How to add a new Remote Agent

Adding a VICIdial Remote Agent is a short form, but a few fields have strict rules that reject the submission if you get them wrong. You open the add screen, point it at an existing user, tell it how many lines to create, and give it the number to forward calls to. This post walks the fields in order and flags the two that cause most of the rejected submissions.

Open the add screen

From the Remote Agents section of the admin, click the ADD NEW REMOTE AGENTS link at the top. You get a form with a handful of fields. Three of them must be digits only, and the form will refuse the submission if they are not: the User ID Start, the Number of Lines, and the External Extension. Keep that rule in mind and the rest is straightforward.

Fill the fields

• User ID Start — the starting User ID for the entries. This must match a real, active VICIdial user that already exists, and it must be digits only. If you want the worker to use the remote login page for web access, create that user at level 4 or higher first.
• Number of Lines — how many entries the system creates. Set it higher than 1 and the User ID increments for each line, so a start of 111 with 3 lines shows up as R/111, R/112, and R/113 in the real-time screen. You only create the first VICIdial user, not one per line.
• Server IP — a Remote Agent entry is tied to one specific server. This field picks which one the entry runs on.
• External Extension — the number calls forward to. Use a full Dialplan number, and if you need a leading 9 to get an outside line, include it here. Dial this number from a phone on the dialer first to confirm it works.
• Status — set this to ACTIVE to turn the agent on. As soon as it is ACTIVE the system starts sending calls to it. Flipping it back to INACTIVE can take up to a minute to stop calls.
• Campaign — the Campaign these remote agents log into. For inbound work, point this at your CLOSER campaign so forwarded calls have somewhere to land.

What happens when you submit

On submit, VICIdial checks the digits-only fields and that the Remote agent points at an active user whose line range does not overlap another Remote Agent. If those pass, it creates the line entries. When the record goes ACTIVE, the incremented Agent accounts appear in the real-time view and the dialer begins forwarding calls to your External Extension.

flowchart TD
  A["Click ADD NEW REMOTE AGENTS"] --> B["Enter User ID Start"]
  B --> C{"Digits only and a real user?"}
  C -->|No| B
  C -->|Yes| D["Set Number of Lines"]
  D --> E["Set Server IP and External Extension"]
  E --> F{"Lines and extension digits only?"}
  F -->|No| D
  F -->|Yes| G["Set Status ACTIVE and Campaign"]
  G --> H["Submit creates incremented entries"]

Routing the calls in

Once the record is ACTIVE, the forwarded calls still need a way to reach it. That usually means an Ingroup tied to your inbound DID (direct inward dialing) so calls flow into the CLOSER campaign and out to the External Extension. For the why behind these accounts and where they fit, read what a VICIdial Remote Agent is, and the full remote agents and mobile guide maps the rest of the setup. If you would rather skip the server build entirely, our managed VICIdial plans hand you a running dialer in under 40 seconds, ready for you to add agents and route calls.