[Freeswitch-users] Account selection

[Ken Gillett]

On 24 Aug 2010, at 15:26, Tim St. Pierre wrote:

>> 
>> This can be very important when each SIP account represents a different company/business. Although one person is dealing with all those businesses, when an outgoing call is made it is imperative that the correct SIP account is used to make that call so that the recipient is correctly informed who is making the call.
>> 
> 
> So really, your issue is with presented identity in terms of caller ID name and number then?

Yes, that's about it. 

> Can you set outgoing caller ID name nad number on the 6 provider accounts?

Only the name. Each account has the outgoing number set by the provider (not unreasonable).

> If you can, you may have some better options.
> 
> On our platform, we use the dialplan to route all calls to the most appropriate provider, based on
> the number that was dialed, and what the rates are for each carrier in a given area (least cost
> routing), although reliability in certain areas is also factored.
> 
> Each extension registers with a single registration, and has it's own internal caller ID name and
> number (the user's name and extension).
> 
> We use the Aastra phones, and built a little XML app that lets the user pick from a list of possible
> caller ID name and number combinations.  This tool updates the database value that will be used for
> effective_caller_id name and number.  With this setup, one user (one SIP registration) can have an
> unlimited number "businesses".  For incoming calls, we prefix the caller ID name with a short string
> that identifies the incoming number or "business".  Sometimes, a combination of registrations and
> the selector tool is best.  If you don't have XML browsers on the phone, you could just as easily do
> this with an IVR tool, a web page, or with prefixes.  Whatever is easiest.  You can have more than
> one option.

This is all helpful info, thanks.

> If your upstream providers can give you DID numbers, you can have more than one business on the same
> provider account, which is a lot easier to manage (one gateway entry, but lots of "lines").

I still don't fully grasp DID with VOIP. Some years ago I had a company with a call centre that used a PBX over ISDN30 and I did a lot of the configuration myself so I am familiar with most PBX concepts. But not all of it is directly applicable to VOIP which itself can be handled in many different ways. So what I am trying to do is apply my previous PBX knowledge to what I now know about SIP and VOIP in general and in particular how I can best make use of FreeSwitch to do what I want.

So where does DID fit into the VOIP world? Having separate SIP accounts, one for each 'business', each with its own number seems to provide all that DID did (I had to say that:-), but I know my (and other) provider offers 'aliases' which can be used for DID, but I don't fully grasp how this is different from simply different accounts. Maybe in SIP terms it isn't. But if someone cares to enlighten me on this issue, I'm all ears.

> This is getting into serious PBX stuff though, and I get the impression you don't really want a PBX.
> Or do you?


Oh yes indeed. But I am still in a learning process and asking questions is how I learn. My own current requirements are relatively simple, but I need to understand the greater picture and be able to make it work for more complex scenarios. First step though is to configure it for my own use.



Ken G i l l e t t

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