Pointing a carrier DID at a VICIdial in-group

To point a carrier DID at a VICIdial in-group, go to Admin then Inbound then DIDs, open the DID entry, and set its route to the in-group you want. The DID route is the field that decides where each inbound call lands — an in-group of agents, a call menu, or an IVR.

What a DID is and why it matters

A DID (direct inward dialing) (Direct Inward Dialing number) is one of your phone numbers from the carrier. When someone calls it, VICIdial matches the dialed digits — the DNIS — against your DID list and follows that entry's route. If the number has no DID entry, or the route is wrong, the call has nowhere to go and the caller hears nothing useful.

flowchart TD
  A[Inbound DID number] --> B{DID route}
  B -->|IN_GROUP| C[Ingroup]
  B -->|CALLMENU| D[Call Menu]
  C --> E[Available Agent]
  D --> F[Caller selects option]
  F --> C

Map the DID to an in-group

Open Admin then Inbound then DIDs. Add the DID number if it is not already there (it must match exactly what the carrier sends). Then set the route:

1. Set the DID Route to IN_GROUP to send calls straight to a queue of agents.
2. Choose the target Ingroup — the queue where logged-in agents pick up inbound calls.
3. Set Active to Y and save.

If you want callers to choose a department first, set the route to a Call menu instead, and have each menu option land on its own in-group. A call menu is VICIdial's IVR (interactive voice response) — the press-1-for-sales layer in front of your queues.

What the in-group adds

Pointing a DID at an in-group rather than straight at a single agent gives you a real inbound queue. The in-group holds callers when everyone is busy, distributes calls across logged-in agents, and lets you set things like the queue's display name, hold treatment, and which agents are allowed to take its calls. Multiple DIDs can target the same in-group, or each number can have its own — useful when you want to track which marketing line a caller used.

• One DID to one in-group — simplest, good for a single inbound line.
• Many DIDs to one in-group — pool several numbers into the same agent queue.
• DID to a call menu first — let callers self-select before reaching a queue.

Test the path

Log an agent into the target in-group, then call the DID from an outside line. The call should ring through to the agent. If it does not, confirm the carrier account entry uses context=trunkinbound so inbound reaches the DID logic in the first place, and double-check that the dialed digits in your DID entry match exactly what the carrier delivers. Routing a DID is the destination step; the trunkinbound context is the door it comes through.

For the upstream side of this — getting the carrier to deliver calls at all — see the carrier account entry guide, and the full carrier integration guide ties every step together.

Need a VICIdial box where DIDs and in-groups are ready out of the gate? See VICIfast pricing — a dedicated dialer provisioned in under 40 seconds.