Provision remote phones with multiple extensions?

[Lee Moreau]

Is this not possible? We have Snom 820 phones and all our employees have 2 extensions each. Registering them manually is fine, but if I try to do remote provisioning, in 3CX I enter the MAC address of the phone under their first extension, but then if I do that on their second extension it says it's already in use and can't use the same MAC address. So I've set them up manually right now. Is it not possible to do it from 3CX?

 

[lneblett]

Not that I am aware of.

In 3CX the templates are set for one account, one extension. The templates are positionally dependent. That is to say that using the one account, one extension philosphy, if you could provision using one extension first, the provisioning of the second extension would simply overwrite the first extension's attributes. They will both use the same template and write your varaibles into the same fields. The MAC address prevents this.

I am guessing here, but my thought is that given the broad array of phones available, there are simply too many variances as to the number of lines/accounts and features per make and model of phone to make use of the common interface as it is today. Further positioning the data on the phone itself makes it even more problematic.

To illustrate, I have a Cisco509G which can accommodate 12 lines. I use this phone as it allows me to set accounts up directly on my newer clients' systems so that I can monitor at a glance and they can reach me with one button. Now assume for the moment that I want to have two buttons associated to the same account, but with two different extensions (same as you), but I want the button on the upper right and upper left to be the ones lit. This would positionally represent locations 1 & 5. 3CX would need to abandon their "one size fits all" screen interface and develop one specifically for the 509G so that I could accomplish my desire. Additionally, there would need to be programming logic that preserves or warns of existing variables should more extensions come into play at a later date for the same MAC.

You could alter the template, but no matter, it is a manual process. I would likely stay mdoifying the phone and then upload the configuration fot safety sakes.

 

[3CXfoxhallsolutions]

Have worked with Linksys SPA942, Cisco SPA504G, Yealink T22p & T26P phones - all of which are multi-line. In all cases we have only been able to use provisioning templates that set a single extension to each phone. We have been able to make some enhancements to the templates to minimise the amount of account data that is needed for the second extension - but that's about it.

We commonly install 2-extensions per phone (department + personal), for our customers - so this same issue has dogged us for some time.

best regards ...