in the Inbound rule? The tip says:
"Define the expected trunk on incoming calls. For most providers this is the trunk name, but for some it's the username of the trunk. Leave this blank to match calls from any trunk."

When you create the trunk, you give it a name. Use that name. That's what I did and it works.

So do I use the name of the Trunk I created, i.e. "Home"? Or my FPL phone number?

However, the tip to leave it blank seems good too, you can try that.

I went to the extension page. Are you referring to the Username and password fields in each extension? The password fields are currently blank? So do I just make a password for each extension and input that info into each device? What do I use for the inbound/outbound server in my devices?

Correct, you decide on the password. The username will be automatically built by appending your pbxes username, followed by a dash, and then followed by the extension number.

So yes, each extension creates one unique SIP account over at pbxes. Each extension (ATA or SIP phone) device connects independently to the system. This is how the central system can them offer various features link ring groups, followme, inter-extension calls and so on.

The SIP server in your devices is "pbxes.org"

[adamm]

Do I still need to create an Outbound rule? And what do I input?

[laurent]

I don't know that as I've played only with the service for 10 minutes.

Perhaps you should head over to PBXes wiki and forums for help and examples on this?

[adamm]

I tried adding my usename/password and incoming server (pbxes.org) to my ATA and it doesn't work. I can't receive calls and there's no dial tone.

[laurent]

Go check the status page on the website, you should see your ATA in the Extensions. Make sure it comes up green, otherwise there's a problem. It most likely is an error in your server, username and password. I've tested it an hour ago with my ATA and it worked fine.

[adamm]

AH. I got it to work. Two things... The first was stupid: I didn't have the line enabled on my ATA when I set it up, thats why I wasn't getting a dial tone. The other thing was that I had to set the Trunk field in Inbound rules to the name of the Trunk I created.

After that I can now make/receive calls.

I do have another question though: How do I transfer a call between the two devices?

[laurent]

Well for that, I really do think you should head over their forum and wikis for help.

(And I don't know the answer to that.)

[zombie999]

I do have another question though: How do I transfer a call between the two devices?

Asterisk code for in call blind transfer is ##
Code for attended in call transfer is *2

Don't know if this will work but you can try.

Basically you dial ##, you will hear "transfer", you dial the extension to transfer to and hang up.

[laurent]

http://www.pbxes.org/wiki/index.php/Codes

[zombie999]

I guess they reversed the codes but it will work.