Forward or Simul. ring question..?

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 09, 2005 Posts: 4

I run a small transcription business and have 6 land lines hooked up to a digital dication system.

I'm going to be moving and want to keep a local number for the doctors to call so they aren't charged LD fees. What I'm looking to do is have a Vonage number forward calls to a landline that is on a "hunt"/roll over line, so if landline #1 is busy it goes to #2, etc, etc.

Is there a way for me to do this using a Vonage line? I've already tried it with Simul. ring and it seems to just connect twice, and after that it will just ring. Am I doing something wrong? and does this make sense?

Posts: 2257

tekman wrote:

I run a small transcription business and have 6 land lines hooked up to a digital dication system.

I'm going to be moving and want to keep a local number for the doctors to call so they aren't charged LD fees. What I'm looking to do is have a Vonage number forward calls to a landline that is on a "hunt"/roll over line, so if landline #1 is busy it goes to #2, etc, etc.

Is there a way for me to do this using a Vonage line? I've already tried it with Simul. ring and it seems to just connect twice, and after that it will just ring. Am I doing something wrong? and does this make sense?

Well, the easiest way would be to set the "Network outage" phone number to the hunt group's number, then unplug the Vonage device from the Internet. If Vonage can't find the device, it forwards calls to the network outage number.

Another option would be to simply set call forwarding, instead of SimulRing. SimulRing will accept an answer from the FIRST device that answers, Forwarding will blindly forward the call. Simpler = more reliable, I would think.

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 09, 2005 Posts: 4

If I do it this way will more than one call be forwarded? I have to have it that this local Vonage # will be able to forward to all 6 lines (6 doctors).

Posts: 2257 · Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2005 2:12 pm Post subject:

tekman wrote:

If I do it this way will more than one call be forwarded? I have to have it that this local Vonage # will be able to forward to all 6 lines (6 doctors).

Let me see if I understand clearly.

Your hunt group is completely set up independent of Vonage, right? In other words, I can call ONE phone number, and the call will be routed to the first non-busy line, correct?

If that's the case, then I don't see why not. You should simply be able to enter the single phone number for your hunt group into the "Network Availability Number", then unplug your Vonage device.

Now, whether Vonage will support this as a long-term solution, particularly if that number goes to a hunt group so you might be tying up their gateway with up to 6 simultaneous phone calls... that's a different issue, and one you'd have to take up with Vonage and read your Terms of Service to verify.

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 09, 2005 Posts: 4

you have it correctly, all 6 lines are landlines from the local phone company.

i'm going to do another test, but I tried all this and it didn't seem to work correctly. i've tried all these ways and it only allows to calls to go through, the third call just rings and rings.

and why wouldn't Vonage be OK with this. if you're using their service and paying for it, what does it matter?

Posts: 2257 · Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2005 2:25 pm Post subject:

tekman wrote:

and why wouldn't Vonage be OK with this. if you're using their service and paying for it, what does it matter?

Simple. You're paying for ONE simultaneous long distance connection on their POTS to Vonage gateway. Forgive me, but I just realized the implications of what you are trying to do from Vonage's perspective.

Once you use the network outage number, or forwarding, they are accepting your call from POTS, routing it over their Vonage routers, then using another POTS gateway to your hunt group. So you've now tied up TWO ports on their POTS gateway. But they no doubt allow this because it's designed to be used when your Vonage device is inaccessible, so that's fine.

When you use the network outage number to call a hunt group, you could have up to six lines connected at once. So now, you may be tying up as many as TWELVE of their POTS gateway connections, six on the dialing end, six on the receiving end.

It could simply be that they are not allowing you to connect a second call while, according to their systems, you are already on a first call. In that case, what you are asking to do is use their gateways as a multiple-access long distance gateway. You are only paying for single-access.

In that case, you are probably running afoul of their configuration. You can call them and see if they will just sell you a forwarding service, paid by available concurrent connection. You may also be able to set up your hunt group (in the same area code your Vonage devices were set up for) to forward calls to Vonage lines, and buy 5 more Vonage lines and install them all at the site you want to receive the calls at.

So you set up a new HUNT number, with the same prefix as your Vonage lines, and tell it to forward the first call to the first Vonage device, then if that device is busy forward it to the second Vonage device, etc. Then disable voicemail on all of the Vonage devices.

EDIT: Or call Vonage and ask them if they can set up a bunch of their own lines as a Hunt group for you, starting with the line you already have. They may be able to do some kind of input into a PBX or suggest other ways of doing it. But, net result, if you want 6 connections to go through Vonage I strongly suspect you'll have to pay Vonage for 6 connections.

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 09, 2005 Posts: 4

makes sense.

thanks for the help.

Posts: 423 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Oct 03, 2005 Posts: 423

Just a reality check - as far as making custom entries into our PBX for the convenience of one customer - Don't hold your breath

Posts: 3198 · Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2005 5:58 pm Post subject:

but for $9.99/customer? there's probably a pretty huge market out there for this.