How to set up a hunt group on a Mitel MiVoice Office 250

This is the first of a series of blog posts detailing how to set up some of the features that you have available on a Mitel 250 this should be tackled by qualified Mitel certified engineers. First let’s take a look at how to set up a Hunt Group through the Mitel System Administration & Diagnostics software or SAD tool as we will refer to it from this point on, the SAD tool can seem a bit confusing at first but we will try to guide you through this and show you it’s not as scary as it looks!.

Once you start creating a number of phones extensions in the SAD tool, you may find yourself needing a Hunt Group. Hunt Groups are a selection of extensions ‘grouped’ together so they ring at the same time; just as an example you may want to have a “Sales Group” where your agent’s phones all ring in tandem.

So let’s start setting up the Hunt Group, the first thing you need to do it to expand the System tab on the left pane of your SAD window. On the same pane there will be a drop down menu under Devices and Feature Codes if you click this there should be a heading for ‘Hunt Groups’. With a single click on the Hunt Group heading, you will then be shown any existing Hunt Groups that have been set up; these will appear on the right hand side.

Right-click in the right window and then click the ‘Create Hunt Group’ option. The default extension number (for example 2000) will appear in a new box you can enter a new one or keep the default extension number and then press ‘OK’. The new Hunt Group will be visible on the right side of your window, without a Username or Description, to change these, single click each field and enter in the required name and description.

To enter the settings of the Hunt Group, double-click the extension number of the Hunt Group on the right hand side, and then the settings of the Hunt Group will appear. Also, in the left pane, the headings; ‘Agents’, ‘Members’, Supervisors’ and ‘Timers’ should appear under the Hunt Group’s extension tab.

Now it’s time to add in the extensions to the Hunt Group, these will be the extensions that ring when the Hunt Group is called. Click ‘Members’ then on the right hand side click ‘Add to members list’. There will be a menu that now appears, this is where you can select what type of device you would like to add to your new Hunt Group. A list of all of that particular type of device appears, click a selection of these, whichever are required and click ‘Add Items’ and then ‘Finish’.

Just as an example we will add 2 Mitel 5330e IP Phones to the Hunt Group in the way shown above. These would come under the heading ‘52xx/53xx’ meaning 5200/5300 series Mitel phones. We shall call these phones Ext 1000 and Ext 1001.

If this has been done correctly, dialling 2000 from another phone will ring both Ext 1000 and Ext 1001 one after the other. Now you are probably confused as we said they will ring at the same time, this is due to Hunt Groups being automatically set to a linear ring pattern. To make the phones ring simultaneously you will need to create an ‘Extension List’. Keep going, we’re nearly done!

Under Devices and Feature Codes, on the left hand side of the window there should be a heading titled ‘Extension Lists’, double-click this heading and on the right hand side there will be the option ‘Hunt Group Members’. Double-click this and then the right hand window should appear empty, as this is a new set-up, which should have the heading ‘Extension’. Right-click into this empty list and ‘Create Hunt Group Member Extension List’ should appear, and then be chosen. The number that will head this Extension List cannot be dialled, so it starts with a ‘P’. Create one extension list, and press ‘OK’.

Now it is good practice to always input as much information as possible to aid you in the future. You should give the extension list a username that easy recognise, and then double-click into the list. A list will appear on the right hand side, if you right-clicking into this it will open a box which reads ‘Add to P0001 list’.  You can only select phones in this particular list, so select the type of phone then the exact extensions and press, as previously, Add Items and Finish.
Members can only be in one list, so if added to this list, their option will be removed from the menu where new members are selected from, this will stop you adding them into further lists.

Now we have reached the last step! If we go back to the original Hunt Group that we set up at the beginning we can right-click into the Hunt Group members’ section and the list will appear again where we can add different types of devices, not just phones. Here you can add a ‘Hunt Group Members Extension List’. Click this and then next, a list with your Extension Lists should appear, so select P0001.

If you found this useful then please leave a comment below or get in touch.