Plug and Play Settings

Automatic provisioning of VoIP phones is a key functionality of the PBX.

Write PnP generated files. When the system generates provisioning files, it can write them to the file system or send then to the log file. When writing them into the file system, the system will generate a folder generated and create directories for the domain and the extension. Writing them into the file system makes it easy to trace what has been sent to a specific extension, the drawback is that it requires file system access to read them and it also exposes passwords on the file system. In any case the generated files are kept in the extension tab in the domain web interface.

Duration for opening extensions for MAC-based provisioning. When a MAC address gets opened up for provisioning, any device that knows the MAC address can pull the configuration data for that device. Because a MAC address contains only a relatively small number of bits, the window where that can happen should be kept as short as possible. Otherwise scanners can accidentally guess a valid address and pull the configuration data for the device, which usually includes the password for the SIP registration. The time should be especially short when using a wildcard for MAC address, because then there is no need to guess a MAC address and a scanner will immediately find a valid address.

Duration for keeping provisioning open. In the process of pairing a MAC address, the PBX will keep the provisioning window open for some time. By default this time is 5 minutes. This settings allows changes of that default.

Duration for after provisioning passwords. Like the previous setting, this settings controls the duration how long the PBX will send passwords after it has sent the first password to a device. Usually this value can be rather short, but in some cases it is necessary to increase the duration.

Automatically list unassigned MAC addresses. By default, the PBX keeps track of MAC addresses that hit the PBX provisioning system without being assigned to an extension. This makes LAN provisioning very easy, however in hosted PBX environments it usually is not of great use, especially if the system is running for a very long time.

Automatically open extensions after creation. When creating an extension, in many cases the next step is to plug in a phone and provision it. If this setting is turned on, the system will automatically open that extension up for provisioning for the duration set by the previous setting.

Use domain name instead of IP address. By default, the PBX figures out what IP address was used to connect to the PBX and then use that IP address when generating provisioning files for a VoIP phone. This is problematic when the PBX should also work after a failover, when the backup systems runs on another IP address. In that case, using a DNS address that matches the domain name can solve the problem; the setting will then provision the DNS address.

Try to provision phones securely. For some phones, it is possible to provision phones securely or without a secure connection. This setting controls if secure provisioning should be attempted.

Show advice of charge (AOC) on phone. Some devices are able to show how much a call costs (advice of charge). When using a trunk that has rates set up for it, the PBX can update those devices about how much the call has cost according to those rates. Also, some trunk providers provide AOC as part of the service that the PBX can pass through to the connected phone.

Label template for busy lamp fields. By default, the PBX will send patterns in the form {user} {name}to the phone when it wants to label BLF buttons. However the administrator may choose a different pattern in this setting.

Label template for private lines. As with the setting for the BLF buttons, this settings defines how private lines are labeled by default. As with the BLF setting, the label can be overridden on button template level as well.

Characters to be stripped from dialed numbers. Certain devices, mostly soft phones, tend to send additional characters in the dialed numbers that are used for displaying phone numbers. For example, when dialing 6173998147 a phone might actually send (617) 399 4147 instead. This setting lists the characters that will be removed from the dialed number.