How To Set-Up Inter-Office Conference Calls with Multiple 3CX Installs

[Shadragon]

Good Day,

I know I've been a bit of a pest lately asking all sorts of questions, but today I'm posting about something others may find of interest.

We have four offices, each with individual 3CX servers. I set up tunnels from 3CX PBX to each 3CX PBX with a two digit prefix for each site, like this:

41 - Office 1
42 - Office 2
43 - Office 3
44 - Office 4

So if I'm in Office 2 and want to call someone in Office 4 I dial 44xxx where the xxx is the three digit extension I want to talk too. If in Office 3 and I want to call Office 1, I dial 41xxx. Typical mesh install, so nothing new there.

Now, I was asked to set up a system where people in multiple offices could conference together for Board of Directors meetings, etc. Problem is, each 3CX conference extension is set to 700 and that cannot be changed. This means if you type in a six digit code, it isn't valid on that server and the only solution was to call long distance to the external access numbers. Costly when dialing overseas. I found a solution, however.

First, I reserved the same extensions on each 3CX server, like this:

701 - Office 1
702 - Office 2
703 - Office 3
704 - Office 4

Then I went into each 3CX server and forwarded the calls (After a 1 second ring) on each extension as follows:

Office 1

701 -> 700
702 -> 42700
703 -> 43700
704 -> 44700

Office 2

701 -> 41700
702 -> 700
703 -> 43700
704 -> 44700

Office 3

701 -> 41700
702 -> 42700
703 -> 700
704 -> 44700

Office 4

701 -> 41700
702 -> 42700
703 -> 43700
704 -> 700

Outbound rules set on each 3CX server send the five digit calls down the relevant tunnel to the necessary 3CX server. I strip the first two digits on the rule and the call arrives at ext 700. Local 700 calls are handled by the system as usual.

Last step was to amend the emails generated by the conferencing system to reflect the reserved extensions for each office. Office 1 says to use 701, Office 2 says to use 702, etc. External access numbers remain the same as each office has different ones.

Now if someone in Office 3 sets up a conference, everyone involved gets an 3CX email saying call ext 703 with the six digit conf code. No matter what office you are in, the call will be forwarded to the proper 700 ext for the server hosting the conference. Type in the six digit access code and you are in. This works really well and can handle multi-office conferences at zero cost. (I reserved 705 and 706 on all servers for future growth as well, in case we add more offices later.)

Hope this helps out someone in the same situation. Cheers.

 

[smeego78]

Good Day,

I know I've been a bit of a pest lately asking all sorts of questions, but today I'm posting about something others may find of interest.

We have four offices, each with individual 3CX servers. I set up tunnels from 3CX PBX to each 3CX PBX with a two digit prefix for each site, like this:

41 - Office 1
42 - Office 2
43 - Office 3
44 - Office 4

So if I'm in Office 2 and want to call someone in Office 4 I dial 44xxx where the xxx is the three digit extension I want to talk too. If in Office 3 and I want to call Office 1, I dial 41xxx. Typical mesh install, so nothing new there.

Now, I was asked to set up a system where people in multiple offices could conference together for Board of Directors meetings, etc. Problem is, each 3CX conference extension is set to 700 and that cannot be changed. This means if you type in a six digit code, it isn't valid on that server and the only solution was to call long distance to the external access numbers. Costly when dialing overseas. I found a solution, however.

First, I reserved the same extensions on each 3CX server, like this:

701 - Office 1
702 - Office 2
703 - Office 3
704 - Office 4

Then I went into each 3CX server and forwarded the calls (After a 1 second ring) on each extension as follows:

Office 1

701 -> 700
702 -> 42700
703 -> 43700
704 -> 44700

Office 2

701 -> 41700
702 -> 700
703 -> 43700
704 -> 44700

Office 3

701 -> 41700
702 -> 42700
703 -> 700
704 -> 44700

Office 4

701 -> 41700
702 -> 42700
703 -> 43700
704 -> 700

Outbound rules set on each 3CX server send the five digit calls down the relevant tunnel to the necessary 3CX server. I strip the first two digits on the rule and the call arrives at ext 700. Local 700 calls are handled by the system as usual.

Last step was to amend the emails generated by the conferencing system to reflect the reserved extensions for each office. Office 1 says to use 701, Office 2 says to use 702, etc. External access numbers remain the same as each office has different ones.

Now if someone in Office 3 sets up a conference, everyone involved gets an 3CX email saying call ext 703 with the six digit conf code. No matter what office you are in, the call will be forwarded to the proper 700 ext for the server hosting the conference. Type in the six digit access code and you are in. This works really well and can handle multi-office conferences at zero cost. (I reserved 705 and 706 on all servers for future growth as well, in case we add more offices later.)

Hope this helps out someone in the same situation. Cheers.

You are a legend my friend. May you continue to prosper.