DNIS

DNIS stands for dialed number identification service. It answers one question on an inbound call: which of your numbers did this person dial? If you run a sales line, a support line, and a billing line all into the same VICIdial server, DNIS is how the system knows which one rang.

It's easy to mix up two numbers on an incoming call. The CID (caller ID) is the caller's number — who's calling you. The DNIS is your number — which line they dialed. VICIdial reads both, but it uses the DNIS to decide where to send the call, usually by matching it to a route and dropping the caller into the right Ingroup.

This is also where DNIS and DID overlap, and people get them tangled. The DID (direct inward dialing) is the number you own and set up. DNIS is what arrives with a live call telling VICIdial that this particular DID was the one dialed. You configure the DID once; you read the DNIS on every call that comes in. Together they let one box behave like many separate phone systems.

In practice you mostly care about DNIS when you're routing. Want callers to the Spanish number to skip the menu and go straight to bilingual staff? Want after-hours support calls to land in a voicemail group while the sales line still rings a Closer? That's DNIS-based routing, and it all depends on your Trunk passing the dialed number through cleanly in the first place. If routing isn't working, confirm the DNIS is actually arriving before you change anything else.