Colin,
Please don't be upset with Brekeke. For years they supported free on this forum while they were developing the product. At this point it has matured into a very stable reliable product that costs a fraction of the other commercially available products with similar features. I think their business model is now focused on developing resellers, "boots on the ground" to support end users for free as well as the many competent users that lurk here or use their paid support options. Fortunately, many of us that have benefited from their support for the last few years feel obligated to help you as they helped us. And we are glad to do it.
If you want to get a feel for this company, read thru the old postings where they were supporting end users. You won't find a kinder more helpful attitude anywhere.
Ok, so back to your specific problem. One of the hardest things to get when starting with Brekeke is the big picture. While the docs address the fine details pretty well, you need a big picture view of how to set things up. Let me try to give you that here and shame on me for not having documented this on my website.
Dialplans vs ARS.
When you purchase the sip server alone the dial plans are empty. when you purchase it with the pbx, there are several dial plans to help the sip server work with the pbx. Common changes to the dial plans that include a pbx would be to have fax calls not use rtp relay, to pass on sip info packets that are not dtmf, like hook flash, to route video calls around the pbx and to add the radius plug in entries for accounting. Things like that.
If you have the Bekeke pbx and sip server you can have a sip user make a call using the ARS even if they are not set up as a pbx user. However, I believe it does count as a call session which is limited by the number of users you have purchased the pbx for. For instance pbx basic is 20 user 10 simultaneous calls of which sip users not set up in the pbx would count. So you can make 10 simutaneous calls thru the ARS by pbx and non pbx users. The pro version(20 user) allows 20. You need the ARS to place calls to providers that require authentication which is not ip address based. Although with upper registration I believe it can be done but since I spend all my time on the pbx I havn't used it. You might check it out though.
Ok, so your next question should be "Then why set up a pbx user"?
Good question.
Well, when a call comes in thru the ARS the destination is specified as a user. When that call flows to a user it all the great pbx features of how to handle the call is in the user screen. That's basically it. No pbx user, then no way to go to voicemail, no way to schedule the ivr message for after hours, now way to handle a call when the user is busy, no way to do all the rest of the features.
You can use the ARS for ip address authentication by simply setting up an ARS with the top part all blank. Just fill in the in and out patterns. I love this feature and use it with my main carrier.
Concentrate on mastering the ARS, it can do everything you need and more. The premise is fairly simple, matching patterns of the caller and the callee and then performing the call on the right side deploy section.
To answer you question about the call directing there are a couple ARS solutions.
Matching
From: 0201231234@
Deploy
To: 101
Can be either a pbx user 101 which in the user area is forwared to 90201231232
To:90201231232
Can be directed directly to the destination number.
Notice the prefix 9. Assuming you have an ars set up where the user dials a 9 before the number. You must do it here also.
Actually in the past I always sent the call to a user where i there forwarded it to a number. It was only testing this for you that I realized i didn't have to do that, I can just put the number in the deploy directly. So, thanks for making me realize that.
Hey, i hope this helps and please don't hesitate to get more help here.
Nick
