IP Small Office POTS problems

[TivoNut]

We have an IP Small Office that's been installed for several months at one of our retail stores. Occasionally, the system stops being able to receive or make calls.

Incoming calls will ring in, phone will ring, but get dead air when the call is answered. Neither end can hear the other, but you can hear (and see in Call Status) the click from the call being answered. There's just no voice path even though the call has completed.

Same thing for outbound, calls just get dead air on outbound. A reboot of the IP Office always clears up the problem immediately. This has happened with both 2.0 and 2.1 (now on 2.1.24) This happens with all four voice lines feeding the IPO from telco. All four lines provide Caller ID too.

My BP suggested checking with the CO to see if they're providing "Loop-Start Reliable Disconnect" on the LS lines. He indicated there can be problems with disconnect messages on lines that have Caller ID enabled.

SBC names the disconnect feature COD and it is enabled on all the lines. This has been going on for months and is driving us nuts. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what the problem might be?

We have had it happen (to a lesser extent) at a couple other locations, but this one is where it seems to happen regularly (once every couple of weeks.)

Thanks in advance.

 

[crashtest1000]

When the fault occurs do you get it reoccuring all the time from then on, on all lines or one particular line?

 

[TivoNut]

Yes, when the problem starts, it happens across all four lines, all the time. It does not clear until I reboot the IPO.

 

[IPGuru]

I am running a small office at home with 2 alog lines & 1 isdn2 & never experienced this problem.
it sounds to me like your problem could be due to your line provider.
if posible try connecting a test but accros one ot the lines when faulty.
if the line is ok then I would suggest that you may have a faulty ipo

 

[Morrack]

I would also be interested in what a monitor trace might reveal...

 

[TivoNut]

I'll have to run monitor next time this happens.

I can't connect a test set because I'm hundreds of miles away from the system, and the people on-site barely know what a phone is, let alone debugging phone problems.

 

[TheMitelGuy]

It does not sound like your provider, yet a faul with the IP Office. If it was your provider (i.e. Bell), it would not happen accross all 4 lines. Granted it could happen, but very doubtfull.

The second indication it's the IP Office is you say "I have to reboot it, then it works." So that should give us some sort of hint.

I would ask your BP (authorized or not) to replace the unit. They have to do something to help you here. Any BP that is authorized has the ability and power to replace a unit for you at no cost. If you dealer says no... ask them what they do when your store assocaites have to dial 911. Your store is liable to ensure 911 can be dialed, and can face charges if you are unable to dial for any reason. Ask your self one question, "Wal*Mart installs AVAYA, do I think for one second they would put up with this? ... ... when why should I?"

To your "dealer", reliable disconnect indicates "disconnecting." So if we're "connecting" at the beginning of the call, and "disconnecting" at the end, why do I have "disconnect" problems when I'm trying to connect?

Ps. AVAYA's IP Office IS A GOOD PRODUCT, but manufacturing processes can cause 1 or 2 here or there to be bad. I would ask for it to be replaced.

Neil

 

[Morrack]

Oh boy... WalMart would *NOT* put up with this... that I can tell you from personal experience.... hehehehe

I tend to agree with much of what Neil said. It should not be up to your poor retail store employees to know how to hook up (let alone have!) a buttset and test the lines directly, whoever sold you the system should be going on site and doing that for you, not offering hopefull suggestions to help *you* chase down the problem. If the dealer doesn't have a local office where this problem SOE is they should sub the work at their expense. That's what I would do anyway

Peter

 

[crashtest1000]

At this stage I am thinking that it could be a reliable disconnect issue or a faulty box.

On the disconnect side of things this is not supported in all locals, has the Telco carrier turned the feature on at the exchange end. And if this feature is not supported turn it off on the line.

If you are confident that the disconnect feature is setup correctly then maybe we are looking at a problem with the system time to exchange the box.

 

[TivoNut]

I thank everyone for your input and agree with just about everything you've all said. I did have telco make an additional change, and it's been escalated there as well. The difficulty is this happens infrequently (every few weeks) with no warning, so when it happens, I have limited time to deal with it before I must reboot. I can't have the lines all down for an extended period of time. If/when I resolve it, I'll post the solution.

 

[IPGuru]

I agree with AvayaGuy that your BP should be taking more action to resolve this issue, by now if they have been unable to locate the problem iether on site or with a msg trace they should have replaced the unit to at least iliminate it from the enquiries.

Insist on a maintanence swap of the Unit to see what happens
& if your BP canot achive this locate a better maintainer!