How to make conference calls on Open 824RLW and Billion 7404VGP
OK, so today I needed to make a conference call to Telstra and a customer. Thought it was time to work out how to do it.
First note that not all VoIP carriers allow multiple simultaneous calls by default. PennyTel doesn’t. Exetel (my ISP) did. If yours doesn’t you’ll know because when you go to make the second call you’ll probably get a recorded message saying the service is already in use. It’s probably easy to get that changed with your Voip provider.
Next, log in to your modem. (Normally http://192.168.1.254/ username and password are admin.)
Next, click Configuration –> VoIP –> Call Features.
Click “Enable” for Conference call on the line(s) you want to use. (Might as well click both Line 1 and Line 2 while you’re at it.)
Next, click Apply; and if you want this to remain as a setting after the next power outage, also click the blue “Save Settings” button.
Now, to test it
1 – Dial the first person. When they pick up, and you’re ready to get the next person, press the Recall / Flash button on your phone. You’ll get another dial tone, and the first party will probably hear some piano music.
2 – Dial the second person. If this step works, you can now talk to the second person.
3 – Now, press the Recall / Flash button. You’ll probably just end up talking to the first person again.
4 – Now, press the Recall / Flash button once more and *hopefully* you’re now in a conference call!
If you have sufficient phones at home you might want to practice this a few times first.
These instructions adapted from http://www.comcen.com.au/support/voip/voip_guides/voip_phone_feature_guide but differed in step 3 and 4 above.