Trigger event and Lock down a phone (probably T19P)

[Chris M]

We’re looking at putting some Yealink phones into a Motel (just for their office phones) shortly. At present (on the old PABX) they have a phone on the wall outside the office so that if a customer picks that phone up it automatically calls the other extensions (thus if the office is unattended or after hours it will call their cordless phones and they can come to Reception). We would need to replace this phone also and obviously could just put in the most basic phone (say a SIP-T19P) to be mounted on the wall.

Is it possible for us to retain the same functionality – i.e. it would need to:
a) trigger an event (to call the other extensions) when someone picks up the hand piece.
b) we would need to lock down the phone so people can’t do anything else with it (i.e. don’t want them to be able to call any other numbers and don’t want them to be able to access the setup).

Any assistance greatly appreciated, thanks

[jolouis]

Not sure about locking it down completely, but for A) you can configure off-hook auto-dial so that anytime you pickup the handset the phone will automatically call the programmed number, which sounds like what you need.

[Chris M]

Thanks for the reply. I looked up the 'Off Hook Hot Line Dialing' feature in the Administrator Guide (which I think is what you're referring to). However as far as I can understand that will allow us only to program a single number whereas we need to program it to call several extensions. So I don't think that is going to work for us unfortunately.

[jolouis]

The way this is usually implemented is to setup a Ring Group on the PBX side of things. Then you have the off-hook auto dial just dial the Ring group extension, and the PBX automatically rings all the associated phones. Not sure what phone system you're using so the terminology might be slightly different but concept is always the same.

[Chris M]

Thanks. The response is appreciated. It's a hosted PBX - can definitely setup a ring group so that should work fine.

Now, does anyone know if there is any way to lock the phone down so all it can do is call that ring group and nothing else?...

[jolouis]

This is by no means an official solution but off the record since it's only a T19 I'd just open the thing up and slip a piece of paper between the rubber pressure pads for the buttons and the copper contacts on the circuit board. That would be the low-tech answer to guarantee nobody would be able to do anything except off-hook auto dial. Sure voids the warranty, but it's quick, simple and effective (and hey it's only a T19 so it's not like it's worth a fortune).

Officially I'm not aware of any "keylock" or protection lock in firmware that would do what you're after, but maybe Yealink has an answer...

[Chris M]

Thanks jolouis,
I appreciate the comments. Sometimes low tech is the best way to go! We might consider that.
If anyone else has any ideas I am all ears as well.
cheers.

[Chris M]

FYI, I had a reply back from Yealink (via my distributor) and they say that once the Hotline feature is configured this will lock it down as well. Not sure as I haven't tried it yet, but if so that will be handy. Otherwise I'll go the low-tech way.

[jolouis]

I was curious so just gave this a shot on one of the spare phones in my office here and no, certainly does not lock it down (at least not the way I would trust). If you pickup the handset the phone will dial out straight away, but that does not prevent you from say dialing a different number then picking up the handset, or accessing any of the other buttons/features on the phone. Now I was not running the latest firmware on the phone I used for testing so YMMV...

[Chris M]

Hi jolouis,
Thanks for giving it a go and for letting me know. I'm not at all surprised actually. I felt sure that if this locked the phone down the administrator guide would state that, not to mention that many people would not want it to lock the phone down. Anyway, if I can't find another way to do it I'll have to run with your other suggestion!! thanks