Voicent IVR usage

Well we ran for quite a while following a complete failure with the BUSY HERE messages and the system’s refusal to answer calls as noted below in July.

The same thing has just happened again earlier this week. I have attached the contents of gateway\logs for your attention. Something is causing this issue and the phone system people are saying everything is fine on the Mitel switch. They also pointed out that two of the lines were not logged on. The Gateway has been running for several weeks without being restarted and all 5 lines were originally logged on. So, these two lines have dropped off somehow. Can you see how in the logs?

Three of the lines have ended up in a BUSY HERE “state” again. My cell number is [REMOVED] and you can see at the end of the lines 1, 3 & 4 output logs that a call I have just made is cycling between those three lines but is not being answered. This cannot be anything to do with the phone system not hanging up quickly enough (as suggested below) as no one has called the line for several hours.

I really have to get an answer to this and quickly. We have been suggesting it is the phone system for some time and a lot of effort has gone into making sure everything is working as it should.

The only thing I can add is that at times all 5 lines will be tied up and further callers will still be trying to get through. Our experience is that they will eventually be answered as and when lines become free. Clearly if this becomes much of an issue we will have to extend the license for more lines but at the moment the customer does not want to spend the money which I can understand. Overflowing the lines is fine for now as the average call time is only a minute. But, is it a problem to the Voicent Gateway if this happens and does it get “stuck” into a BUSY HERE scenario once it has happened? Could that be causing this issue?

Answer:

A “486 Busy here” message usually indicates a problem with the phone service not hanging lines or not hanging up fast enough. On the Voicent end, there aren’t too many options available for working around that. You can try going into the Voicent Gateway, going to Setup -> Options -> Outbound tab and setting a longer hang up time, increasing the time between calls.

You are currently using build 9.1.0 which does not have any known problems with incoming calls. Your second line did not encounter busy here at all.

Does your system rapidly disconnect and reconnect calls? You may need to extend your hang up time for Voicent software to compensate for this high incoming call volume as it looks like either Voicent or the end user are not hanging up their call.

We can try that, extending the hangup time.

The reason the second line did not experience busy here is because it was not logged on. Why would that line and line 5 have logged off some days ago?

Also, if the system is left alone for several hours why would it still be giving busy here? Are we in a strange state now that we gave had the busy here episode and the lines are held open indefinitely until either the gateway is stopped and started or the ports are reset in the phone system? I am not sure I fully understand busy here messages. Can you explain please?

Answer:

For the lines logging off it can be many things, most commonly a temporary disruption in phone service between the two systems.

The busy message can be from both phone service vendors. They deem the system has taken too many calls and will not accept any more. For the case with Voicent your “SIP Operator” which is basically a phone call is not being destroyed when it encounters the busy signal. After the call is ended by receiving or sending a “SIP Bye” the operator would be deleted and free’d up for another call.