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Make phone ring louder when on another line

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Scou11

MIS
Mar 22, 2012
15
US
Probably a simple solution to this. I need to make a phone ring louder when it is in use. I know how to increase the volume of a ring when the phone isn't in use, but if I try to use the volume buttons when the phone is in use it just changes the volume of the current call, not the incoming ring. Thanks for the help.
 
This is just how it works. During a call, other incoming calls are signaled with a "soft ring".

If you increase the volume of the ringer (using Feature *80), the soft rings will be louder, but still softer than when the phone is idle.

Can you tell why the user needs a louder ringer when he or she is on a call? It might help suggest other solutions.
 
Its the phone that external calls come in on. When the phone rings any of the 4 people in the front office answer it. When he is on the phone though its hard for the other 3 (specifically the 1 farthest away) to hear it. He is on the phone a fair bit because it is also his internal line.

I know its not an ideal set up (I was not the one that chose it), and I will listen to solutions that require a bit more work but are better in the long run, but I can't be sure I'll be able to use them (anything that will take longer then a few minutes I have to get approved and theirs a fair chance it won't).
 
Since four people are sharing the load of answering all incoming external calls, it would make sense that their phone rings for these calls. There are multiple things you can do to make it happen:

[ul]
[li]Add an Answer button for the main phone on the other phones.[/li]
[li]Program all the lines that currently ring on the main phone to also ring on the other phones.[/li]
[li]Distribute the incoming calls to the phones using a hunt group.[/li]
[/ul]

Adding an Answer button is the shortest solution to implement. You'll be done in seconds.

Let's say that the main phone is 221, and that the three other phones are 231, 232 and 233. Here is what you need to do in programming:


Terminals & Sets > [231] > Line Access > Answer DNs > [221]: Appear & Ring
Terminals & Sets > [232] > Line Access > Answer DNs > [221]: Appear & Ring
Terminals & Sets > [233] > Line Access > Answer DNs > [221]: Appear & Ring

When it's done, an Answer feature will be assigned to the button above the existing Intercom buttons on 231, 232 and 233. When an incoming call will ring 221, the three other phones will also ring. The indicator next to the Answer button will also flash. 221 can answer the call as usual. 231, 232 and 233 can answer the call by lifting the handset or pressing the Answer button.
 
I thought about it some more and you might want to go with the second solution instead.

Answer buttons are okay, but they will ring also the other phones when an internal call comes in for the main phone and when a call is transferred to the main phone.

Programming the same lines that ring on the main phone to also ring on the three other phones won't have that side effect. And it won't change the button assignments. Better yet, you shouldn't need an approval since it can be done in a few minutes.

Step 1
Note the lines that are currently ringing the main phone:

Terminals & Sets > [221] > Line Access > Line Assignment​

Once you get there, all you have to do is press the SCAN softkey and note the number of each line that is set to "Appear & Ring" or "Ring Only".

Step 2
Set the same lines to ring on the other phones:


Terminals & Sets > [231] > Line Access > Line Assignment > [Line]
Terminals & Sets > [232] > Line Access > Line Assignment > [Line]
Terminals & Sets > [233] > Line Access > Line Assignment > [Line]

If the line is already set to "Appear & Ring" or "Ring Only", don't change anything.
If the line is already set to "Appear Only", change it to "Appear & Ring".
If the line is already set to "Unassigned", change it to "Ring Only".
 
Sorry for the long wait for a response. We went with the second option and it appears to be going well (there was a small concern about it making it too noisy but I don't think that will be much of an issue). Thanks for the help.
 
One of the front office people just came to me right after I posted this and said there seems to be an issue with some buttons now. The lines in use show up on the screen (Using an M7310) and if the line light is next to say the transfer button then pushing that when on the phone doesn't transfer them. I might be able to figure it out on my own, but I figured I'd post here as well (I'm sort of in a learn as you go method of dealing with the phones).
 
Scou11 said:
there was a small concern about it making it too noisy but I don't think that will be much of an issue

Well, you used to have one phone that had to ring very loud for people in three different offices to hear it. Now, you have four phones that should ring much less louder because each person is sitting right in front of its phone. I can't think of any reason why they wouldn't like it.

Scou11 said:
The lines in use show up on the screen (Using an M7310) and if the line light is next to say the transfer button then pushing that when on the phone doesn't transfer them.

The changes I suggested shouldn't have changed the button assignments.

If a mistake was made during programming, it might have replaced a feature with a line button. For example, if a line was changed from "Unassigned" to "Appear & Ring" instead of "Ring Only", it could cause what the user is describing.

Use Button Inquiry (Feature *0) to make sure that what is labeled on the 10 buttons with an indicator is actually what is programmed on those buttons. If there is indeed a mismatch, it will give you a clue on what you need to fix.
 
That is exactly what Auxillary Ringers are for.
Mount it on the wall or in the ceiling and adjust the ringer volume/tone.


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curlycord

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Toronto Canada
 
I had accidentally set one of the phones to appear and ring instead of just ring. Fixed it and no more issues.

(Also I did show them the transfer softkey but it was still nice to fix the issue so no other buttons are taken up).

Pretty sure I have this all taken care of now, thanks for the help.
 
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