VOIP Tech Chat → Re: [CallCentric] How to configure and use extensions

Yeah, those circular paradoxes can be confusing. (Actually, your fellow British Columbian, Spider Robinson, wrote about that in "Time Pressure").

Expecting the call to do a loop back to the beginning, weird things can happen. I'm not surprised there's no busy signal. (I'm assuming the 250 number does not have call waiting). But yeah, getting an outside test will be good.

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Thanks for the look at your unique community.

I just looked him up and we're the same age. I've spend most of my life involved with the cultural community in Vancouver, but didn't run into him during those years. As for the circular paradox, funny you should mention that. My plan with the third number was to use it for the historic Coalmont General Store which is now my house. The announce only voice mail would say:

"Thank you for calling the Coalmont General Store. We are open from 1912 to 1978. Please call back then."

PS: @engineercarl, not so OT, it's fun to know a little about the people we interact with on the net.

You lived in the same community with him....
....whereas he and I both graduated from the same university (SUNY at Stony Brook) though many years apart.

More connections!

There are actually a lot of important Canadian SF authors, per capita Canada probably has more than the US.

So I got someone to call the 778 Callcentric number to see if it will forward to a POTS number. It won't.

To review, here is what I have on the Call Treatments edit page:

- On the right: "This number" 1-778-xxx-xxxx"
- On the left I have "Hunting" and:
1. Send my extension : 100-default : 30 seconds
2. Send to this number : 1-250xxxxxx : 30 seconds (edit*)

The rest are "not specified" except for "voicemail" on the last one.

Result: the 778 number rings for 30 seconds then nothing happens.

Suggestions?

Edit: *I had written number 2 incorrectly here, it is now the same as what my call treatment says.

Should be:

[Send to this number] [1250xxxxxxx]

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Also to avoid a possible conflict, because you set rule (1) for 30 seconds, make sure the OVERALL system Voicemail setting (under Preferences) is set to 40 seconds or longer.

If still not right, ask CC support ("Contact Us").

Oops! That was as typo/visual glitch. It already does say "Send to this number" for number two, and that certainly does not work.

Yes, I took your advice from before and set the overall voicemail setting to the max, which is 60 seconds.

OK. It works now!

I did have it set up right (as above), but the person that I got to call me didn't get that they had to wait 30 seconds. I got them to do it again and alls good now. W00t!

Perhaps I'll shorten the 30 seconds. I need to take note of how long the spammers wait before they hang up.

@Gershom 1624: Thanks for you help and patience!

30 seconds is a long time, it's about 6 rings. At least in the us / canada, each ring is about 5 seconds from what I've seen. Not too many people hang on for more than 5-6 rings I think these days as everyone has voice mail...

Yes, just about 6 rings. I believe the North American standard ring is 2 seconds and 4 seconds space = 6 seconds. I think I should be safe with 20 seconds. I must say though, that life is very different for people who live in apartments or sit at a desk because everything is within easy reach. Funny, my other line just rang and since I didn't feel like getting it, I saw that it went on for 12 rings. I think the difference is if you actually want to talk with somebody you will give them a reasonable amount of time to drop what they are doing and get to a phone from wherever they are, whereas solicitors don't really care if this one call completes or not.

When I was a kid and was told how to use the phone I recall that you should allow ten rings for the called party to get to the phone and pick up.

Right, the official advice from the old AT&T Bell System.

Back in the days when voicemail did not exist, and very few people even had answering machines, it was profitable for phone companies to say that.

Because AT&T controlled most of the long-distance lines, and provided local service to about 85 percent of the US population, everything was theirs. To let the phone ring for a minute did not really incur extra costs for the company.

OTOH, if it increased the chance of the call finally being answered, it paid off....

Because for a message-rate local call, and for any long-distance call, the phone company made money only if the call was answered. (Again, no answering machines....)

[This is my theory, anyway. I don't know if it actually made the Bell Journal of Economics. Yes, that was a REAL journal from 1970 to 1983.]

Some of the country was served by flat-rate local calling, but not that much, really.

For example, local calling in NYC was message-rate only. So they really wanted those calls to be answered.