Update news:

Restricted dialing capability for designated extensions

Passcodes moved from feature code page to new page

Local SIP port selection now added to phone auto-provisioning

Mailgun restrictions may be affecting voicemail to email

RESTRICTED DIALING:

You now have the ability to restrict any extension’s ability to place trunk calls.  When deploying this feature, the user will only be able to dial internal extensions unless they dial a PIN code as a prefix to the external number being called.  911 calls are excepted from this restriction.

This restriction is off by default.  To add the restriction for any extension, go to the Advanced tab (Extensions/Modify Existing Extension), enable it by checking the box, save the changes and reload the PBX dialplan.

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PASSCODES

The screen for defining the Restricted Dialing PIN is in a new location, called Change Passcodes, under the “Additional Tasks” menu.  Previously, to set or change the passcode PIN prefix for international dialing and the PIN for changing Dynamic Attendant Recordings, you did this from the “Modify Feature Codes” page.  These functions, along with the new Restricted Dialing PIN, are now all together on the Change Passcodes page.

CHANGING THE DEFAULT LOCAL SIP PORT FOR AUTO-PROVISIONED PHONES

One of the most common support issues with IP phones, especially on LANs serviced by small routers, is that the default SIP signaling port (5060) gets flooded, preventing phones from consistently receiving/sending important data from/to the PBX.  This causes BLF buttons to not function properly and can also be the cause of erratic ringing behavior and other issues.  Spreading out the phones’ SIP account settings so that they use alternate ports often fixes this problem.   If you are using the auto-provisioning capabilities in Protel LTS or Protelity LTS, you can now specify a different local SIP port when the phone loads its configuration file.

If you leave the field blank, the phone will load its default setting, which is almost always port 5060 for the first SIP registration account.  To alleviate port flooding, assign each phone to different ports.  Standard practice would be to go up from 5060 in even number increments – 5062, 5064, etc.

MAILGUN CHANGES MAY CAUSE VOICEMAIL-TO-EMAIL FAILURES

If you are using the Mailgun service to allow the PBX to send emails, this feature may have stopped working.  As of Dec. 1, Mailgun stopped allowing emails to be sent from unverified domains.  You are faced with two choices at this point:

•  Follow the detailed instructions in your Mailgun account to get the domain verified.  This entails entering verification text in the MX section of the domain DNS control panel, so unless you have access to the domain controls, you are probably better off using option 2.  You should have received numerous emails from Mailgun over the past couple of months alerting you to the new restrictions.
• Change the PBX email settings to use SMTP.  You will either need to use an existing email address provided by the customer, or, preferably, create (or have one created) a unique email address that the PBX can use exclusively.  You will need to enter into the PBX the same email server information that you would configure into Outlook or other email client software:  SMTP server address, port number, user name and password.  TLS (Transport Level Security) is an option.  Most commercial mail servers use this, typically SSL, but yours may not.

Here is a screenshot of how a typical SMTP server setup is done.  This example is for our nexmatrix.com domain – we use Gmail for business:

If you are using Gmail, you will need to log into the mail account settings, under “Sign-in and Security” and allow access from less secure apps:

Once you have valid SMTP data entered in this section, click on “Submit” and reload the PBX.  Now, go back to the same email config page and click on the “Test” tab.  You can try sending an email to yourself using this tool to verify the SMTP settings are working.  You can also click on the “Email Log” link to see the status and error messages associated with emails.