How to Log In to the VICIdial Prompt Recorder (ID 4321)

The VICIdial prompt recorder at extension 8168 uses a fixed PIN of 4321 followed by # — here is exactly how login works and what to expect.

VICIdial's phone-based prompt recorder is behind a single-step login: dial extension 8168 and enter the ID 4321 followed by #. That is the complete login. This post explains what the ID actually is, why the pound key is required, what you hear during and after login, and what to check if login fails.

What the ID 4321 is

The ID 4321 is a static PIN embedded in the 8168 dialplan Dialplan context on the Asterisk server. It is not a VICIdial user account, not a session token, and not configurable through the VICIdial admin interface. It is a fixed password that VICIdial ships with. Every standard VICIdial installation uses 4321 for this context.

Because it is fixed and the same on every installation, it is not a secret in the cryptographic sense — it is more like a service PIN. The real access control is which phones can physically reach extension 8168. If your Asterisk dialplan only allows certain SIP contexts or extensions to dial into the 8168 context, then the PIN is a secondary check on top of that.

flowchart TD
  A[Pick up phone] --> B[Dial 8168]
  B --> C{Extension reachable?}
  C -- No --> D[Fast busy - check dialplan]
  C -- Yes --> E[Asterisk answers]
  E --> F[System prompts for ID]
  F --> G[Press 4321 then hash]
  G --> H{PIN correct?}
  H -- No --> I[Invalid ID - try again]
  H -- Yes --> J[Hear recording instructions]
  J --> K[Ready to record]

Pick up the phone and dial 8168. Asterisk answers within one to two seconds. You will hear an audio prompt asking you to enter your ID. At that point you press 4, 3, 2, 1, then #. The pound key tells Asterisk that you have finished entering the ID — without it, Asterisk keeps waiting for more digits. After a correct ID, you immediately hear the recording instructions.

Once logged in, Asterisk reads back the recording instructions. These include: what key to press to start (the system just begins recording after the beep automatically), that you should press # when done, and the options to save, listen, or re-record afterward. Importantly, the system also announces the ID number that will be assigned to your new recording — for example, it might say "eighty-five one zero zero zero zero three" if this is the third recording on the server. Write that down before the beep sounds.

The first recording ID the system ever assigns is 85100001. Each subsequent recording gets the next integer. If other people have recorded prompts before you, your recording will get a higher number. That is normal. The number is what you paste into fields like the Answering Machine Message field in the Campaigns screen or the agent alert message for an In-Group Ingroup.

If you dial 8168 and get a fast busy signal, the extension does not exist in the dialplan or is blocked for your phone's SIP context. Check with your VICIdial administrator. If you hear silence after dialing 8168, the context is loaded but the welcome audio file is missing or in the wrong directory — this can happen if the Asterisk sounds package was not fully installed.

If you enter the wrong ID, Asterisk typically replays the ID prompt or disconnects. If you hear 'invalid' and the call drops, just redial 8168 and try again. There is no lockout after failed attempts in the standard VICIdial dialplan.

If you can log in but the recording does not seem to save, check available disk space in the Asterisk sounds directory. A full disk will silently fail the write, and you will still hear the filename played back even if nothing was stored — because Asterisk announces what the name would have been, not whether the write succeeded.

The in-group Ingroup and campaign Campaign fields that consume these recordings will not produce audio if the file is missing, so always verify the file exists on disk after your first few recordings. A quick SSH check against the Asterisk sounds directory confirms the file is there before you spend time wiring it into a campaign.

For the next steps after login — recording your message and choosing save, listen, or re-record — see How to Save, Listen to, or Re-record a VICIdial Prompt. For the complete phone-based functions overview, see the VICIdial phone-based functions guide.

If you need a VICIdial server with the 8168 dialplan context pre-configured from day one, every VICIfast plan includes a fully provisioned box in under 40 seconds.