Killing stuck channels FreePBX Asterisk

 I keep finding stuck channels in asterisk / FreePBX conferences, that I then have to manually hangup.

Here is how you find the calls

core show channels

This will bring up a list if channels in use. Identify the one you need to hangup i.e.

PJSIP/itsptrunk-00000002

Then issue command

channel request hangup PJSIP/itsptrunk-00000002

The call will then drop and you have killed the call.

If you need any help with a telephony project you can reach me at www.oneszeros.biz

Asterisk & FreePBX Feature Codes

I have tended to find that documentation for Asterisk and FreePBX based phone systems can be rather spread about. For the generic phone user what codes should they use? Here is a helpful list.

Call Forward

*72 – Call Forward All Activate
*73 – Call Forward All Deactivate
*93 - Call Forward All Prompting Activate
*74 – Call Forward All Prompting Deactivate

*90 – Call Forward Busy Activate
*91 – Call Forward Busy Deactivate
*94 - Call Forward Busy Promping Activate
*92 – Call Forward Busy Prompting Deactivate

*52 – Call Forward No Answer/Unavailable Activate
*53 – Call Forward No Answer/Unavailable Deactivate
*740 – Call Forward Toggle

So how do you call forward to voicemail? This is one point that seems to escape all the guides. Calls can be sent direct to a users voicemail by putting a * in front of their extension number, so you can forward direct to voicemail by dialling *72 *ext. e.g. if my extension is 1002 I can dial *72 *1002 to do the forward.

Turning the prompting on and off turns on and off the voice responses that walk you through it and confirm your actions.

Call Waiting

*70 – Call Waiting – Activate
*71 – Call Waiting – Deactivate

*8 – Asterisk General Call Pickup (When you are part of a call group)
** – Directed Call Pickup (When you are part of a call group)
*2 – (When in a call) Asterisk Attended Transfer
## – (When in a call) Asterisk Blind Transfer
** – (When in a call) Asterisk Disconnect Code
*1 – (When in a call) Asterisk Toggle Call Recording

If you need any help please contact me via www.oneszeros.biz

Mitel MSL Based Upgrade Corruption

Occasionally when upgrading items using the "Blades" Panel on a Mitel machine, you may get inability to proceed due to checksum errors or the like.

Follow the process below to delete the corrupt files and get back to a fresh set of upgrade files.

Environment

MSL
Mitel Standard Linux
MBG
Mitel Border Gateway
MiCollab

Cause

A cached package that forms part of the upgrade is corrupt.

Resolution

Access the package location via the secure shell and delete the files.

SSH onto the MSL server as user root using something like PuTTY and issue the following commands:

cd /var/cache/e-smith/blades/packages/
rm *.* -f

Go back to the MSL web interface and access the ServiceLink > Blades page
Select the "Update List" button to refresh the list of blades and cached downloads

You can now proceed to cache the download again before attempting to upgrade the server again.

John Rogers

www.oneszeros.biz

Mitel 5312 and 5324 in SIP mode

Mitel sell the 53xx range of phones as 'Dual Mode' meaning they can be switched to SIP mode. That's great, except for the lack of support and documentation available.
While there are user manuals for the 5320 upward, the last manual for the 5312 / 24 was published in 2007, and as for configuring the phone, that is largely undocumented.

Here is what I found got me working. If you are a dealer or have a Mitel 5000 (MiVoice Office) on the latest software (6.2) then that will help.

Two ways to start.

1. Upgrade on a PBX.   The Mitel 5000 has a tftp server built into it and will upgrade any phone attached to it.  Boot the phone into config mode and set the tftp server as the IP of the phone system. When the phone restarts it will receive the latest build for the phone.

2. Upgrade from the TFTP server.  You will need to get the SIP software from the Mitel website. This is an area protected for dealers with Mitel accounts, and there are 3 archives with different software in for the different phones.

Switch into SIP mode.

This has (?) to be manually done on the handset.  Boot the phone holding down the Superkey and then press * to configure the phone. In the 'Phone Mode' menu you can switch to SIP and another reboot gets the phone into SIP mode. In SIP mode a web interface is made available that is not there in Minet mode.

Once the phone boots it sits there asking for a user id. If you type a user ID in it will attempt to get a file from the TFTP server.  If you type in 1234, then when the phone reboots it will try to get a set of files.  The first will be called MN_GENERIC.cfg, the second includes the user id and is called MN_1234.cfg, The phone then tries to get one with its mac address included in the name MN_macaddress.cfg and lastly it tries and fails to get a US language file. (This is why i recommend an upgrade to latest version. Earlier versions gave up when they couldn't get the language file).

The phone can be given information about its account and tftp server in several ways. DHCP option 66 will probably do it. You can type it into the phone using the bootup menu, or you can browse to the phones web interface and define it there.  You can find the IP for the phone an the admin tools menu of the phone when it is booted up.

I got as far as getting my phone to tftp what looked like a good config from the tftp server, but still couldn't make a call. Any attempt to call resulted in a 'No Proxy Defined' message back on the display.  A google search turned up no answers.  So here is the answer you may be looking for.  When you define a user in the user list, you also have to have a matching user defined on one of the line keys. Check out the config below. Mitel have an example config and spreadsheet of values that can be used, but its not obvious.

MN_Generic.cfg  -  This will be requested by all Mitel 53xx phones (and others) and contains global information. It could be missed if such info will be included in the individual files.

SAMPLE MN_GENERIC.CFG FILE  (Supports multiple Phone Models)

<Parameter Model="5340">

<dhcpenable>1</dhcpenable>

<tftp_config>1</tftp_config>

<pppoe_enable>0</pppoe_enable>

<tftp_task_enable>1</tftp_task_enable>

<tftp_upgrade>2</tftp_upgrade>

<http_upgrade>0</http_upgrade>

<outbound_state>0</outbound_state>

<local_sip_port>5060</local_sip_port>

<tos>0</tos>

<e802_priority>6</e802_priority>

<vlan_id>354</vlan_id>

<sntp>pool.ntp.org</sntp>

<time_zone>-5</time_zone>

<auth_method>2</auth_method>

<register_expire>7200</register_expire>

<emerg_number></emerg_number>

<emerg_ip>0.0.0.0</emerg_ip>

<emerg_port>5060</emerg_port>

<audio_codec>5</audio_codec>

<audio_pkt_size>20</audio_pkt_size>

<dtmf_type>0</dtmf_type>

<dtmf_payload>101</dtmf_payload>

</Parameter>

<Parameter Model="5224">

<dhcpenable>1</dhcpenable>

<tftp_config>1</tftp_config>

<pppoe_enable>0</pppoe_enable>

<tftp_task_enable>1</tftp_task_enable>

<tftp_upgrade>2</tftp_upgrade>

<http_upgrade>0</http_upgrade>

<outbound_state>0</outbound_state>

<local_sip_port>5060</local_sip_port>

<tos>0</tos>

<e802_priority>6</e802_priority>

<vlan_id>354</vlan_id>

<sntp>pool.ntp.org</sntp>

<time_zone>-5</time_zone>

<auth_method>2</auth_method>

<register_expire>7200</register_expire>

<emerg_number></emerg_number>

<emerg_ip>0.0.0.0</emerg_ip>

<emerg_port>5060</emerg_port>

<audio_codec>5</audio_codec>

<audio_pkt_size>20</audio_pkt_size>

<dtmf_type>0</dtmf_type>

<dtmf_payload>101</dtmf_payload>

</Parameter>

MN_Useris.cfg

This was the one that caught me.   Notice the user list at the bottom of the file has a user ID that matches the user id under the definition of each key. This file would be stored as MN_1234.cfg

SAMPLE 5312 MN_<USER_ID>.CFG FILE

<Parameter Model="5312">

<pkDescription>

<Key Line="25" Fea="6" Des="Line 1" Addr="" Mode="1" UserID="1234"></Key>

<Key Line="26" Fea="0" Des="" Addr="" Mode="1" UserID=""></Key>

<Key Line="27" Fea="7" Des="Line 2" Addr="" Mode="1" UserID="1234"></Key>

<Key Line="28" Fea="0" Des="" Addr="" Mode="1" UserID=""></Key>

<Key Line="29" Fea="8" Des="Line 3" Addr="" Mode="1" UserID="1234"></Key>

<Key Line="30" Fea="0" Des="" Addr="" Mode="1" UserID=""></Key>

<Key Line="31" Fea="9" Des="Line 4" Addr="" Mode="1" UserID="1234"></Key>

<Key Line="32" Fea="0" Des="" Addr="" Mode="1" UserID=""></Key>

<Key Line="33" Fea="4" Des="Headset on/off" Addr="" Mode="1" UserID=""></Key>

</pkDescription>

<user_list>

<User State="1" ID="1234" DispName="John Smith" Pwd="pass" AuthName="john_smith" Realm="" RegSvr="sip.mitel.com" RegPort="5060" RegScheme="2" ProxySvr="sip.mitel.com" ProxyPort="5060" ProxyScheme="2" VMSvr="" VMPort="5060" VMScheme="2" OutSvr="" OutPort="5060" OutCtr="0" Ring="1" Line="0" EventSvr="" EventPort="5060" EventScheme="2"></User>

</user_list>

</Parameter>

If you do a search for the Mitel spreadsheet you will find plenty more options that can be inserted into these phones.

John Rogers

https://www.oneszeros.biz

Change to Windows mapped drives - Caught me out when saving from Mitel interface

We have been making a move to use Windows 8 and 10 on our laptops and have found a problem with the Mitel System Administration and Diagnostics software and other pieces of software that use mapped drives.

Each user has tended to map their own drives, but while they appear in file explorer, in another program when you go to save, the mapped drive may not be there.

This turned out to be due to some programs automatically running as an administrator, and then not being able to see the drives mapped by a user.

To fix this

• Open an elevated command prompt (Right click on Command Prompt and 'Run as administrator).
• Map the drive again using the Net Use command.

An example net use might look like

Net Use y: \\192.168.1.2\Share /USER:mydomain\username mypassword /PERSISTENT:YES

This will map a y drive that goes to the server 192.168.1.2 with a shared folder called share.

I hope this helps another user out.

John Rogers
Telecom Care Ltd

Mitel 3300 MCD MiVoice Business One touch divert

The user wanted a button that would always divert their phone to their mobile and one that would lift the divert, no matter what they had done in the forwarding settings on their phone.
Here is what we did.

Create a speed dial for their mobile e.g.  100 = 07989654321
Check the Call Forward -Third party code (*65 on this system)
Check the Cancel Call Forward -Third party code (*75 on this system)
Check their extension number (220)

On a key on their phone set a user speed call of *65 220 100 (miss out the spaces) to divert
On the next key enter *75220

Maybe it seems simple to you but it took me a while to get there!

John Rogers

Mitel 3300 MCD MiVoice Business Telephone directory and digit blocks.

We have a customer who wanted to recognise their customers CLI and match a name to it for display the handset.  I know it seems a bit old fashioned, but it's what they wanted. The have an MXE. The problem is they wanted to enter 4,500 of them.
I found I could import 1700 of them before it gave up. Looking at the system usage of the database dimension, I could see that it was not lacking in directory entries, it said it could have 20000 of them. What was lacking was digit blocks. The default is 12000 digit blocks.
I had to take a backup, re dimension the database to allow 20000 digit blocks, do a reboot, restore the database and reboot again to get more space.

If you don't know what an alpha tag entry should look like to do directory matching then it is in the format "Access digit, Tilde, full number".  So if the customer is at 01245 406 407 and you dial 9 for an outside line, your directory entry would be

 9~01245406407.

If you don't receive a leading digit on an inbound call then move the tilde along.

90~1245406407

The number has to be dial-able via ARS or the entry will be rejected.

www.telecomcare.net