Hi There,
I'm currently working on a Thirdlane server for a small business (up to 10 users).
They want to integrate their cell phones with Asterisk, but is it possible with Thirdlane without a softphone app?
Basicly they want the cell phones to receive and be able to make calls through the Asterisk server.
Thank you in Advance :-)
We are about to release two
We are about to release two "Dialer" applications - for Android based phones and iPhone - which would do just that - dial via PBX as a callback. Both are integrated with phone contacts and company directory, call history, vm, user portal settings, etc.
More on the way
I know its possible with alot
I know its possible with alot of programming. A previous co worker of mine did it, but i'm not looking to do programming, and the company want to avoid using softphones, but no trouble if theres no "out of the box" solution.
Looking forward to the new app.
Thanks for the responses.
This actually does not
This actually does not require a whole lot of programming to at least someone to use the pbx to place the call. However, it does require some effort on the part of the user to use the PBX for the call without a dedicated application.
Easy way to at least give the user the option:
Under the user extension settings, voicemail tab, add an additional option for "dialout". Set the value to the "from-inside" context of the tenant.
doing this with add an option to their voicemail menu that will allow them to dialout. Therfore to use it they would call into their voicemail from their cell phone and then select the options to dialout. To shorten the process, you can also setup call "blocking" rules on the persons extension that sends a call from their cell phone right to their voicemail so they do not need to wait for the ring timeout to occur before getting into their VM box.
You have to be careful with
You have to be careful with the voicemail option as it may present a security risk. In general we stayed away from "easy and user friendly" callback options mostly for security reasons as we are afraid that users will not keep them well protected.
Agree that you have to be
Agree that you have to be mindful of the voicemail password that it set on the extension as a breach of access to the vm box now not only provides access to VMs but the ability for fraud on your dime.
However, in some ways this is no different than someone creating a new extension itself with a weak "1234" type of password.
Receiving calls is easy, but if you want to be able to place calls from the cell phone using the asterisk server it takes additional programming that I don't believe Thirdlane has.
Without a soft phone what would have to happen is your cell phone would have to tell the server the number it wanted to call, the server then calls your cell phone back and then calls the number for you so it appears to come from the system rather than the cell phone.
Knowing all that people usually opt for the softphone to keep it simple since there are plenty of free options out there now.