Ring Group FAQ

I have a prefix set for a ring group but when I call the group from an internal phone, I do not see the prefix.

This often happens because the phone has a phone book or directory in it and it displays the name in the directory instead of the caller id name it receives when it has a phone number that matches a directory entry.

A user is reporting dropped calls, is there anything I can do?

There are a number of reasons that a user can experience issues that cause confusion regarding call behavior.  It is essential to properly configure a ring group so that these issues do not occur.  There are several important settings involved in ring group configuration

Ring In Use

This setting controls if a call is delivered to a phone that is currently on a call.  This means any call internal, external, or non-ring group do count.  If the setting is on and a user is on the phone when a call enters the ring group, then their phone will not ring until they disconnect their current call and 1 of two conditions are met:

• Agent ring time expires and total elapsed time in the ring group is less than timeout,
  * There is no one else ringing currently and the phone that was busy

Timeout

The ring group will attempt to distribute calls using the configured ring strategy for a total of timeout seconds, then the call that entered the group will exit to the fail over destination.  If Timeout is -1 then it will not ever time out.  Note this is not a recommended setting.

Agent Ring Time

This setting is part of the ring strategy.  A call entering the ring group will attempt to send the call to the first group members for Agent Ring Time seconds.  Then it will wait 1 second and try to ring the group again.  It will repeat this process until Timeout seconds have elapsed.  If you set this timer very short (5 seconds) people will receive short rings and then 1 second delay and then it will send another call.  Each call will count as a missed call to members of the group.  It is generally better to try to ring group members for an acceptable normal ring period say (32 seconds), but have a timeout of say 120 seconds (2 minutes), this way each member will be tried several times before the group times out.  Note that if you set Ring In Use to No and then a call comes in, busy group members will not receive the next call immediately when they hang up, they will need to wait for the agent ring timer to elapse.  If someone wants to pick up a call that's ringing other phones immediately, they can use the pickup code 99 and set the appropriate call group and pick up groups for memebers of the ring groups so that they can pick up these calls if desired.

Others sources

General connectivity issues can cause problems in any voip application.  If calls keep ringing sometimes, it's generally because the person who originated the call has disappeared.  In rare circumstances a SIP client that initiates a call but then loses network connectivity can cause a ring group to ring and the call can be answered but will obviously not be connected.  The best bet here is to troubleshoot the network to minimize this sort of packet loss.  Ensure that QoS is configured properly.  There is essentially no point in complaining about VOIP quality on an LAN if you have not configured QoS.  We cannot stress enough how important this can be on any size network.  If you are having problems with internal calls or intermittently phones are disconnecting, the first step should be to verify that QoS is properly configured.