Voicemail

Description

Voicemail (or voice mail, voice-mail, vmail or VMS, sometimes called messagebank) is a centralized system of managing telephone messages for a large group of people. The term is also used more broadly, to denote any system of conveying voice message, including the answering machine. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voicemail)

Voicemail is automatically sent to users email if email address is specified in the device details.

Audio recording in WAV format is attached to the email.

1 minute audio takes approx. 100 Kb.

Configuration

This section can be found in SETTINGS - Billing - DIDs - PBX Functions - VoiceMail

• VoiceMail Extension (local) - describes by which local extensions local user can dial to retrieve his voicemail (system will ask him to enter his voicemail password which can be set in device's details)

If you want to setup VoiceMail (VM) on different server, then following settings are important:

• VoiceMail Server active - turns VM server on/off, when on - all VM request will go to distabd VM server, when off - VM will be handled locally on Asterisk
• VoiceMail Server connection/device - describes connection to VM server
• VoiceMail Retrieve Extension (local) - which extension to dial on distant VM server to retrieve voicemail for some extension

Example:

• Let's say we have our server on IP 23.45.67.89 connected with SIP to our Asterisk.
• We create separe user/device (vm_device) to describe this connection. Device's type is SIP, IP = 23.45.67.89, set other settings also (codecs/etc)
• VoiceMail Retrieve Extension (local) = 999

First action is when VM is recorded

So now when VM server is ON and user with device 201 get's a VM, call is redirected like this:

Dial(SIP/vm_device/201)

That means server on 23.45.67.89 will receive call to extension 201. Server SHOULD BE configured that way, that it will process VM correctly when it receives such call.

Second action - retrieving VM

When user want to retrieve his VM on distant machine he dials VoiceMail Extension (local).

He is redirected like this:

Dial(SIP/vm_device/999#201)

Again - distant server should know how to process such a request.

Let's say we have distant VM server based on Asterisk.

So in our example it's configuration in /etc/asterisk/extensions.conf should look like this:

[incoming]
# to retrieve VM
exten => _999#.,1,VoiceMailMain(${EXTEN:4})
exten => _999#.,2,Hangup

# to record VM
exten => _X.,1,VoiceMail(${EXTEN})
exten => _X.,2,Hangup

Retrieve VoiceMail from outside over DID

• In PBX functions create new function with type: check_voicemail
• Assign this PBX Function to some DID

FROM field in email

To change Voicemail email sending FROM field edit /etc/asterisk/voicemail.conf file, line:

;fromstring=The Asterisk PBX

to

fromstring=SOME OTHER LINE

And reload Asterisk.

Change UNAVAILABLE message

Dial Voicemail access number (default *97) and press 01, then after signal dictate your UNAVAILABLE message.