Dial 9 driving me to distraction 1

[betterlife]

I've recently taken over a Merlin Legend left behind by a previous tenant. With much reading of manuals and searching of forums we are up and running with almost everything working as it should. However, I can't figure out how to get the system to allow users to dial 9 for an outside line, rather than 70. It seems to be something to do with ARS but none of the books are specific about this point. I find the whole ARS thing rather difficult to understand because of the use of very specific language. We don't have any complex routing requirements. Any outgoing call just needs to pick up any idle line. Thanks for any advice!

 

[TouchToneTommy]

So what is happening when you dial 9? Do you get the "Wave-Off" tone, do your calls just not go through??

Your extensions could have restrictions placed on them, or the routes could be set up improperly.

You're going to need WinSPM software to print out your ARS tables, then examine them to see how they are set up, and check the programming on extensions that cannot use 9.

 

[tdaugirdas]

If I understand you correctly - your system is in Hybrid?PBX mode. When you touch speaker or pickup the handset - you get internal dialtone - and when you press 70 - you get outside dial tone. You now want to change this to just dial 9. It sounds like someone changed your pool dial out code to 70 from the default of 9. You may have multiple pools setup in your system (as for different companies within a company). One way to check - is: press menu, system program, start/exit, extentions, dial OutCd, enter one of your extention numbers - and see if a "70" shows up. If it does - use the backspace key to delete it. Press home. Go to that extention and press 9 - and see if you get an outside dial tone. If so - you will need to repeat this process for each extention in the system.

Tom Daugirdas,
President
STCG, Inc.
stcg.com

 

[betterlife]

Tommy: Hitting 9 gets me no change. I have internal dial tone, hit 9, nothing happens, still have internal dial tone. I've got WinSPM so I'll have a look at the tables.

tdaugirdas: Yes, you have it perfect. Hybrid/PBX and 70 for external dialtone. I've looked at the OutCd settings and they are set to 70. I've deleted this and tried to set it to 9 but that produces an error tone. Leaving it empty, however, now gives me external dialtone when I hit 9. I'm guessing the default setting had been overridden? Result )

This change has resulted in a small side issue. The line that dialling 9 is picking up is a fax line. Dialling 70 was giving me one of the voice lines. Is it possible to either remove the fax line from the outgoing selection or perhaps better, set it to a lower priority? I'm assuming that lines are picked up in some kind of predetermined order assuming they are all idle.

Thank you.

 

[tdaugirdas]

OK - it sounds like you have several pools set up in your system. You have a pool 70 - that apparently is your voice lines. However, someone has setup a pool 9 - probably with your fax line(s) in it.

You are correct that if yoiu delete the dial code 70 - you are resetting it to the default of 9. But now - you need to get rid of pool 9 or better yet renumber it to something else. The typical next default pool is 890. So you could renumber poool 9 to pool 890 - which would allow you to just press 9 to get an open line on Pool 70 - which is how the system is suypposed to work.

To check if someone renumbered one of your pool to 9 - do thisress menu, system program, start/exit, lines/trunks, pools, press 9 and enter, press entry mode - and the press the inspect key - see if any lines are in there (like 801, 802, etc.) If so - these are probably your fax lines. The easiest way to resolve this of course - is to run a print report on lines/trunks - and see how things are currently setup - then make the necessary corrections.

Tom Daugirdas,
President
STCG, Inc.
stcg.com

 

[betterlife]

Tom - No pool 9 but I found a pool 890 which had the fax line in it. I've removed the fax line from the pool and we appear to be OK. Dialling 9 now picks up a line from the 70 pool in what appears to be a circular pattern. Thanks! I'm mystified as to why dialing 9 was picking up the 890 pool but to some extent the reason doesn't matter. We have a solution.

 

[tdaugirdas]

Well - check your fax machine(s) - to see if it/they still work(s) - afetr your changes. You may have to do some reprogramming of the fax extention port(s). There had to be some reason for the way it was setup - but I have no clue why - pretty unusual. I would check and see if the fax extention also had a dialout code setup. If so - remove it - and put the fax line (s) back into 890. I am sure that pool is setup as a button (Pool 890-I) on each fax extention - and autolineselect is set to choose that button first. That way the fax gets outside dialtone on the fax line only immediately - and there is no need to program the fax to dial a dialout code first - then the number. If it isn't set up this way - that's what you will need to do.

Tom Daugirdas,
President
STCG, Inc.
stcg.com

 

[betterlife]

You were right - the fax machine was setup with a 890 dialout code. Its all working the way it should now. Thanks for the help!