Users with multiple phones and phones with multiple users
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I'm thinking through how these situations can be handled with FreePBX. Here is how it's handled in the Altigen world.
User with multiple phones:
Sales person has a phone at their desk, which is used to log into their extension. User leaves their desk, and takes their laptop with them. User sits in another room, opens MaxCommunicator with the IP Talk softphone enabled. Once that's done their extension is now logged in using the softphone, and automatically logged out of the desk phone.Phones with multiple users:
This scenario is similar to the above. This sales person works from home and comes into the office once per week. They have an Altigen IP phone at home, and there is another IP phone at their workstation in the office. This workstation has multiple users -- depending on which work-from-home sales person is in the office that day.When a sales person comes into the office, they go to the workstation, and use #27 to remove the currently logged in extension of the phone, and log into their extension (which logs them out of their phone at home). I encourage them to use #26 at the end of the day to log out of the at-work phone; however, when they return home and use #27 to log back into that phone, they will be logged out of their office phone.
Extension authentication
In the Altigen world (at least in my Altigen world with Max Server 8.0), extension and voice mail authentication is one in the same. When users do the #27 function, they enter their extension number and passcode. If they access voice mail, it uses the same passcode. The credentials are the same for if they log into MaxCommunicator, which, if the IP Talk selection isn't chosen at login, is call management software.From what I've seen in FreePBX, the extension, voice mailbox, and user portal are three different sets of credentials. Mind you, I'm not saying this is a bad thing. I'm simply thinking through the paradigm shifts my users will need to complete when we leave the Altigen world.
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Why not just use Follow Me? This is a pretty basic feature that most phone systems have and it would make life pretty easy.
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@DustinB3403 said in Users with multiple phones and phones with multiple users:
Why not just use Follow Me? This is a pretty basic feature that most phone systems have and it would make life pretty easy.
The issue with follow me is that if five sales people use the same phone in the office, when it rings, which one of the five will it before.
You never know when said person will be at that extension, so it's going to be difficult to program.
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I believe what you want is the the ACD Module: Automatic Call Distribution (ACD)
https://wiki.freepbx.org/display/FPG/Queues+Module+User+Guide
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@gjacobse said in Users with multiple phones and phones with multiple users:
I believe what you want is the the ACD Module: Automatic Call Distribution (ACD)
https://wiki.freepbx.org/display/FPG/Queues+Module+User+Guide
Right now, there is no concept of a call queue at my company. We have some hunt groups that ring are "admin" department; however, each sales person exists as their own entity. Moving to FreePBX could be an opportunity to make more effective use of our phones.
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@gjacobse said in Users with multiple phones and phones with multiple users:
I believe what you want is the the ACD Module: Automatic Call Distribution (ACD)
https://wiki.freepbx.org/display/FPG/Queues+Module+User+Guide
That is not what Queues are for. You could bastardize a method for this, but it is not what they are for.
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@EddieJennings said in Users with multiple phones and phones with multiple users:
@gjacobse said in Users with multiple phones and phones with multiple users:
I believe what you want is the the ACD Module: Automatic Call Distribution (ACD)
https://wiki.freepbx.org/display/FPG/Queues+Module+User+Guide
Right now, there is no concept of a call queue at my company. We have some hunt groups that ring are "admin" department; however, each sales person exists as their own entity. Moving to FreePBX could be an opportunity to make more effective use of our phones.
You need to rethink the process.
There are a number of ways to solve this depending on how you want to handle it.
Assuming you are talking about 4-5 sales people per desk phone, I would suggest using a phone like the Yealink T46G that has a lot of screen space for showing things. Just put all their extensions on there and trains them to look at the flashing light prior to answering the call. They would see it was their name flashing or not.
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@JaredBusch said in Users with multiple phones and phones with multiple users:
@EddieJennings said in Users with multiple phones and phones with multiple users:
@gjacobse said in Users with multiple phones and phones with multiple users:
I believe what you want is the the ACD Module: Automatic Call Distribution (ACD)
https://wiki.freepbx.org/display/FPG/Queues+Module+User+Guide
Right now, there is no concept of a call queue at my company. We have some hunt groups that ring are "admin" department; however, each sales person exists as their own entity. Moving to FreePBX could be an opportunity to make more effective use of our phones.
You need to rethink the process.
There are a number of ways to solve this depending on how you want to handle it.
Assuming you are talking about 4-5 sales people per desk phone, I would suggest using a phone like the Yealink T46G that has a lot of screen space for showing things. Just put all their extensions on there and trains them to look at the flashing light prior to answering the call. They would see it was their name flashing or not.
Yes, much rethinking needs to be done. The more I'm sitting here considering stuff, the more I'm thinking the best approach is to forget trying to translate what we have configured with Altigen, and actually figure out how we (the company) want the system to function and configure stuff accordingly.
I am curious about outbound calling with a phone that has multiple accounts. If there was a desire to specify who's making the outbound call, I imagine they'd press some button to tell the phone that it is X extension placing this call.
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@EddieJennings yes.
If I want to originate a call from my extension I do nothing because it is default.
If I want to originate from this one that is labeled STL (a client system) I push that then dial.
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@JaredBusch Is there a way to easily change the default extension? Such as Salesperson A sits down on Monday, does some task, then all calls are made from their extension without them having to specify the extension each time they make a call.
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@EddieJennings The feature want is called hot desking. I have never needed to set it up anywhere.
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@JaredBusch Just learned a new term "hot desking." And that's exactly what these folks do when they come in once a week. As far as their phones go, it probably wouldn't be the end of the world if they have to press a button to make an outbound call as their extension, but I know there will be griping and complaining from simply "logging into my extension like I used to do."
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@EddieJennings said in Users with multiple phones and phones with multiple users:
@JaredBusch Just learned a new term "hot desking." And that's exactly what these folks do when they come in once a week. As far as their phones go, it probably wouldn't be the end of the world if they have to press a button to make an outbound call as their extension, but I know there will be griping and complaining from simply "logging into my extension like I used to do."
Lots of people hot desktop use soft phones for this reason, it's the default behaviour rather than an advanced feature.
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So I just took the time to check the settings.
This looks simple to setup. Basically, you will have 2 DSS keys set to Line 1 (so they can get a 2nd call) and a hotdesking button to log in and out.
For these extensions you will want to set a simple SIP password (because they have to type it on the phone) and that is bad, so you will also want to restrict these extensions to a certain IP block. Which then causes problems if you think you want to use the extension on another device.
####################################################################################### ## Hotdesking Startup ## ####################################################################################### #Enable or disable the phone to show the following items on the login wizard during startup; 0-Disabled, 1-Enabled; #hotdesking.startup_register_name_enable = 1 (default) #hotdesking.startup_username_enable = 1 (default) #hotdesking.startup_password_enable = 0 (default) #hotdesking.startup_sip_server_enable = 0 (default) #hotdesking.startup_outbound_enable = 0 (default) hotdesking.startup_register_name_enable = hotdesking.startup_username_enable = hotdesking.startup_password_enable = hotdesking.startup_sip_server_enable = hotdesking.startup_outbound_enable =####################################################################################### ## Hotdesking Dsskey ## ####################################################################################### #Enable or disable the phone to show the following items on the login wizard when pressing the Hot Desking DSS key; #0-Disabled, 1-Enabled; #hotdesking.dsskey_register_name_enable = 1 (default) #hotdesking.dsskey_username_enable = 1 (default) #hotdesking.dsskey_password_enable = 0 (default) #hotdesking.dsskey_sip_server_enable = 0 (default) #hotdesking.dsskey_outbound_enable = 0 (default) hotdesking.dsskey_register_name_enable = hotdesking.dsskey_username_enable = hotdesking.dsskey_password_enable = hotdesking.dsskey_sip_server_enable = hotdesking.dsskey_outbound_enable = -
What I do at work which is similar to what you are trying to do is called Hoteling in Polycom phones. Ao you have one extension and you can login anywhere and dial out as you.
There is also follow me but that is if you are out of the office and it calls your cell and so forth.
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@JaredBusch said in Users with multiple phones and phones with multiple users:
So I just took the time to check the settings.
For these extensions you will want to set a simple SIP password (because they have to type it on the phone) and that is bad, so you will also want to restrict these extensions to a certain IP block. Which then causes problems if you think you want to use the extension on another device.
How does his current vendor secure this for home use?
How do you secure this for truly mobile use (crazy guy is allowed to demand the use of a physical phone from anywhere)?It really sounds like a soft phone would solve this, but I'm guessing Mose people much prefer to use a traditional desktop phone versus some software on their computer, especially sales.
Of course good companies aren't normally run by the users, so don't rail me there, move on and answer the question.
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@Dashrender said in Users with multiple phones and phones with multiple users:
How do you secure this for truly mobile use (crazy guy is allowed to demand the use of a physical phone from anywhere)?
Ideally, crazy long passwords, and better with TLS on the SIP channel. You can go further with port knocking and similar. VPN is an option. But good passwords go a long way, and adding TLS goes really far.
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@scottalanmiller said in Users with multiple phones and phones with multiple users:
@Dashrender said in Users with multiple phones and phones with multiple users:
How do you secure this for truly mobile use (crazy guy is allowed to demand the use of a physical phone from anywhere)?
Ideally, crazy long passwords, and better with TLS on the SIP channel. You can go further with port knocking and similar. VPN is an option. But good passwords go a long way, and adding TLS goes really far.
Without TLS or some form of encryption, are you open to the old firesheep attack?
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@scottalanmiller said in Users with multiple phones and phones with multiple users:
@Dashrender said in Users with multiple phones and phones with multiple users:
How do you secure this for truly mobile use (crazy guy is allowed to demand the use of a physical phone from anywhere)?
Ideally, crazy long passwords, and better with TLS on the SIP channel. You can go further with port knocking and similar. VPN is an option. But good passwords go a long way, and adding TLS goes really far.
You don't hotdesk with secure creds though because you cannot trust users type all of that in. That is why it is a bad idea for this scenario.
The best option is simply to use secure credentials like always and just allow the extension to authenticate from more than one device.
This requires training the users to push their ext button before dialing out when using the shared phone in the office.
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@JaredBusch said in Users with multiple phones and phones with multiple users:
@scottalanmiller said in Users with multiple phones and phones with multiple users:
@Dashrender said in Users with multiple phones and phones with multiple users:
How do you secure this for truly mobile use (crazy guy is allowed to demand the use of a physical phone from anywhere)?
Ideally, crazy long passwords, and better with TLS on the SIP channel. You can go further with port knocking and similar. VPN is an option. But good passwords go a long way, and adding TLS goes really far.
You don't hotdesk with secure creds though because you cannot trust users type all of that in. That is why it is a bad idea for this scenario.
The best option is simply to use secure credentials like always and just allow the extension to authenticate from more than one device.
This requires training the users to push their ext button before dialing out when using the shared phone in the office.
This will likely be the way I'll handle the folks who come into the office once per week. This project is the perfect opportunity to introduce new behavior.
@Dashrender Right now, there is no security outside of extension number and passcode. Out-of-office users, simply have their phones configured to talk to our on-premises server and they login using their extension's credentials. Everything's in the clear.
