RingCentral to 3CX

[pcunite]

Our company is migrating from RingCentral to 3CX, RingCentral is great and I recommend it for anyone not wanting their own PBX.

With RingCentrl the following is transperent to the caller, with 3CX is not.

1. Caller calls 123-123-1234
2. The auto attendant waits for caller to push keypad #1

3. The PBX rings external 555-555-5555, no answer after 4 rings (not seconds btw)
a) the PBX now trys extension 555-222-222, no answer after 3 rings (the ring count is configurable, this is important because some phones that our employes have might go to their personal voicemail sooner than others no one wants a customer hearing a personal voicemail)
b) the PBX now trys calling one more time some other number
c) the PBX now plays "All reps are busy, please leave a message" and records their message.

In the above if anyone does answer the call they will hear a "To accept this call press 1" this way they know it is not their wife that is calling, but a customer. The ENTIRE time the caller only hears music...

Using 3CX to accomplish the above is not obvious. The closest you can get is...
1. 3CX trys the extension, and if not answered after x seconds...
2. The 3CX extension forwarding rules kick in, the first rule is "Offer option to Confirm accept " to which 3CX tells the caller "finding them" or something, very annoying, how to turn that off?!
3. The next rule kicks in and it is only given x seconds to ring, all rules are, and the number quickly goes to personal voicemail, which is answered so 3CX never gets to tell the caller all reps are busy!

After typing all the above it seems that dummy extensions is maybe the answer???? But we are calling external numbers, not extensions.

 

[leejor]

The closest thing, I think, would be a Ring Group set to ring the members in sequence, not all at once. That will work if all of the numbers are 3Cx extensions. As soon as you send a call out of the PBX you can loose control of it. To a VoIP provider, it could, in theory, work as no SIP message would be sent back saying the call had been answered, but a gateway to PSTN lines sends back an answer message after receipt of the dialled number, so the call would stop there.

 

[pcunite]

Thank you for advice, that did not work, or I did it incorrectly. I will explain again, this time from the 3CX perspective only.

I need 3CX to do the following:

After auto attendant sends caller to extension 100:

* Extension 100 (a softphone) does not answer
* External number 555-555-5555 (a cell phone) does not answer
* Extension 100 is tried again
* Caller sent to voicemail for extension 100

That sounds like reasonable 3CX behavior and it should do it somehow.

 

[leejor]

Once again, if you send a call out of 3CX you can loose control of the call and may not get it back.
That said...
You can try creating a ring group (ring sequential) with ext. 100, a dummy extension, say 105 and then a rule that says send any unanswered ring group call to the mailbox for ext. 100. Set ext 105 to always forward to the mobile number. Ext 100 will ring for the set time, then the call will go to ext. 105 which is forwarded to the mobile. I'm not sure if the call will return to 3CX once it has been sent out on a trunk, even if the mobile doesn't answer. You can try it, and see what happens. As I said, if you are sending the call out on a gateway to a PSTN line it will definitely stop at that point, as the call will be considered answered.

 

[pcunite]

As I said, if you are sending the call out on a gateway to a PSTN line it will definitely stop at that point, as the call will be considered answered.

Ahhh, I missed that point... that is the trouble then... nothing I have tried works because it is always being answered. How is RingCentral doing this then? Could 3CX add support for this behaviour? If I send a call out, external call, I need to know if they picked up or not, that is what I need.

 

[mfm]

If you send out an external call, with a Telecom provider they send back that it has been answered and provide a ringing tone, this is not the case with VOIP providers, as is not something 3CX is blocking or can fix in any way.

I am unsure how ring central works so I cannot comment on their configuration, but for this to work, they must be using a voip provider of some sort.

Try and redo the problem you are having with a VOIP provider and see how the result will be different. As for creating ring groups, what you want is a prioritized hunt group. If you can get the call to mobile working as you want it to I can explain step by step, unless you have already understood how to create the groups.

 

[pcunite]

If you send out an external call, with a Telecom provider they send back that it has been answered and provide a ringing tone, this is not the case with VOIP providers, as is not something 3CX is blocking or can fix in any way.

The call to the mobile is sent over our VoIP provider, we are strictly IP-PBX based. In 3CX we have one VoIP provider, one extension, and one digital receptionist. A call comes in, we send it to extension 100, that extension has forwarding rules setup, the first one is a no answer, all hours, all calls, forward to external number 555-5555 (not real number). It rings until the cell phone voicemail answers and that is the end of 3CX handling of it, it never makes it to the next forward rule.

 

[leejor]

How is RingCentral doing this then?

Ring Central is probably considered a CLEC and is tied into the telephone network using SS7 signaling. SS7 works much like SIP messaging, allowing phone companies to know the status (answered, unanswered) of the calls that they pass to other providers (along with caller ID, etc.) SS7 is standardized amongst phone companies and has to reflect the correct status of the call, especially for billing purposes. Sip messaging from VoIP providers, while generally reliable, and standardized, isn't always uniform amongst providers.

 

[pcunite]

How is RingCentral doing this then?

Ring Central is probably considered an ILEC and is tied into the telephone network using SS7 signaling. SS7 works much like SIP messaging, allowing phone companies to know the status (answered, unanswered) of the calls that they pass to other providers (along with caller ID, etc.) SS7 is standardized amongst phone companies and has to reflect the correct status of the call, especially for billing purposes. Sip messaging from VoIP providers, while generally reliable, and standardized, isn't always uniform amongst providers.

How can I phrase this to ask our VoIP provider to support this?

 

[pcunite]

Okay I just did some tests with our VoIP provider and their system is correctly showing NO ANSWER for this same mobile phone. Now the question remains why does 3CX keep ringing a mobile number more than what "Continue ringing for" is set for? 3CX will not stop ringing... it just keep going and going and going...

 

[leejor]

That's the question that someone at 3CX will have to answer. Is an unanswered call, as a part of a ring group, sent out on a VoIP trunk treated the same way as a call sent to an unanswered extension when there are more options, in the "chain" to follow?

 

[SY]

Okay I just did some tests with our VoIP provider and their system is correctly showing NO ANSWER for this same mobile phone. Now the question remains why does 3CX keep ringing a mobile number more than what "Continue ringing for" is set for? 3CX will not stop ringing... it just keep going and going and going...

The answer is:
http://www.3cx.com/forums/forum-rules-read-to-get-answers-93.html

Thanks

 

[pcunite]

The answer is:
http://www.3cx.com/forums/forum-rules-read-to-get-answers-93.html

Thanks

Stepan,
Thank you for your help thus far. We are evaluating the software for purchase, two companies in fact in so two licenses. You understand that we would not want to pay for support for a product we have not bought yet, and also would not want to buy software that does not yet seem to work as intended. Do you have a contact we can call? We will provide remote access to our systems so that you can see we are using your software correctly. Getting this issue resolved is important to us so that we may purchase your software.

 

[SY]

The answer is:
http://www.3cx.com/forums/forum-rules-read-to-get-answers-93.html

Thanks

Stepan,
Thank you for your help thus far. We are evaluating the software for purchase, two companies in fact in so two licenses. You understand that we would not want to pay for support for a product we have not bought yet, and also would not want to buy software that does not yet seem to work as intended. Do you have a contact we can call? We will provide remote access to our systems so that you can see we are using your software correctly. Getting this issue resolved is important to us so that we may purchase your software.

All contacts are specified on this page:
http://www.3cx.com/company/contact.php

Thanks

 

[pcunite]

That's the question that someone at 3CX will have to answer. Is an unanswered call, as a part of a ring group, sent out on a VoIP trunk treated the same way as a call sent to an unanswered extension when there are more options, in the "chain" to follow?

Correct, and to be more precise, it is not in a ring group but rather in an internal extension's forwarding rules. I think the problem is that 3CX does not actively monitor the call, notice how it only allows you to forwarding based on seconds, not on Rings. This seems to suggest that when 3CX makes a call out, in a separate thread (referring to software API), that thread is NOT able to communicate back with the starting process, they pass the seconds the thread should live, but therein lies the bug, it does not die when it should.

I think they should temporarily fix this bug, make threaded VoIP outgoing calls die like they should. Then later implement an improved method where ring count is an option.

 

[pcunite]

The issue has been resolved, PBX n SIP works. :lol:
Let me know when you get 3CX fixed and I will evaluate it again.

 

[archie]

I think they should temporarily fix this bug, make threaded VoIP outgoing calls die like they should. Then later implement an improved method where ring count is an option.

Sorry, where have you found a bug?

 

[pcunite]

Sorry, where have you found a bug?

An IVR answers the call sends it to extension 1000. That extension has a forward rule to go to an external number. That extension number it does indeed call only it will not stop calling/ringing after the configurable amount. I suspect that most people answer their cell phones and thus don't notice the issue, I have a bad habit of not answering my cell phone, thus I need the caller to stay in the PBX and go to its voicemail, not my cell.

 

[archie]

Sorry, where have you found a bug?

An IVR answers the call sends it to extension 1000. That extension has a forward rule to go to an external number. That extension number it does indeed call only it will not stop calling/ringing after the configurable amount. I suspect that most people answer their cell phones and thus don't notice the issue, I have a bad habit of not answering my cell phone, thus I need the caller to stay in the PBX and go to its voicemail, not my cell.

You've just described correct behaviour of PBX. What is the bug?

 

[pcunite]

You've just described correct behaviour of PBX. What is the bug?

The "Continue ringing for" , set it 5, 10, or 20 seconds... does not matter. It will continue to ring...