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How to generate a dialtone via 3CX?

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Halea

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Greetings all:
New day, new challenge. Here is my new quest!
I want to be able to dial an extension or a line number and get a dialtone from a voip line. Is that possible with 3CX?
The practical application is that I'd like to call in on one of the PSTN lines, access a VIOP dialtone and dial out a destination over that VOIP line. I know how to do it by setting up SPA-3102 or HT-488 in stand-alone gateway mode, but I'd like to be able to do it via 3CX.
Thanks in advance for any help.
Halea
 
No, 3CX doesn't support two-stage dialing
 
Ahaaaa! The lead developper :p

Nice to make your acquaintance Archie...
Thank you for the reply which begs for more questions :shock:
Any particular reason for which "two stage dialing" is not supported by 3CX? Is it going to be supported in the future?
After all, it is a very common capability found in all traditional PBXs. I would actually adventure to say that so called "two stage dialing" or providing dialtone at an extension is the most basic and fundamental service of all phone systems. Are we taking some liberties and redefining what a PBX is here? :roll:

Keep up the good* job.
Halea

PS: * - Meant to express the traditional meaning of the word. Might be redefined soon depending on your performance. :lol:
 
Actually, as long as one-stage dialing does it job we see no reason to support two stage dialing.
Vast majority of PSTN gateways does support for one-stage dialing, some of them doesn't support two-stage dialing, also we believe that two stage dialing is much more complicated for average user and in most cases is unnecessary.
Re traditional PBXs - we do not care much about what they can do. We're taking only useful and convenient features from it, and implement them in IP PBX. We're not going to implement inconvenient things, even if some hardware PBX can do it.
BTW, why do you need two stage dialing?
 
First, I'm not going to continue in such sarcastic tone.
Second, as soon as you'll find VoIP provider that supports two stage dialing we'll consider your request. Provided that you place it in proper forum's area.
 
Which forum area do I need to place this very normal request?
 
I think the feature you are looking for is known in the UK as DISA (Direct Inward System Access).
 
Whilst I agree with Archie that this level of sarcasm is uncalled for, I do think that the tone of the replies from the 3cx staff sometimes appear a little condescending and self righteous. Maybe it is a cultural thing but at the end of the day it is us guys in the field that are trying to get the best out of the system and sell it to clients so maybe you guys at 3CX could be a little less dismissive at times and try to explain your rationale in a slightly more user friendly manner.

Let’s stop the in-fighting and all pull together to make a great product even better.

Best regards
 
Yes DISA is handy for callers to call the PBX from outside and place a call back out on a VOIP line.

DR does this for extensions with forward all set but only to a fixed external number. Handy though..

Yes I would have thought the HT488 would do it with the accounts set up as extensions rather than gateways. Might have a play and see if it works.

Phil
 
Let's clearly distinguish DISA and two-stage dialing than. We can implement DISA, it is very useful feature, and with new IVR of Version 6 it is quite possible feature to implement. But we aren't going to implement two-stage dialing in near feature. I suppose I gave brief explanations "why?" above. We can reconsider our opinion in this regards if someone could show us a VoIP provider that supports (provides) two-stage dialing. Until now we do not know any.
 
Well its ' for callers to call the PBX from outside and place a call back out on a VOIP line' that would be handy if any, but certainly no call for it at the moment.

Phil
 
What about security? If this isn't done correctly there would be a huge hole for a hacker to make free phone calls. Last place I worked had a traditional Siemens PBX which some hackers broke into and make about $3000 in calls to India in 1-2 months. Luckily the phone company didn't charge for it and helped get the problem fixed. No one in the office even knew you could do this in the system.

With broadband being so common now, a quick port scan could reveal open sip ports and hackers would have some method of doing this. I could be 100% wrong, but security needs to be addressed if this is going to be implemented.

If I am completly off base here sorry.
 
RobLloyd said:
What about security? If this isn't done correctly there would be a huge hole for a hacker to make free phone calls.
....
If I am completly off base here sorry.

No, you're precisely right. We're also considering this risk. But for DISA we can provide some PIN codes to be checked before granting access. Two-stage dialing is not appropriate in regard of this security issue too.
 
Just read the post, without a doubt PIN would be the way to go, gateway ATAs have a pin access, where it will dis after a number of failures too.



Phil
 
Hello Everyone:
Since I brought this question up initially, let me also tell you the basic solution that I found to address it.
A simple FXO/FXS box does the job. 8)
Here what I experimented with and the result:
You take an FXO device, in my case I used my retired HT488's FXO. You patch it with a phone cable onto an FXS. I used a free FXS available on a PAP2T.
You all know that an FXS device generates a dial tone right? So, you see what my solution consists of. But hang on, there is more to do before it works...
You create an outbound rule so that when you dial a certain prefix, say 99, you call out on the FXO that you just patched onto the FXS. The dial rule should strip two digits.
Now, this is the interesting part; if you simply dial 99 (or whatever prefix you used), these two digits will be stripped and a blank dial string will be sent to your FXO. Your FXO will pick up the line which is connected to the FXS, which in turn will give you a dialtone. Anything you dial at this point will be sent back to 3CX and will be subject to general extension processing. You can do anything and everything that's possible to do with an extension, but you got that second stage dialing in between.
Now, how do I use it practically? I mapped a free IPKall number to a free VOIP account. Any incoming call on that line is sent automatically to an extension (let's call it 555) specially set up for this purpose. The extension in question (555) is setup to dial out 99 on "Forward All Calls"/"Forward To Outside Number".
So, what's the use of it? Well, using my cell phone, I dial the IPKall issued number which via my free VOIP account rings into my 3CX system at the extension 555, which in turn dials out 99, which is set to go out on my FXO connected to the FXS, which immediately gives me a dial tone. :lol: Now, I can dial any long distance number that I want and the number is dialed out on one of my outside lines based on the rules established in my system.
Now, you wonder how do I secure my system for unwanted use :lol: Well, with all these hints, I am sure you will figure it out real quick :mrgreen:
Have fun.
Halea

PS: You could also patch the incoming VOIP line to dial out 99 immediately, without going through an extension, but then .... Did I say too much about the security thing?!?! :roll:
 
humm, interesting....
but I don't understand :oops:
have a diagram of that ? :roll:
 
Great work Halea!
I can see a couple of uses for that straight away.

I would think that you could also use a single device with both a FXO and FXS to keep the amount of equipment down as well?

Maybe something like the ZyEXL P-2302RL-P
http://www.us.zyxel.com/Products/details.aspx?PC1IndexFlag=20040520161246&CategoryGroupNo=BEEED6BA-D727-40B7-B511-3BB81775C084
 
I've been using a Mitel SX-20 analog PBX with a DISA option for years. To get in it requires a 3 digit PIN, I have also put a caller ID box that will only allow certain callers to get the dialtone required to input the pin, any other caller reaches my fax machine. I use the DISA port all the time to call back out on my Voip LD trunks and to turn on and off call forward fixed on my PSTN line. I'm still trying to figure out how to implement the same feature on the 3CX .
 
We dont have this feature in 3CX...
 
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