How to configure pbx-vicidial servers for external access

[gzpxyj]

Here is my problem. I have one external fixed IP for my pbx and my vicidial server and pbx are on the same LAN with fixed LAN ip. The pbx and vicidial servers are linked through iax trunk so all outbound calls are through pbx. The pbx got the external fixed IP. So agents can access pbx extension with easy. If all my agents are internal in my office, there would be no problem. But I would prefer that agents to be able to access vicidial server from home. I though about the way to solve this problem but I need experts to point out if it is possible. First, I would use my router to forward specific port to my vicidial for web trafic, that means I need to change the standard port for vicidial web access. Next I would use remote agent functions to dial directly through pbx. The external agent extension would restricted inter-office calling only.
Can anyone tell me if this is feasible before I start to mess up with settings? Thanks.

[okli]

Not an expert, but a few ideas:
I would not use remote agents functionality, but rather have the vicidial box listen to another IAX port, forward it from the router and have the agents use Zoiper with IAX accounts from their homes. The same accounts could be used while they are in the office.
As for the web port- is it in use elsewhere? Can't you simply forward it to the vicidial box rather than changing it?

You can also do it the other way around- change SIP/IAX ports on the PBX machine and leave vicidial box untouched, forwarding the necessary ports where needed.

All this is feasible and matter of changing a few settings only.

[gzpxyj]

Not an expert, but a few ideas:
I would not use remote agents functionality, but rather have the vicidial box listen to another IAX port, forward it from the router and have the agents use Zoiper with IAX accounts from their homes. The same accounts could be used while they are in the office.
As for the web port- is it in use elsewhere? Can't you simply forward it to the vicidial box rather than changing it?

You can also do it the other way around- change SIP/IAX ports on the PBX machine and leave vicidial box untouched, forwarding the necessary ports where needed.

All this is feasible and matter of changing a few settings only.

The problem I have is that my pbx server is the external IP address owner and my vicidialnow only has a private lan IP address. Remote agents need to have an external IP to access the vicidialnow IAX phone. That is why I was thinking of using the pbx server as the softphone server while forward web traffic from router on specific port other than standard web port.
I think hamachi vpn connection can solve my issue for remote agents. In that way, there is no change to be made for the vicidialnow server since remote agents are now within the network. I have not tested it yet. But I believe it should work.

[okli]

Wait a second, aren't both PBX and vicidial machines behind a router? In this case quick port forwarding will do the job.
Or the PBX machine has 2 lan cards, one connected to i-net and the other to the vicidial box?
How exactly your setup is?

[gardo]

The way I see it, the only thing you need to change are the agent phone extensions. Set it to "External" and point their extensions to their corresponding entries in your PBX. If they have SIP extensions in your PBX, then on Vicidial their entries are not SIP but "External". Just don't forget to modify your dialplan so that the Vicidial server can call their extension in your PBX.

[gzpxyj]

The way I see it, the only thing you need to change are the agent phone extensions. Set it to "External" and point their extensions to their corresponding entries in your PBX. If they have SIP extensions in your PBX, then on Vicidial their entries are not SIP but "External". Just don't forget to modify your dialplan so that the Vicidial server can call their extension in your PBX.

I probabaly need more info to get the extension setup with external. At this point, I could not add an extention with external successfully. It just do not add a new phone with external.
For web access, I can do a simple port forwarding/translation and agent at home can access the vicidial server.
Thanks for your help.

[gardo]

It's not that complicated. Just set the "Client protocol" of your phones in the admin section to "External".



Just create the necessary entries in your Vici dialplan to connect to your PBX extensions.

The way I see it, the only thing you need to change are the agent phone extensions. Set it to "External" and point their extensions to their corresponding entries in your PBX. If they have SIP extensions in your PBX, then on Vicidial their entries are not SIP but "External". Just don't forget to modify your dialplan so that the Vicidial server can call their extension in your PBX.

I probabaly need more info to get the extension setup with external. At this point, I could not add an extention with external successfully. It just do not add a new phone with external.
For web access, I can do a simple port forwarding/translation and agent at home can access the vicidial server.
Thanks for your help.

[gzpxyj]

It's not that complicated. Just set the "Client protocol" of your phones in the admin section to "External".



Just create the necessary entries in your Vici dialplan to connect to your PBX extensions.

Thanks for the reply. I did try to add a phone extension with external protocol but it does not allow me to add the phone. I have not tried modify existing phone extension with external protocol just to see if it works or not.

[williamconley]

When it does not allow you to add the phone, does it give you a message? generally if you forget a required field it will give some sort of a message.

if all else fails bring up two screens and "dupe" an existing SIP or IAX phone, then change "SIP" to "EXTERNAL" after you've created it. (use a different extension number and login name, but everything else can be the same to "create" it)

[mflorell]

Did you add an extension, dialplan number and callerid? those are manditory fields.

[gzpxyj]

Did you add an extension, dialplan number and callerid? those are manditory fields.

Yes, I have successfully added a phone extension with external. I missed probably one manditory field in the form and the message was the phone is not added.

[julyinin]

How to change SIP/IAX ports on the PBX machine and leave vicidial box untouched??

[williamconley]

How to change SIP/IAX ports on the PBX machine and leave vicidial box untouched??

? Have you tried changing them?

Changing them on another machine would have no effect on Vicidial ... Vicidial's .conf files are local and they determine the ports, so if you change the ports on some other machine, Vicidial would not change its ports.