Creating and Assigning Extensions

Numbering Schemes

There are several schemes for assigning extensions. Invariably, though, you'll find the following guidelines will help:

  • Use their previous extension numbers
    • Upgrading a system shouldn't require upgrading business cards
  • Use the last 3 or 4 digits of their DIDs
    • Less for people to remember
  • For non-DID systems, choose the last 3 digits of the main number
    • If the main number is 651-3200, then extensions can be 200, 201, 202, etc.
  • Don't collide with system shortcuts, common dialing sequences, or emergency numbers
    • In the US, this rules out extensions in the 100s and 900s, at minimum. 611 and 311 shouldn't be assigned, but the rest of the 600s and 300s can be.
    • For FreePBX, 7777 is commonly 'simulate an incoming call', should be avoided, as should other Miscellaneous Destinations

Remember, when reserving DIDs, to get the whole block of interest if possible. It's usually low enough cost, and it really hurts to run out.


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MAC Addresses??

storman59's picture
On August 18th, 2008 storman59 (tadpole) said:

I have looked in the documentation and the GUI. Where do you enter the MAC Addresses for the phones? I looked under "Creating and Assigning Extensions"
I am new to Asterisk.


you don't. The phone is

fskrotzki's picture
On August 18th, 2008 fskrotzki (Contributor) said:

you don't. The phone is programmed with the user ID/extension number, the password/secret, point the registrar and proxy server values at the server and the phone does all the work.


It'd be nice to have the

sri2talk's picture
On December 17th, 2008 sri2talk (tadpole) said:

It'd be nice to have the associated information in the database and the screens to let admin enter/change values.

This would help administering those devices. e.g. for Grandstream phones, there is a config file generation script. We should be able to get the mac address for the device associated with the extension and also get the username and password from the database. This helps in automating generation of config files for the devices.

Some fields that I suggest are:
mac address:
device type: ATA, SIP Phone etc. The user can device a set of strings to depict
various devices they have in their network.
firmware version:
other config: A text box that allows for other config info to be entered.

The "sip" table is used to store info as "key-value" pairs. We can put in these extra fields in there. I do not know how to get them to show on the SIP extension Add/Edit screens.


FreePBX does not manager the

fskrotzki's picture
On December 17th, 2008 fskrotzki (Contributor) said:

FreePBX does not manager the hardware directly for phones and that is why it is not included.

What a phone needs to be configured for asterisk is: the address of the server for registration, a extension/user ID and password/secret. Some phones require a bit more. Due to this what a phones Mac is or is not has no bearing on a extension. Every manufacture also does configuration differently so it becomes a huge mess to even attempt to support.

This topic has no value here as it is a generic chunk of information on how to create extensions from a planning perspective.

Please if you wish to continue this, post over in the user forums for a proper discussion.


DTMF while anouncing IVR

booshanrao's picture
On September 2nd, 2010 booshanrao (tadpole) said:

Hi,
While announcing IVR ,not accepting DTMF.After IVR completes,it is accepting!
In case if other person does't know the Extension number it should reach operator, how to set?
Kindly let me know.Elastix version 1.6-12