Data and voice over one T1?

[TaxLawStud]

Our medical office is expanding to another location. I would like to have one full point-to-point T1 to connect the two offices so that we can have voice and data over the same pipe. This way, we can share servers, voicemail, etc. Phone system is Merlin Magix. The data we will share is not very intensive - light email and scheduling software which 512K is plenty for (even works OK with 256K of bahdwidth). Is this possible or do I need to have two separate pipes to carry voice and data? Thanks in advance.

 

[gregarican]

You can split things easily with the Merlin Magix INA board. The board runs on the Lucent/Livingston ComOS and is pretty straight forward to configure. I take it your other site is Merlin Magix as well?

We runs tandem switching between two sites. One is Magix r2.0 and the other is Legend r7.0. The Legend side can't work with the INA board so I split channels using an Adtran Atlas 550.

Hunting around I got some Java GUI configuration utils for the Magix INA board and downloaded docs on the ComOS. It wasn't too bad. INA board run $3-4K a piece I think. Maybe cheaper since I bought ours.

 

[gregarican]

Just wanted to let you know in addition to these resources, Avaya has a Merlin Network Reference manual that outlines tandem switching. It gives sample configurations, steps needed to provision private networking, and serves as good reading prior to actually performing the job. No matter what device you are using to connect two sites it's good reading.

The Magix Integrated Network Access (INA) board really was nice to put into place, at least from my experience. It can do everything from DHCP, RIP, OSPF, etc. in addition to providing the voice channels. One piece of advice I can give is (if you go with the Magix INA) to make sure you are running at least Application Vintage 20 on the board. We weren't and experienced sproadic ISDN signalling issues coming right off the board. These firmware upgrades should come with a recent Merlin Magix update PCMCIA card I would think.