Am I supposed to get a dialtone on a PRI?

[salo0920]

Hi All,

I did my first PRI today and with your help and a lot of reading and some luck, I managed to get it to work although I havent tried to integrate it to the VM yet.

However, when I used to use good old POTS lines in a pool and used 9 as an access code, I would get a second dialtone (the one from the CO) before I would dial the number. Now, when I access the PRI-A pool by dialing 9, the system just stays quiet until I finish dialing, then it connects me properly. Is this to be expected? Is there some way to get dialtone from a PRI?

And lastly, in order to get to the PRI pool, I had to setup a route and dest code to get it to work for outbound access. Your instructions call for using as example 9. (dot) with absorblegnth 1. What the heck is absorblegnth? and why do I need the . (dot)???

Sincerely,
One Very Confused Phone Guy

 

[DueE]

No dial tone is normal. The dot is a wildcard that equals any digit or following digits. Therefore the 9 accesses the PRI pool, any digits following digits are passed, the 9 is absorbed (it's job is done-it got to the PRI and is not needed at the CO so it is absorbed) and the other digits are sent down the PRI to the CO for processing. OK?
DueE

 

[salo0920]

DueE,

Thanks. Just as a follow up to this, is it possible to get dialtone on these lines? Also, I set up just as a 9 no period no absorb and it seems to be working properly. What am I missing?

 

[DueE]

I can't say if it is possible or not. As far as the "no period" goes, it isn't necessary to use the 'wildcard' in your application, your just using it to get to your route for all numbers dialed. If you were wanting to send specific numbers or a range of numbers out a different route then the wildcard would save from having so many dest code entries.
DueE

 

[salo0920]

Thanks DueE. I guess I will ask this dialtone question a different way and I do so hereby promise that it will be the last time I ask it.

Is there any way other than the route/dest code way to pick a line from the PRI-A pool like you can with a reguar line pool? I suspect that the reason I do not hear dialtone is that as you said, in a route situation, the switch gathers all of the digits first then sends them as a string to the PRI (I would guess similar to the "Pre-Dial" option in user prefs). Unfortunately the reason I would like to hear dialtone is that we plan on using some of these lines with an ATA II and modem combination and modems vastly prefer to hear dialtone before they dial. Sorry for being a pain about this.

Thanks,
Harold

 

[mroberts]

To pick it up here.....
The dial tone is provided by your carrier not by any setting in the Norstar. Most Telcos do not provide secondary dial tone but I have heard of a few that do. You will need to call your carrier and ask if they will send secondary dial tone.

MRoberts

 

[DueE]

MRoberts is correct and we don't get dialtone from the CO on any of our PRI, but do on some regular T1. You MUST use routing w/PRI and as far as modems, they will work.
DueE

 

[salo0920]

Thanks DueE and mroberts. I really appreciate your feedback...