FXO or FXS needed?

[phonenewbie09]

Hello everyone,
I have a question that at some time may have been answered but I didn’t see it. I currently have a Nortel c11 system and we provide analog extensions to the tenants in our building for the overhead paging system and incase they need to get a hold of security. They have taken those analog lines and hooked them up to their phone systems so that they can use it from any of their phones. I am currently getting a new 3com VCX 7000 system and would like to do the same thing that I’m currently doing of providing them an in-house extension for their phone systems. In order for me to do this do I need a FXS or FXO gateway?

Thanks in advance,
Travis

 

[cknipe]

i believe on the VCX they make some combo FXO/FXS gateway, to tell you the truth, you need to know what type of connections your existing paging system needs, or at least tell the vendor that it providing the vcx this so they can come out and "discover" what you have out there.

My biggest thing I tell people when upgrading to a comepletely new phone system is that if you cant tell me what you are using...how am I supposed to know.

In case you may not have a clear understanding of FXS/FXO,

an FXS port generally needs dialtone to dial, hence thats why FXS ports are always used for faxes, analog phones, credit card machines.

An FXO port is the port you plug your outside telephone lines into. try not to get too confused.


If the tennants had to dial a 9 to get out, most likely they are wired back to FXS ports in your nortel system