We have a main number and extensions, but some people have their own DID number that rings on line 2 (of a 2-line Polycom phone), with a separate voice mailbox.

This "line 2" is not supposed to be an extension, so in its directory entry, I have the "effective_caller_id_number" set to the DID number.

I don't want this line to be a real extension, so I set the user id to be a descriptive short name, not a number. Is this a bad idea? The problem is that it's impossible to check voice mail on that line because the user can't dial the user id.

Would it be better to use the 10-digit number as the user id? Or should I use an extension number that starts with a different digit? That would solve the voice mail problem as well, because the dialplan passes the caller-id to the voicemail check application.

Steve