IPO 500 V2 - new system, no internal dial tone - BT stumped 1

[IPONoob]

Hi All,

New to the forum, and a fairly inexperienced tel system admin, so please be nice!

We just had a brand new IPO 500 V2 system installed, to replace our BCM 50 system. Our incoming lines are ISDN30e. From the get go there were 2 problems - IP phones have no internal dial tone, and the analog lines just get a solid tone when you go off hook (we have 2 analogue conference sets).

All IP phones can dial extensions OK, we use an ARS form with secondary dial tone for external calls after dialling '9' and the secondary dial tone works fine - external calls work fine too, and incoming calls all work fine also.

You can call the analogue extensions and they ring OK, but can't call internally or call out from them. One other possible symptom is that we have one 'hot line' extension set to dial an extension when it goes off hook, this does not work - although you can force it with a short code N / dial ext / extno, so it seems the system is detecting the phone going off hook (I initially wondered if there was some way in which the phones could have the on hook switch disabled?)

We have now had 5 different engineers look at the system / config etc, they have also tried a full new system (with new cards also - not just swapping the cards into a new chassis), no joy.

Only suggestion that BT support had was to check the Local tones is selected, which it is. We have also tried an IP phone with external PoE power supply, straight in the LAN socket, still the same issues. They also tried formatting the SD card and installing fresh config, faults persist.

They have now sent a new SD card, and I am waiting on another visit to try this card out, but I can't see it being that (And neither can they).

I had a good search on here and the interweb generally, and can't find any other occurrences of this - last BT engineer on site says he's been installing IPO for 2 years and never seen it.

Anyone got any ideas? Luckily the system appears to basically 'work' OK other than these faults, but I am starting to get a fair bit of grief over not being able to use the analogue conference sets in our meeting rooms :-(

Many thanks for any help,
Regards,
Craig

 

[amriddle01]

It's probably programmed totally wrong, hard to say without seeing it but BT aren't renowned for their excellence when it comes to IP Office from my experiance



"No problem monkey socks

 

[intrigrant]

Sounds like a configuration problem rather then a hardware problem, did they try to default the system and rebuild the config by hand?
I never had such a problem and I have done a lot of installs, if you hae no problem with it you can send the config to avayalogsatgmxdotcom and I can taak e look at it.

 

[IPONoob]

Thanks Guys. That's encouraging. I don't really know how they approached the job, I assume they tried a default and fresh build, but they were behind closed doors, so I don't know!

intrigrant, thanks - I'll find out if 'Da Boss' would have any concerns with that, and may take you up on your kind offer.

Thanks for the help,
Craig

 

[TomMills]

Seen something similar. No internal dial tone, no speech on calls.

No sure what caused it but Intrigrant is right, a default and rebuild will sort it.

http://www.twitter.com/tem1985

APSS/ACIS/ACSS-SME
not arrogant, just succinct.

 

[mattKnight]

Bet this is something daft like no call appearance keys on the handset, or handset firmware out of date...


Take Care

Matt
I have always wished that my computer would be as easy to use as my telephone.
My wish has come true. I no longer know how to use my telephone.

 

[IPONoob]

Can't believe it, I've just fixed it... I don't really understand why this caused a problem, but anyway - as I had mentioned there is a hotline phone, where as soon as you pick up it should dial 107.

I knew that the short code was set up against the user (?D / Dial Direct Hotline / 107 / Line group 0). But after intigrant saying it would be config, I thought right, start again and look for anything odd in the configuration. I had a look through the system short codes, and noticed that they had setup the same short code as a system short code.

Now, I don't quite understand why that would cause the issues I was having, but removing the '?D / Dial Direct Hotline / 107 / Line group 0 ' entry from the system short codes seems to have fixed it - at least I now have internal dial tone on the IP sets, I just need to pop through and check the analogue sets now. I'll post back with the final results shortly!

Thanks all,


Craig

 

[IPONoob]

Right, removing that short code from the system short codes has done the trick - analogue sets also working fine now.

However, the short code remains against the one extension which we want to dial the hotline, but when I tested it, it actually has the symptoms that while that code existed as a system short code, had affected all the phones.

So it looks like there is an issue with that short code itself (?D / Dial Direct Hotline / 107 / Line group 0) which produces the lack of dial tone etc.

I'm off to read the short code guide and try to figure it out!

Thanks all,
Craig

 

[IPONoob]

Right, sussed it. The short code is wrong it was ?D / Dial Direct Hotline / 107 / Line group 0 but it should be
?D / Dial Extn / 107 / Line group 0

I'm sure you all already know this, but seemingly ?D is incompatible with 'Dial Direct Hotline' which is why it was breaking everything.

Seems a bit counter intuitive to me that ?D is provided for use with a Hotline feature, but at the same time is incompatible with the actions 'Dial Direct Hotline'.

Can anyone tell me what Dial Direct Hotline is for in that case?

 

[sizbut]

Well spotted. A star for you.

Meanwhile its just simply lack of imagination by the developers naming features.

Stuck in a never ending cycle of file copying.

 

[amriddle01]

Indeed, but any self respecting IP Office engineer knows that it's dial extn not Hotline, again the BT engineers should have known this and that ?D should never go in system shortcodes. So my impression of them hasn't changed



"No problem monkey socks

 

[IPGuru]

Indeed, but any self respecting IP Office engineer knows that it's dial extn not Hotline, again the BT engineers should have known this and that ?D should never go in system shortcodes. So my impression of them hasn't changed

Mine has, its now even lower

A Maintenance contract is essential, not a Luxury.
Do things on the cheap & it will cost you dear

 

[Westi]

I have to jump to their defense having never dealt with them actually
but I deal with Bell Canada and they have some dopes in their midst as well. The problem is that we will never see their good installs because the customer is happy and stays with them but all the unhappy customers will either post here or look for a new BP.
They probably have some excellent guys in their lines that are busy as heck to fix all the problems that their dopes create and they also have dopes there that should stay with installing analog lines or wiring instead of touching the IPO that create more work for everyone else.
Job security


Cheers

Joe W.

FHandw, ACSS (SME), ACIS (SME)

http://convergednetworks.ca

“Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives.”

 

[amriddle01]

That could have been true Westi, IF they hadn't had 5 different engineers looking at the fault and not find it



"No problem monkey socks

 

[IPGuru]

in all fairness i don't know how log it would have taken me to spot the cause.

however I would have tried a system default to confirm if cfg or hardware issue fairly early on.

A Maintenance contract is essential, not a Luxury.
Do things on the cheap & it will cost you dear

 

[amriddle01]

Watching a call in SSA would reveal the shortcode it was matching, and they must have messed it up in the first place, obviously they read it needed shortcodes and weren't sure where to put it an then guessed it was the hotline code



"No problem monkey socks

 

[intrigrant]

It was as I expected but I thought to myself "they can't be that stupid, can they?" well, the answer reveiled itself in the config.
I would claim something from them for the trouble they have caused you...

 

[IPONoob]

I think one of the issues here is that the guys who 'installed it' were different people than those who came back to troubleshoot it, and then different again the next time - each time working on the basis that 'Jim said he's checked the config and it's fine' etc.

I know for me, that going to try to fix someone else's problem is a nightmare, I always end up starting right at the beginning because I just can't rely on anything being 100%.

It does seem to me though, that the guys (no harm to them) are all pretty experienced telecoms guys (as in old school stuff) but not necessarily IPO 'experts'. IPO seems to be the main bread and butter system that BT are deploying these days from what I can gather, and it seems like lots of guys have gone on the course (one said something about a two week course I think?)

Anyway, glad to have it all working finally, and I actually called up the guy who had been sent out to look at it the second time, who was a really nice guy and fairly knowledgeable, and told him what I had found - in case he comes across it again.

As for compensation, they sent me out a new SD card as this was going to be the next thing to try, so I intend to just hold on to that and get it set up as a ready to use backup. Not exactly the crown jewels, but saves us about £20 I suppose!

Thanks to everyone for their input, I can see this is a great forum with alot of knowledge and experience.

Cheers
Craig

 

[Westi]

Come on by any time Craig, we have lots of fun here.

Joe W.

FHandw, ACSS (SME), ACIS (SME)

http://convergednetworks.ca

“Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives.”

 

[IPmonkey]

IPGuru, I thought that you guys did the installations for BT?