Setting Line Keys on Fanvil X4U & X3U

[lthibx]

I am setting up my first client with 3CX, Voxtelesys SIP trunk, & Fanvil X4U-V2 & X3U Pro phones. Couple questions about setting up the line keys.
I have 3 DIDs at the moment. DIDs are assigned to Office Hours, which is assigned to a Queue and the users are all part of the queue.
Using the Web Client (I am System Owner)
In the BLF tab of each extension, I have it set as follows:

4, 5, 6 seem to work as expected on each phone (X4U only, X3U does not have secondary display).
It displays the persons name on the secondary panel (X4U), and calls the extension of the person specified. Works as expected.
On the Main display: 1, 2, 3, shows a phone icon and the extension number of the phone for each of the three line labels. No DID related info.
LEDs for each button shows green when available, and red when on a call...all good.

Only having my cell phone and Skype on my computer as external phones, I experimented by placing one call from Skype to one DID, and picked that up on an extension (101). While on that call the top line button is red. All other extensions in the group...all lights are green (no indication that a line / DID is busy). On the X4Us, for other extensions the secondary display does show red for ext 101...that seems correct.
I then place a second call from my cell to the second or third DID. Ext 101 shows no indication of a second call but I can hear it ringing there.
All other extensions (in the group) top line light blinks green, and I can pickup the second call there.
On ext 101 I could pickup the second call only after I hung up the first call. Could not put the first call on hold to answer the second call as there is no indication of an incoming call on line keys 2 or 3. I can however, put the first call on hold, click line key 2 or 3 and make an outgoing call to my cell phone. Top line blinks yellow while I am on that second call. That seems correct as well.

Q1: I was expecting each line key to be related to a DID. So I thought a second call to DID 2 or 3 would show on line key 2 or 3.
On no phone does the second or third line keys show activity for an incoming call regardless of DID, always just the first line key.
Is there a way to make this relation? Maybe I am missing something?

Q2: For Ext 101, is there no way to put the first call on hold, and pick up the second incoming call (again no indication of second incoming on that extension).

Q3: Do you have to set the BLF options on each extension individually? I don't see any option to set them at a more global level. What If I had 50+ phones to do?

Q4: For all outgoing calls, the number displayed on the receiving end is always the main truck number. I think I read that somewhere in my training.

I hope my presentation of the issue is clear enough. Piece of cake for all of you more experienced users.

Thanks in advance.
LThibx

 

[JohnS_3CX]

You cannot set line keys on phones to make them appear to call out from a different number per key

Q1: I was expecting each line key to be related to a DID. So I thought a second call to DID 2 or 3 would show on line key 2 or 3.

We do not assign line keys to DIDs, this is not doable in 3CX

Q2: For Ext 101, is there no way to put the first call on hold, and pick up the second incoming call (again no indication of second incoming on that extension).

You can put calls on hold and answer other calls - under your extension Forwarding settings you need to enable accept multiple calls. This will not work for ring groups or queues, only for calls that directly reach your extension.

Q3: Do you have to set the BLF options on each extension individually? I don't see any option to set them at a more global level. What If I had 50+ phones to do?

This is doable but only via the 3CX management console. It can not be done via the Webclient Admin panel yet.
Select multiple extensions and edit them. You can mass provision the BLFs this way

Q4: For all outgoing calls, the number displayed on the receiving end is always the main truck number. I think I read that somewhere in my training.

This depends on your provider whether they support it (most do). You can assign DIDs to specific users extensions, just edit an extension and it appears on the first tab.

You can also create outbound rules with a prefix so that your users can for example dial

1 + destination number = Shows Outbound DID 1
2 + destination number = Shows Outbound DID 2
n + destination number = Shows Outbound DID n

 

[lthibx]

You cannot set line keys on phones to make them appear to call out from a different number per key

That is most likely a non-issue.

We do not assign line keys to DIDs, this is not doable in 3CX

Wow, this would seem to be IMO a pretty basic function. Working with the phones so far, I find it a bit confusing on how this is handled. I am going to have a conversation with my customer on what they expect. I will reply back once I have their expectation.

But currently what I see on the 3CX / Fanvil phones:

• Call comes in I answer...Ext 102.
• Ext 102 top like key light is red. All other extensions all line keys are green, no indication an in coming call is in progress, except that they can see that ext 102 is busy (bottom screen sidebar).
• If another call comes in all phones get a pop-up about a call. Other extensions top light blinks green. Ext 102, top light is red. I place that call on hold, I see no way to answer the second call from 102, even with Accept Multiple Calls checked. (I guess the answer to this is stated in the quote below...doesn't work for ring groups and queues).
• With the current configuration, if there is only one person in the room, seems the only way to answer the second call, is to put ext 102 on hold and pickup 2nd call on another extension. Am I wrong?
• And so it seems that line keys 2 & 3 have no function for incoming calls. Only usable for making outgoing calls.
• And one other scenario, In this type of business I am currently dealing with (a type of parts store). I can see them putting a call on hold from the front desk phone, going to into the warehouse and wanting to pick up that line from a phone in the warehouse. I am having a hard time figuring out how this is possible.

You can put calls on hold and answer other calls - under your extension Forwarding settings you need to enable accept multiple calls. This will not work for ring groups or queues, only for calls that directly reach your extension.

So how do you handle ringing all phones without a RG or Queue?

This is doable but only via the 3CX management console. It can not be done via the Webclient Admin panel yet.
Select multiple extensions and edit them. You can mass provision the BLFs this way

I checked it...yes that works...thanks.

This depends on your provider whether they support it (most do). You can assign DIDs to specific users extensions, just edit an extension and it appears on the first tab.

You can also create outbound rules with a prefix so that your users can for example dial

1 + destination number = Shows Outbound DID 1
2 + destination number = Shows Outbound DID 2
n + destination number = Shows Outbound DID n

Don't think I want to send DIDs directly to extensions, at least at this point.

I will get with my customer tomorrow and reply back.

Really appreciate your attention.
Chat back soon.

LThibx

 

[JohnS_3CX]

We do things a bit differently to what you may be used to with other systems. To handle more than one incoming call we offer Shared Parking (set your BLFs to SP1, SP2, etc instead of using line keys like you had earlier),

1. When a call comes in you can answer it
2. A second call hits your extension: now press SP1 to park the 1st person and your phone is free to pick up the next call
3. A third person calls, and you repeat by parking your active call to SP2 this time and answering the new caller.

While callers are parked they will hear music on hold, and anyone sitting on another station can hit SP1, SP2 etc to answer those callers that were parked (or to pick up the line from the warehouse). You can have upto 999 shared parking slots. You will need phones with enough BLFs to satisfy the specific demands of the business but we also provide our apps which make monitoring and handling calls easy, whether you have an IP phone or not.

We also offer parking orbit which works a bit differently, but I think shared parking is the easiest and most intuitive to use.

 

[lthibx]

Hi @JohnS_3CX,
That sounds close to what I think I need. I had briefly looked into SPs, but it didn't seem to work as I expected. I need to review again with the knowledge you provided. Will attend to that this evening...not with the phones at the moment. Followup questions:

Q1: So I can assign these SPs to the top three 'line keys (actually that is what Fanvil designates these key to be)' on the top left of the X4U / X3U Pro?

Q1a: And if I set those three keys as such, those can still be used to open a 'line' for an outgoing call?

Q2: So what is the purpose of the 'Line' option in the BLF settings?

Thanks again.
LThibx

 

[JohnS_3CX]

Q1: So I can assign these SPs to the top three 'line keys (actually that is what Fanvil designates these key to be)' on the top left of the X4U / X3U Pro?

Yes you can, put them in the first 3 positions instead of line keys as you had earlier.

Q1a: And if I set those three keys as such, those can still be used to open a 'line' for an outgoing call?

No they cannot - you need to set a line key for that

Q2: So what is the purpose of the 'Line' option in the BLF settings?

The line key function varies across phone manufacturers. In Fanvil's case it can act as
- a key to open a new line while in an active call
- to switch between active calls when you have more than one call running at the same time
- or it can function to answer a second incoming call (each simultaneous call needs 1 line key) when "Allow multiple calls" is enabled

Shared Parking on the other hand parks the call on the 3CX server and your extension is out of the loop, meaning that others can pickup the call without any further interaction from you.

Hope this clears things up a bit better.

 

[lthibx]

Hi everyone,
Posting an update. I did set up shared parking and am finding that to work very well. What I think worked best was:

• Set 3 top Side Keys as Line keys. So for inactive extensions this allows for the top line key to show an incoming call and can be picked up either by the side key press or the Answer soft key, and then allows for Side Key 2 or 3 to activate another 'line' to make an external call if necessary.
• X4U. I set 3 DSS Keys to SP1, SP2, SP3 respectively.
• X3U Pro - These do not have the secondary screen or DSS keys. Other posts mentioned work around to create dummy extensions and forward them to the SPx slots. I did that and can pickup a parked call by dialing the assigned extension, and can put it back to an SP by transferring it back to that extension. Pretty slick.P.S. I read that this is not recommended by 3CX support, but it solves the put on hold and pickup on some other extension (even without DSS keys) issue. If it is a problem for my client, I will get them more X4Us to replace the X3Us and then won't need the dummy extensions.

Observations:
On an extension that has an active call, if another call comes in, and they place 1st call on Hold, they cannot answer the second call. But if they instead put 1st call in an SPx slot, then they can answer the second call. Other inactive extensions can just pick up call on top Side Key or Answer soft key as normal. While testing this I found other posts which stated to use ALLOWUSEBUSYOPTFORGROUP = 1 (and I know not supported by 3CX), but I it didn't seem to make any difference on call handling. I set it back to 0.

I also learned during the troubleshooting process, that in this clients scenario, multiple DIDs is not needed. More than one call can come in on the main DID only limited by the number of simultaneous calls. Slick.

Only remaining issue I see is that if a call comes in and I Reject it, the call keeps ringing. I would want to have that call ended. Haven't yet found a setting for that.

Other than the reject issue, I think the system is working as expected. I believe my client will not have any issues migrating to it. With no unforeseen obstacles, I hope to get it deployed by the end of next week.

Hope someone has an answer for the reject issue.
And thanks again everyone for your help.

 

[JohnS_3CX]

Only remaining issue I see is that if a call comes in and I Reject it, the call keeps ringing. I would want to have that call ended. Haven't yet found a setting for that.

This depends where the call comes from

- Queues: it will keep ringing even if you reject
- Ring Groups: it will keep ringing until all members were polled and all reject
- Direct to extension calls: it will keep ringing until all your endpoints belonging to that extension reject (and you also need to disable your voicemail via call forwarding)

X3U Pro - These do not have the secondary screen or DSS keys.

Are you sure you are referring to the correct model?
X3U Pro has 3 keys (you could set 2 as line, and 1 as SP)

 

[lthibx]

Hi @JohnS_3CX,
Yea that is the correct model: X3U-Pro. My statement was "it has no secondary screen or DSS Keys'. not referring to main screen and Side / Line keys. IMO, configuring the same keys on one set of phones one way and another set differently is confusing for the user. Upon deployment, I will query my client as to whether they would just rather have all X4U-V2 phones.

- Queues: it will keep ringing even if you reject

Hmm...Queues...So is there not a way to do something like forward it directly to VM? Going to be super annoying to the user for the phone to keep ringing until the caller gives up. Queues are stated (in the documentation) as being 'so cool' and you really should be using them instead of Ring Groups, but RGs have similar issue, so either really doesn't matter. But they both seem to lack some basic functionality of call handling. I have some friends / colleagues that are long time 3CX users. I will have to ask how they are handling this.

Thanks
Lonnie

 

[JohnS_3CX]

Hi Lonnie,

They are cool, but not so cool that they would go against their designed goal

Reject basically activates whatever you have set here because it causes the phone to send a BUSY reply to 3CX:


But under queues and ring groups it's a different story however, those settings do not apply because the call is controlled by the ring group / queue and does not actually belong to your currently ringing extension.

So the only way "out" of the ring group and queue is via its own "Destination if no answer".
- Queues will follow it when there are no agents or the timer has been reached
- Ring groups will follow it if all the users are offline, or the timer has been reached, or all users reject the call

Not sure if there is any other way of doing what you originally wanted.

 

[JohnS_3CX]

Oh I forgot to mention (although its might not apply in your case) you can drop the call from the 3CX client by right clicking it.

In this manner you are actually managing the queue / ring group in case it helps.

 

[lthibx]

Hi @JohnS_3CX
That is all good useful information. I will review under my own 3CX instance and see if I can get something to work. Just seems to be a basic primal function not to be handled at the Queue / RG level. Maybe a future update will handle this.

Thanks for you feedback.
Much appreciated.
Lonnie