Category: VoIP

New Number Porting System

We are excited to announce new porting features, you can now port numbers faster with our simplified porting system . No more downloading and filling out porting forms. Port multiple numbers and track the porting status right from your RingRoost account.

In order to make porting numbers easier we also changed the way you assign third party numbers to your RingRoost account. You can now assign third party numbers under your account settings , and port numbers to RingRoost under the new number porting area .

We offer Local numbers in USA + Canada you can see more about local numbers in your area here. We are proud to support many business phone systems in Baton Rouge, LA and the rest of the USA & Canada.

Screen Shot 2016-01-05 at 1.03.40 PM

To learn more about this and other improvements, follow us on twitter .

Asterisk AMI – Sending MWI (Using SIPnotify)

Sending a SIP MWI (Message Waiting Indicator) using Asterisk AMI is possible, but the syntax is just really confusing (and not documented), after rummaging through the source code for a bit I worked it out.

We need to use the SIPnotify AMI Action. The tricky part is getting the syntax right:

Action: SIPnotify
ActionID: 1231541512
Channel: peername
Variable: Event=message-summary,Content-Type=application/simple-message-summary,Content=Messages-Waiting: yes,Content=Voice-Message:1/3
Notice: That that we need to set the the Variable argument “Content” in order to set the body, furthermore “Content” does not accept newlines “\n” so we have to set more than one “Content” – pretty confusing yes.

Here is a complete example of some PHP code that uses Joshua Hatfield’s very helpful flowAPI Class which makes working with the Asterisk Manager Interface very easy in PHP.

        $username="somesippeerusername";
        $total_messages=5;
        $unheard_messages=2;
   
        $waiting="no";
        if($unheard_messages > 0){                                                                     
            $waiting="yes";                                                                            
        }                                                                                              
    
         $body1="Messages-Waiting: $waiting"; 
         $body2="Voice-Message: $unheard_messages/$total_messages";
    
        $ami=new floAPI();                                                                           
        $params=array(
        "ActionID"=>rand(12,12),
        "Channel"=> $username,
        "Variable"=>"Event=message-summary,Content-Type=application/simple-message-summary,Content=$body1,Content=$body2");
        
       $ami->request("SIPnotify",$params);                                                             
       $ami->close();

Alternative ways of sending MWI

You could use a different SIP messaging program (besides Asterisk) to send a SIP MWI Notify.

Using SipSak
http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/view/Asterisk+Realtime+MWI+Hacks

Using PHPSip
https://code.google.com/p/php-sip/

Just make sure you use the right syntax as specified here.

Note: For most Asterisk setups simply set “mailbox”in sip.conf and asterisk will send MWI behind the scene: see here. This is for those using VM outside of asterisk or have other custom needs.
See also setting up an IVR in Asterisk here.

References:
https://issues.asterisk.org/jira/browse/ASTERISK-13089?jql=text%20~%20%22SIPnotify%22
https://issues.asterisk.org/jira/browse/ASTERISK-23283?jql=text%20~%20%22SIPnotify%22
http://forums.asterisk.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=91498&start=0&hilit=SIPnotify
https://wiki.asterisk.org/wiki/display/AST/ManagerAction_SIPnotify

Business Phone Systems – Doing it Yourself

It was not always the case that trying to set up a phone system by yourself is worth the time, I mean, you got to stick with your core businesses. At RingRoost our goal it to make setting up your phone system too fast, too cheap and too easy to NOT do it by yourself. In the time it takes you to get off the call with a sales man at some slow moving telecommunications company, you could have already set up a working phone system. If your ready to get started setting up your phone system, checkout our guide to setting up an office phone system. Otherwise keep reading…

Why setting up your own phone system is a good idea.

1. Control & Flexibility
Doing it yourself puts you in complete control of your phone system. This means, you will be able to add features to your phone system that you would never get with an out of the box solutions. Features like integrating your business contacts, so your system can automatically know who is calling and pull in customer information, features like call queueing, multi line ringing, conference calling and multiple personal extensions.

2. Price
This is where you start to see the huge saving start to add up, instead of paying ridiculous prices like $30/mo per user. You can pay by your phone usage, and not worry about having to pay more when get a new hire and need a phone for them.

3. Speed
Most businesses (especially startup businesses) know that getting stuff done fast is important, you can’t wait around a few months to get a phone system installed,if you setup your own phone system you won’t have to wait around for someone to come by and do it for you.

Many businesses are worried that doing it themselves will be to hard or take to up to much time. The RingRoost PBX builder technology is developed to allow anyone who can user a computer to do it themselves, and the best part is if you ever run into any problems, we are here to help. If you want to see more about RingRoost, checkout this introduction video to RingRoost.