atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums VOIP Phones & IP PBX VoIP & Cloud Phones, Hosted PBX, General IP Phones 3CX keys & provisioning

Hi guys:

I am an old phone guy trying to get into the hosted world. Have been working a new 3CX deployment with another company. Here is the problem:

We can program keys on the phones from the cloud interface with no problem. If an end user programs any keys thru the phone itself, when a change is made at the cloud end and the phone is provisioned again to write the changes to it, all end user key programming vanishes. Can't see from the cloud interface any key programming done by the end user.

Is there any way to write the end user changes to the cloud so they can be seen from the cloud interface?
Is there any way to pull the end user programming into the cloud so it can be saved and not lost.

I know in the premise PBX world that this isn't a problem.

Thanks in advance for all help.

I am only a little familiar with 3CX. I went through the basic certification course, but I just recently powered down my server). In most, if not all of these types of VoIP systems, the server will store the configuration which gets pushed out to the phones. I haven't seen a system where the server will query the phone programing and update its own configuration. It is almost always a one-way configuration.

I have seen this with other systems as well, the user makes changes that get overridden by the server configuration.

Unfortunately, I do not remember if 3CX has an interface for the users to make changes. Generally, that is the safest way to make phone changes, by only changing the settings on the server-side and not directly through the phone. as far as the server is concerned, the phones are supposed to be a certain way.

That being said, I don know all the ins and outs of a 3CX system specifically, so there might be a way to do what you are trying to do.

In a premise PBX, the phones are generally very dumb They can't even light up a button unless the PBX says to light it up. An IP phone typically has more intelligence in them.

I have found that I can log into the phone itself and download the config to save it. You can also change keys on the interface and then upload them to the phone. When we tested with provisioning via the cloud portal, it changed the keys to the cloud entries, Then I was able to log into the phone again and upload the saved file, putting back the customized keys.

But what a Pain in the Drain!!

Seems to defeat the whole thing of being cloud based. On a small install with only a few phones it's not to bad but with a larger install that will add a lot of time when making any changes to phones.

Edward

For most VoIP systems (hosted and premise) the programming of the phones will go top-down, from the server to the phones. Once you setup the phones the way you want, the provisioning process will push out the setting to the phones. This will usually replace any custom configuration in the phones. If you make changes in the phone directly using a config file or the Web GUI, then you will run the risk of losing that configuration when the server pushing out a new config file.

If you have changed the configuration of the phone after the phone is provisioned, then you still run the risk of losing that configuration later. Many times the phones will check the server and update the configuration. Even if the phone doesn't poll at regular intervals, any small changes to the phone will cause a new config file that could erase all the old. Some settings may survive, such as speed dial settings, but key configurations are sure to be lost.

Are you able to access the admin settings in the 3CX or is this managed by another company? Typically an admin can make changes in the 3CX server which will get pushed out to the phones during the provisioning. That would be the preferred method of making changes to the phone. I read that there may be a user portal. I don't know what setting a user would have. I haven't personally accessed the user portal on a 3CX system before.