Desk phones can now register to Pidgin Talk, and it answers them like a proper registrar.
A desk phone on our bench now registers to Pidgin Talk. To the phone, Pidgin Talk is its phone system. To us, that is one more thing that can go wrong, so we were careful about it.
Every sign-in is challenged
A phone does not send its password. It is sent a one-time challenge and answers with a calculation only someone holding the password could do. Each challenge is good for two minutes and no longer.
A phone that asks for an extension that does not exist gets exactly the same answer as one with a wrong password. That way nobody can go fishing to learn which extension numbers are real.
Passwords are made, not chosen
Extension passwords are generated by the system and shown to the administrator, never chosen by a person. People pick terrible passwords. We know, we are people.
Phones behind routers
A phone tells the system where it thinks it is. Behind an office router, it is usually wrong: it gives its inside address, which is no use from outside. So Pidgin Talk remembers two things for every phone: the address the phone claims, and the address its sign-in really came from. Calls go to the second.
Small details that add up
- An extension can have up to five devices signed in at once, so a desk phone and a second handset can share a number.
- The list of who is signed in is kept in memory, so a flood of sign-ins never touches the database.
- Sign-ins survive a restart: the list is written down in the background and read back when the system starts.
Two phones are now registered. Time to make them talk.