Forwarding from SIP phone

[fonewiz]

What happens inside 3CX when a user presses the forward button on their Cisco SPA525 and then dials the phone number they want to forward to? I have a user that says this has worked for them in the past but now it's not.

Does this actually change the busy and no answer forward rules for the extension or does the phone itself do redirect or??

Any help is appreciated, thanks in advance.

 

[NickD_3CX]

The "Forward All Calls" function I believe you are referring to on the phone does not affect the Forwarding Rules as they have been set in the Extension Settings in the Management Console. Essentially the calls has to reach the phone in order to get forwarded to the designated number. If you have the Extension Profile for this extension set to "Away" or "Do not Disturb"/"Out of Office", then the call will never reach the phone because they are handled by the Phone System.
Generally speaking though it should work, not through an SBC though if that is how it is provisioned.

Keep in mind that for some Forwarding Options in profiles "Away" and "Do not Disturb"/"Out of Office" are ignored if the calls are arriving to an extension through a Queue or a Ring Group.

Also, you opened this under the "3CXPhone for Windows" section. Am I missing something or is a 3CX Phone app not involved?

Also would you care to share how the calls reach the users extension on this system?

 

[fonewiz]

The "Forward All Calls" function I believe you are referring to on the phone does not affect the Forwarding Rules as they have been set in the Extension Settings in the Management Console. Essentially the calls has to reach the phone in order to get forwarded to the designated number. If you have the Extension Profile for this extension set to "Away" or "Do not Disturb"/"Out of Office", then the call will never reach the phone because they are handled by the Phone System.
Generally speaking though it should work, not through an SBC though if that is how it is provisioned.

Keep in mind that for some Forwarding Options in profiles "Away" and "Do not Disturb"/"Out of Office" are ignored if the calls are arriving to an extension through a Queue or a Ring Group.

Also, you opened this under the "3CXPhone for Windows" section. Am I missing something or is a 3CX Phone app not involved?

Also would you care to share how the calls reach the users extension on this system?

No 3CX Phone app is involved. I guess I put it in the wrong section. I was thinking that the 3CX server runs on Windows so..

The calls are reaching the extension by way of the inbound rule on the main external phone number being directed to the extension, not through a ring group or anything else first.

The issue is not "IF" forwarding is working in this situation/configuration, the question is really "Why is it working when forwarding to local numbers and not the toll-free".

Not sure, I have to re-read my original post but I may have failed to mention that the forwarded calls work fine when forwarding to a non toll-free number but not when forwarding to a toll-free. It's not an outbound rule issue, I checked that. The non toll-free numbers must be dialed the same exact way with the same number of digits as the toll-free.

The provider is SIP based, call comes in to the number, call is routed directly to extension 100, the Cisco phone send a diversion request back to 3CX which results in a CANCEL coming from the SIP provider but only when the toll-free number is used as the forwarding number.

Makes no sense because when they dial the number from their phone directly without any forwards involved, the call goes through fine.

Also, if the forward is setup through 3CX it works fine, just not when set on the phone. Again, setting on the phone works fine but only if it's a NON toll-free number.

At this point, I have to think the issue is with the SIP provider rejected the diversion header or something like that. It seems they are only rejected it when it comes from the Cisco phone instead of 3CX and only when it's to the toll-free number.

Bizzarro.. Really.

 

[leejor]

Also, if the forward is setup through 3CX it works fine, just not when set on the phone. Again, setting on the phone works fine but only if it's a NON toll-free number.

This may be the result of a change in the Caller ID being sent when using the call forward method you are invoking. Many toll free number destinations will not accept a non standard phone number (they are paying for the call and want to know who is calling), so, if your extension number, or any thing "out of the ordinary" is being sent to identify the caller, the destination may simply be refusing the call. Try forwading a call to a local number and check to see what number shows up.

 

[fonewiz]

Also, if the forward is setup through 3CX it works fine, just not when set on the phone. Again, setting on the phone works fine but only if it's a NON toll-free number.

This may be the result of a change in the Caller ID being sent when using the call forward method you are invoking. Many toll free number destinations will not accept a non standard phone number (they are paying for the call and want to know who is calling), so, if your extension number, or any thing "out of the ordinary" is being sent to identify the caller, the destination may simply be refusing the call. Try forwading a call to a local number and check to see what number shows up.

That was one of my theories but, the caller-id shows up fine when forwarding to a local number. Thanks for reminding me of this again, I will dig deeper to see what's being sent. I will log into the phone itself to see how it's set or see if I can force the caller-id sent inside 3CX somehow. I have a ticket in with the carrier at the moment also and they should be able to confirm this is the case or not.

 

[fonewiz]

I did not get completely to the bottom of this but, I suspect it has something to do with the phone itself sending a diversion header and the SIP carrier not accepting it in certain cases???

I decided to just ask the customer to use the 3CX app on the receptionist computer to change status for her extension from available to out of office when they want to forward the phones.

I set the out of office forwarding rule for the receptionist extension to forward to the toll-free number and checked the "Use 302 diversion header". This failed for some reason. As soon as I unchecked the 302 diversion header, this config started working.

Interestingly though, I couldn't forward calls using the out of office tab to a local or toll-free number with the 302 diversion header checked.

When forwarding from the phone, only calls forwarded to a local number work, toll-free does not.

So, basically, I have not put my finger on exactly what's causing the issue and in true carrier fashion, they are not in a hurry to tell me if they see anything on their end or you know, even respond.

Thanks for the help on this, I wanted update the thread with how I solved the issue for the customer even though I did not solve the mystery entirely.

 

[leejor]

There are a number of ways to send calls off to Toll Free numbers in North America at no cost, and can be used for testing, if not for the actual traffic. Have a look at something like SIP Broker

http://www.sipbroker.com/sipbroker/action/providerWhitePages

Do a search for SIP-Code *1800 (there are additional ones as well). or a provider name of "toll free"

There are a number if you do some searches. I believe, that they (some?) get a small amount of revenue for passing on the calls.

If you find one that works for you then just modify the outbound rules.

 

[ian.watts]

In general I adjust the provisioning template for these handsets to disable those features. All too often cfwd is tried and I end up troubleshooting something I needn't. The web interface for users to admin their own forwarding rules is good.. the only exception I'd like is not letting them screw up their extension passwords and locking their 3cxPhones and smart apps out as perhaps an unintended side-effect. Same for DnD.