Strata DK40i - Call Forward External (sort of)

Hi folks --

We have a Strata DK40i with three Vonage lines, and a simple little Amigo II VM system attached. I have an employee who's going to be working off-site for quite some time, so I've been looking at options for getting their phone to forward through to their number.

I don't like "Call Forward External" because we'd probably need more lines, and I don't think I have the experience to get it set up in a secure way. Last resort, I think. So:

Vonage offers a free call transfer feature, just press "#90" and then the number and the caller is transferred -- perfect. But is there an easy way to get the system to do this? Preferably any time someone requests ext. 12 the system "plays back" that key series and they're forwarded and we're out of the loop. Can the Strata do this?

I assumed that the VM might be a good way too, but it's so cheap that it doesn't really offer custom programming options - it's pre-configured for the Strata and I can't access the codes. I even experimented with playing DTMF tones for "#90" into his outgoing message, but "#" is the key that the VM uses to end recording, so that didn't work either.

Any suggestions? I've run out of ideas...

Thanks very much,

-- Dave

Reply to
batcave
Loading thread data ...

If I'm understanding you right you don't even need to do a hookflash before you do the #90? Vonage is constantly monitoring the line looking for the #90 DTMF?

I was reading through my Toshiba documentation and, since you program a speed dial bin for CF-external and point the CF-external to the bin, I'm thinking right you should be able to program a speed dial bin with the #90 and the remote number and forward the phone to that bin it should work. As long as you don't program the bin to dial outside line access code (9?) first the forward won't tie up another line.

Just some thoughts...

Take care, Rich

God bless the USA

Reply to
Rich Piehl

Well when you phrase it like that I'm not sure how I feel about it :-) It could be, or maybe the VoIP modem catches the DTMF and sends them a datastream. Don't know. Interesting question for followup though.

first the forward won't tie up another line.

That's a really good idea, but I'm wondering whether the speed dial by default would be allowed to speed dial out over an active CO line rather than return an error or something. But then again I didn't even know how to set the time on the system as of Thursday night, so I'll definitely try that on Monday and let you know how it goes.

My most recent thought is whether there's some Centrex capability that would do this for me. If I understand things correctly, if this thing were connected to Centrex lines then I could hookflash from my phone, type some codes that would be heard over the line, and it would be done

-- the strata wouldn't be handling the transfer, Centrex would. The features list says it's fully Centrex compatible, whatever that adds up to, so I would think if that's true that there would be a way to tell it to execute a Centrex transfer on no answer, and simply not program in the hookflash.

Thanks very much for the response, I'll let you know how it goes.

-- Dave

Reply to
batcave

That's kinda' why I was asking about the #90 thing without the hookflash. I'm thinking there's something in programming where you have to tell the system that the lines are centrex rather than standard lines. Then you have to program a flash button onto the phone or program a flash command into the speed dial string.

Let us know how it goes...

Take care, Rich

God bless the USA

Reply to
Rich Piehl

Here's how I would do it. In the voice mail box extension field, not the mailbox field, insert the feature code required by Vonage. Then internal users can dial a phantom extension number that is programmed to c/f directly to the mailbox will follow the extension field. Outside callers dialing through the auto attendant will also get the same result.

good luck!

Reply to
James R. Shaw

Grrr, so close and yet. . .

First off, I completely mis-remembered on the Vonage thing, they do require a hookflash. That'll teach me to stay at the office until 11pm trying to get this to work. . .

Now that I've worked with it a little more, I realize that there's a major problem in using the specific CF-E mechanism at all, which is the Amigo II auto-attendant. If I read the manual correctly, CF-E will only externally forward direct calls or calls transferred from the

*integrated* auto-attendant. Since our VM isn't integrated, it handles the auto-attendent by blind-transferring to the VM extension, and then back again. So, by the time any call in our sytem makes it to an extension it's already been transferred a few times, so I don't think CF-E is even a candidate for this operation.

The Centrex thing seems like an option, and the manuals had a decent amount on programming soft keys to execute Centrex functions like transfer (basically like speed dial with hookflashes if I read it right), but I couldn't sort out how to get the station to execute a Centrex transfer as part of a standard CF Busy/No Answer scheme. This would really solve it I think, any advice here?

It just seems to me like there should be some easy way to have the system generate a over the line whenever anyone calls a particular extension, but it always seems like I'm one ingredient short. Frustrating!

Again, thanks for your help Rich, and any continuing thoughts here.

-- Dave

Reply to
batcave

I've emailed you some information.

Take care, Rich

God bless the USA

Reply to
Rich Piehl

Cabling-Design.com Forums website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.