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Internal Auto Answer by extension

Ben Willig

March 17, 2020 22:28

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Is there a way to set an extension to auto answer on all internal calls, but ring on external (ring group) calls?  I have this scenario come up a lot where customers want to have extension to extension calls on certain phones auto answer with speakerphone, but an outside call rings that same phone. I am not seeing this setting in the documentation, it seems like my only option is to turn on/off auto answer for all calls.

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  Larry Neblett March 18, 2020 11:45

  There are 2 aspects that must be considered, the PBX and the phones in use. 

  Unfortunately, the PBX is limited in this regard; however there may be some relief

  When using the dial code *5 to do a manual intercom, the system sends "Ring Answer" in the Alert-Info header. It is this string that must also reside in the phone - 

  

  This string "Ring Answer" must be entered into the phone so that when the phone sees the message with the string, it will auto answer, provided the phone is set that way- 

  

  Your make/model of phone may differ somewhat, but there should be a setting somewhere to allow. 

  Now all that is needed is to modify the phone dial plan to insert the "*5" dial code at the beginning of any extension dialed. This is where you will need to refer to the manual for your make/model of phone. 

  In my case the dial plan string looks like:

  { <=*5>[123][01]x | <=*80>400 | x+ | *x+ | *xx*x+ }

  This string is telling the phone to insert *5 at the front of any dialed digits where the first digit is a 1, 2 or 3 and the second digit is a 0 or 1 and the x indicates any number from 0-9. I also have it set to do this when someone dials extension 400. 

  The user extension range covered in the above is 100-119, 200-219, 300-319 and 400. Should a user dial any of these extensions, the phone will add the *5 at the front of the string which will be seen by the PBX, which will subsequently cause the PBX to send the Ring Answer to the target phone and when seen and set to answer, it will do so in Intercom mode.