What the On-Hook Ring Time setting on a Remote Agent does

When a Remote agent has On-Hook Agent set to Y, VICIdial calls the external number and waits for an answer before bridging the customer. On-Hook Ring Time controls how long it waits. Get this value wrong and you either give up too fast (missing agents who take a normal few seconds to pick up) or you wait so long that the agent's personal voicemail swallows the call anyway — defeating the whole purpose of On-Hook Agent mode.

What the field controls

On-Hook Ring Time is a number of seconds. It only activates when On-Hook Agent = Y, and only for inbound calls flowing through a Closer campaign — it has no effect on outbound campaigns. The default is 15 seconds.

Each time VICIdial tries to reach the Remote agent's external number, it lets it ring for this many seconds. If the external phone answers before the timer expires, VICIdial bridges the waiting customer in. If it doesn't answer in time, VICIdial stops the attempt and either tries another available Remote agent line or returns the call to the Ingroup Call queue.

The voicemail trap — and how to avoid it

Most mobile carriers and VoIP providers send unanswered calls to voicemail after about 20–30 seconds of ringing. If On-Hook Ring Time is set to 30 and the carrier's voicemail kicks in at 25 seconds, the voicemail box answers the call — and VICIdial interprets that as the agent picking up. The customer then gets bridged to voicemail.

How to find the right value for your setup

sequenceDiagram
  participant VICIdial
  participant ExternalPhone
  participant Voicemail
  participant Customer
  VICIdial->>ExternalPhone: Dials external number
  Note over ExternalPhone: Rings for N seconds
  alt Answered before On-Hook Ring Time expires
    ExternalPhone-->>VICIdial: Picks up
    VICIdial->>Customer: Bridges customer in
  else On-Hook Ring Time expires before answer
    VICIdial->>ExternalPhone: Cancels attempt
    VICIdial->>Customer: Tries next agent or returns to queue
  else Voicemail answers before timer expires
    Voicemail-->>VICIdial: Line answered (voicemail)
    VICIdial->>Customer: Bridges customer to voicemail — bad outcome
  end

1. Call the external number yourself from any phone.
2. Count the seconds from when it starts ringing to when voicemail picks up.
3. Subtract 3–5 seconds from that number.
4. Enter the result in On-Hook Ring Time.

For example: voicemail kicks in at 22 seconds → set On-Hook Ring Time to 17 or 18. The default of 15 is a safe conservative value for most carriers, but always verify against your specific provider.

On-Hook Ring Time pairs with On-Hook Agent — if you haven't read that post yet, it explains why the pre-answer check matters in the first place. For a broader view of the Remote Agent system, see VICIdial Remote Agents Explained. To understand how Remote Agents differ from a standard logged-in agent session, read What Is a VICIdial Remote Agent.

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