Issue with hotdesking IP extension to digital handset

[WCeightoh]

I've got a user on a 9.1.12 system that I'm having some issues with. She works remotely on the other side of the country on occasion, so we set up a 9608 VPN phone and shipped it to her. The VPN phone has her extension (325) as the base extension so that it normally logs in automatically. We recently switched her phone in the home office to a 9508. We have no extension set up on that port, so it comes up NoUser and she could dial a short code to login. However when trying to login her extension at the digital phone, it won't work until I swap the base extensions to 325.

I tried hot desking her extension at another working digital phone and same thing. Her extension 325 has to be the base extension for it to work. All users on the system have login codes, and I can hot desk two digital phones or two IP phones just fine. It's just when going from an IP set to a digital set.

Wondering if anyone has any ideas. I need to leave the VPN phone as-is if possible, as it's all preconfigured and walking them through reconfiguration isn't an option.

 

[sizbut]

Does "home office" mean an office where the IP Office system is or her home - bit of a vague term?

How are you/she logging in/out? - shortcodes/button/Features menu or A menu?

Stuck in a never ending cycle of file copying.

 

[IPGuru]

Don't register the IP handset with the user number, register it with a dummy extn & have the user log in when required.

Otherwise if the VPN phone is left connected when you log in on the 9508 it will get disconnected & then immediately try to re-register, reclaiming the user in the process.
I find it is always a good idea to register IP handset with a different base number if you plan on hot desking - it is not 100% necessary but saves a lot of agrovation when it is




Do things on the cheap & it will cost you dear

 

[VoIP Numpty]

This should just work, the phone type is irrelevant for IP Office hot desking.
What do you see on the phone? What do you see on SysMon when you try the action?
Can you log her on to an IP phone in the office? (I'm thinking something strange with user shortcodes maybe)
What about if you use the login button that's on the phone with NoUser? (can't remember if that was in 9.1 though...)

Otherwise if the VPN phone is left connected when you log in on the 9508 it will get disconnected & then immediately try to re-register, reclaiming the user in the process.

That's not correct - (unless something very odd has been configured) if the user logs in on another phone then the VPN phone will just sit, still registered to the IP Office, with the NoUser assigned to it.
It will also apply if the user logs out using IP Office Extension logout shortcode or button.

 

[IPGuru]

That's not correct - (unless something very odd has been configured) if the user logs in on another phone then the VPN phone will just sit, still registered to the IP Office, with the NoUser assigned to it.

I agree it should not happen But i have seen it in the past, it may easily be software release dependant.



Do things on the cheap & it will cost you dear

 

[WCeightoh]

Sorry sizbut I should've been more clear. Reading it again what I said doesn't really make sense. When I said home office I meant the main office where the IPO is. Then she has the VPN phone at a remote office.

I should also mention that at one point all the phones in the main office were IP phones. We recently swapped many of them out for digital due to some audio delay issues from the voice compression they were experiencing. I have the following shortcode set up, with all login passwords set to 1234:

Shortcode: **3xx
Extn Login
3N*1234

I've ran into two scenarios with this VPN phone. Scenario one is her extension is assigned as a base IP extension, and the digital phone at the main office is assigned a blank extension. When her VPN phone comes up, it logs in properly, but when she comes back to the main office, she's not able to hot desk back to the digital extension. It gives a waive off and says Invalid.

Scenario two is when I swap the base extensions - so the digital port at the main office is her extension number, and there's a blank extension for the VPN phone. When the VPN boots up it prompts saying "Extension in use" and she selects Login. Puts in her extension and password and presses OK and then nothing happens. It goes back to the Extension in use prompt. She has to call me, and for me to fix it I have to swap the base extensions again, then the VPN phone will come up NoUser where she can then dial **325 to login and everything is cozy until she comes back to the main office.

Hope that explains it better. I've been hotdesking users for years but I think this may be the first time where I've had mixed handsets giving me issues with it.

 

[teletechman]

@WCeightoh what are you trying to accomplish? Have the Main office always logged in as her extension or the remote office? Does she spend more time at the remote end or the Main office? What you will need to do is create 2 base exts one for the main one for the remote. If the remtoe site is where she spends most of her time have that be her base extension then at the main office create another extension for that phone and she will be able to log in when there. You are having the extension in use because you are trying to have the IP phone log in its base extension as a digital ext more than likely. I would also have a user created for both locations.
give us locations and extension numbers you are using and it should be pretty simple to get this fixed.
Mike

 

[WCeightoh]

The "extension in use" prompt isn't an issue at all. She's aware that it will come up when attempting to login her VPN phone.

Generally, the remote office will be the primary one logged in, as she has an assistant at the main office that will log her digital extension in when she's leaving to fly back.

Here's the thing though - I ran a test yesterday, and tried to get her extension logged into another, working digital phone and it doesn't work until her extension is listed as a digital base extension. I have her extension 325, and I had another extension 365. Her VPN phone wasn't logged in, so her assistant wanted to log in the phone at the main office so that his bridged appearances would still work. I had him try from extension 365 - a hot desk capable user and working digital phone - but again no dice. I had to assign extension 325 to a digital port for it to work.

I imagine the solution could be to leave 325 as an unassigned extension, then create a dummy extension for both the VPN phone and the digital phone. Then I can just give them both a "Login 325" button that will dial the login short code for her. My question with that is on an IP/VPN phone, when prompted with Extension in Use, if I have her enter one of the dummy extensions will the phone retain that without a Logout and/or CLEAR from the Craft menu?

 

[teletechman]

That "extension in use" is only when logging in the base extension to the IP Phone. When hotdesking it will not show that it will just take over the extension. I have a remote 9608 at my home and just went to the office and logged into a 5410 phone with no problem. It should not matter at this release but are both extensions enabled for hotdesking?
Mike

 

[WCeightoh]

Yes, both extensions are enabled for hot desking.

It's definitely a weird issue. I've been hot desking extensions for years on just about every install and this is the first time I've encountered it.

 

[teletechman]

delete both exts and start over after a reboot. I have never seen extension in use for hotdesking only on base exts and I have been working on the IPO since 1.0
Mike

 

[amriddle01]

New extn and use twinning...easy

 

[VoIP Numpty]

and there's a blank extension for the VPN phone.

That won't work.
All IP Phones need a base extension - it's what the phone uses when it registers to the IP Office. You can get away with blank base extensions for analogue and POTs phones (if Manager lets you do it) because the IP Office can identify them from the port they are plugged in to - but coming in over IP/Ethernet you need an identifier for IP phones.
I wonder if this is why you are seeing "Extension In Use" (because it is trying to register with 325 as that's what was programmed in to the phone, but IP Office has that for a Digital Phone...)

For debugging the fact that this phone is VPN is (well should be) irrelevant - as far as the IP Office is concerned it is just another IP Phone (except in the past for licensing) so you should be able to debug this with a spare IP Phone in the office.

I just tried your setup - works fine for me (well I couldn't get a digital extension with no base extension - so I just logged out the current user and changed their number).
Where have you configured this ShortCode;
Shortcode: **3xx
Extn Login
3N*1234

? I had it in the System ShortCodes