How to set up a Remote Agent to take inbound, outbound, or blended calls

A VICIdial Remote agent is not locked to one call direction. The same Remote Agent record can receive outbound calls from the dialer's auto-dial engine, accept inbound calls from a queue, or handle both at the same time depending on how you fill in the Campaign and inbound group fields when you create the record. This post walks through each field in order and shows how the combination you choose determines whether the Agent handles inbound, outbound, or Blended dialing calls.

Step 1 — open the add screen

In the VICIdial admin panel, go to the REMOTE AGENTS section and click ADD NEW REMOTE AGENTS at the top. You will see a form with several fields. Work through them in the order they appear. A few of them are digits-only and the system will reject the submission if they contain anything else.

Step 2 — fill in the core fields

• User ID Start — the User ID of the VICIdial user who will work as this remote agent. The account must already exist and be active. If the agent will use the vdremote.php web login page, the user must be at level 4 or higher.
• Number of Lines — how many remote agent entries to create. Set this to 1 for a single agent. The system increments the User ID for each line, so a start of 7777 with 1 line creates one entry at R/7777.
• Server IP — the server this agent runs on. A remote agent record is tied to one specific server. Select the active server from the dropdown.
• External Extension — the full phone number the dialer dials to reach the agent's physical phone. Include the carrier prefix, the country code, the area code, and the local number. For example: 917275551212. Test this number with a manual call before setting the agent ACTIVE — if it does not ring, no calls will reach the agent.
• Status — set to INACTIVE when creating the record. Flip to ACTIVE when the agent is ready to take calls. The agent can also change this themselves through vdremote.php. Changing back to INACTIVE can take up to one minute to take effect.

Step 3 — choose Campaign and inbound group for call direction

These two fields are where you set the call direction. The Campaign field sets the dialer context the agent works in. For inbound work, the campaign must be a Closer type — that is the campaign type designed to receive forwarded calls and bridge them to an available agent. The Ingroup field selects which inbound queue feeds calls to this remote agent.

• Outbound only — assign an outbound campaign and leave the inbound groups unselected. The dialer calls leads from its list and forwards live answers to the agent's External Extension. No inbound queue is involved.
• Inbound only — assign a CLOSER campaign and select one or more inbound groups. When a caller reaches the inbound group and this agent is next in the queue, the dialer dials the External Extension and bridges the call through.
• Blended — assign a CLOSER campaign and also select one or more inbound groups. The agent receives both outbound-dialed live answers and inbound queue calls on the same External Extension. For example, assign Campaign TEST_IN with the CLOSER type and check the SALESLINE inbound group to handle both directions.

How Campaign and inbound group combine to set call direction

flowchart TD
  A["Create Remote Agent record"] --> B{"Inbound group selected?"}
  B -->|No| C["Outbound only - dialer forwards live answers"]
  B -->|Yes| D{"Campaign is CLOSER type?"}
  D -->|No| E["Fix campaign to CLOSER type first"]
  D -->|Yes| F{"Outbound calls also expected?"}
  F -->|No| G["Inbound only - queue calls forwarded to External Extension"]
  F -->|Yes| H["Blended - both inbound and outbound route to External Extension"]

Step 4 — activate and test

After saving the record, either flip Status to ACTIVE in the admin panel or have the agent open vdremote.php and set their own status from there. Then send a test call through the inbound Ingroup or let the dialer run a lead to confirm the External Extension rings and the call connects correctly. Have the agent check the vdremote.php screen during the test call to make sure caller ID appears, and verify they can select a Disposition and submit it after the call ends.

If call recording is enabled for both the user and the campaign, all calls to the External Extension are recorded regardless of whether they came from the inbound queue or the outbound dialer. No extra configuration is needed — recording follows the user and campaign settings automatically.

For more on the inbound side of this setup, see remote agent inbound groups explained. The complete configuration guide is in the remote agents and mobile guide. If you want a VICIdial server ready to route calls in under 40 seconds without building the stack yourself, see our managed VICIdial plans.