We have the Syspine 310 Phones and Base Unit. We jumped on the RP bandwagon very early and most everything that was promised to us when we purchased it has finally come to fruition.
But, we still have a few issues. One is that we have several phones in public places that I need to prohibit from making long distance calls. Yes, I know that I can restrict all outbound calls, but that is not what I asked about when I spoke with my seller.
I've worked with "old fashioned" analog systems before and I know that one way to limit those public phones would be to create a dial plan that only allows 7 digits (we're in a small, rural area so no multiple area codes) but I've read and experimented with the Syspine phones advanced configs dial plan settings and I can't get it right.
Can someone write a dial plan that dials immediately after 7 digits therefore preventing long distance calls.
Thanks,
Chris Headley
Last Edit: 4 years, 1 month ago by cheadley. Reason: To mark the subject line as Solution Found
What you mentioned in restricting long distance/internation call is not in the scope of current RP solution (SP2), so you are not able to change the current Dial Plan to achieve what you want. However, Microsoft did have the plan to implement better Dial Plan including restricting some certain number such as long distant, international, or premium rate phone number. This version could be expected in the end of this year.
Here's a possible alternative - not necessarily very attractive, but I guess it depends on "how bad" you want to try to solve this challenge:
- Have you looked into possibly having account codes or other carrier-based features provided by the phone company? E.g. they may be able to prompt for a "PIN" or "security code" after each outbound call is placed, e.g. with a second dial tone, or similar mechanism. Granted, that may be a bit of a pain for the rest of the system's users, but it used to be fairly common on larger "campus-style" settings, such as colleges/universities, or large corporations that wanted to charge phone costs back to individuals and/or departments...
Thanks for the ideas. Sorry I haven't been back in a few days. Life is crazy.
Anyway, yes, I'm aware that for right now, MS has not designed a "simple" way through Response Point to limit dialing to say 7 digits on a public phone. However, if you ever log-on directly to a phone by typing a phone's individual IP address and then the default password when requested, you can make very specific changes to just one phone. Sometime back, I was in there messing around and discovered that you can create a dial plan for that individual phone through that interface. It appears to be the same style dial plans we used to program in to phone systems back in "the old days" to prevent a public phone from dialing more than 7 digits...a sort of "poor mans" security method. After 7 digits were entered, it simply dialed out.
Anyway, I think this is doable, BUT, I don't have any syspine documentation about how to write dial plans for their phones. I was hoping some one else had a similar concern and had already tackled it. Anybody?
I have finally created a way to allow Syspine 310 phones to only make local calls. It's an "old-fashioned" work around and this exact method won't work for people in large metro areas with multiple area codes (although a different dial plan could be written even for that).
Here's the deal. Back on old key system phones, you could create a dial plan to prohibit certain numbers from being called. Every phone system has a different language to write a dial plan and after some searching, I came across a service manual for syspine from which I was able to remember and gleen enough to write a simple dial plan that would allow the following:
1. All internal calls to extensions
2. Dialing 911 for emergencies
3. LIMIT calling an external number to only numbers with 7 digits.
In our area, this plan would prevent ALL long distance calling, exactly what I wanted to do for several phones that are located in public places.
Here's how to do it.
1. Log-in to the phone you want to prevent from making long distance calls. Use a web browser and enter the IP address of the phone you wish to limit. (You can get the phone's IP address by pressing #*IP on the phone itself)
2. Username: admin Password: 0000
3. Click on "Preferences" in the nav bar on the left
4. Find the box marked "Dial Plan" -- the default dial plan for the Syspine 310 out of the box is
5. Delete that text and replace with:
[1_7][0_9][0_9]|[4_5]*[0_9][0_9][0_9]|#*47|#*6368|.t8>#r7t0-|911|-
6. Click Apply
7. Test that phone.
You should be able to dial all internal numbers, BUT when dialing an external number, the moment the user dials 7 numbers, the phone will dial immediately leaving no opportunity for the caller to dial long distance.
The difference between the default dial plan and mine is that in the default the ending part .>#- basically means dial any number of any length until # is pressed, then allow extra digits to be dials in order to reach extensions, use automated touch tone systems etc.
In the replacement plan, the r7 tells the phone that once 7 digits have been dialed, change the wait time before dialing to zero (t0).
Hope this helps someone. If we wanted to, we could add exceptions to these rules to allow 800 and 877 numbers to be dialed, but for us, that is totally unnecessary. Also, those in metro areas with more than one area code could limit with a dial plan those area codes that could be called using a similar method.
It truly works. We have it working here in and around our church. We just needed a simple way to prevent phones in public places from being used to make long distance calls, but RP Administrator only allowed us to block all external calls. We don't mind for our guests and members to be able to use the phones to call home, etc. so this is my workaround. A little old fashioned, but it works.
