IT guy looking to make a change.....Need Help and direction

[leoingle]

I have been doing IT for the last 12 years and I am sick and burnt out on it. I have worked for a bank that last 8 that uses Cisco IP Telephony and I am one of the very few IT guys that know anything about telcom at all. I want to jump ship to VoIP. I been looking on whether to go Nortel/Avaya or Cisco route and it seems Cisco is where the wave of demand is going. But before I do that, I want a good base knowledge about telcom. Can anybody recommend study guides, books, websites or anything for me? I want to start at ground zero, as in troubleshooting POTS, and work my way up from there. I look at this chart:

http://www.sandman.com/files/teldiagchart.pdf

and I dont even know how to take these reading and I dont like that. I have an electronics degree, so it's not like I dont know about electronics, just needs some direction on where to start.

Any help is appreciated!

 

[Dexman]

With Cisco equipment, I don't know how much POTS lines come into play, while Avaya's IP Office is a hybrid and supports both traditional (POTS, ISDN/PRI)& IP service.

A fair number of long time US-based telephone equipment installers may have started out working in the Bell System. They would have been trained in their craft by the unions and gained experience by working in the field and OJT.

I "FEATURE 00

 

[Sympology]

To be honest, if going VoIP, although POTS may help, going with ISDN / Networking may be a better route.

Al nice knowing the ring voltage, but stuff all use on a IP system.
I persoanlly would go for a good grounding in networking, VoIP (SIP) and Telephony, THEN decide what path to follow for a vendor.
After all, being a cisco guru is great until you're asked to hook it up to an Audiocodes gateway and an OCS client.

Robert Wilensky:
We've all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true.

http://alvechurchlounge.org.uk

 

[leoingle]

POTS can come into play in VoIP. All of our routers at our bank branches have FXO cards in them that have POTS going into them. But that is not why I said that. I mentioned that, just because I said I want to start from square one and work up. Alot of guys that want to learn about telcom would say they are just want to know about data lines and skip all the analog junk. I dont, I want to learn about that also.
Sym - I already have the good grounding in networking. And i am fine with making a choice after I get more into that. I really would like to take the CTP+ before starting Cisco next year, but CompTIA keeps dragging ass with it.

 

[cknipe]

To be honest it looks like you are on the right track having some cisco experience already. My advice would be to go work for a cisco reseller where you can get experience installing these things day in and day out. The pay generally is not great but the experience brings a wealth of knowledge. Usually these resellers sell more than 1 line of products as well. I would narrow your search down to those who use cisco and avaya. I came from a mitel reseller and the experience with mitel did not help much however the general voip experience helped tremendously ....it seems all the recruiters want a ccna with call manager or avaya experience.

 

[cwc3]

You got a electronics degree and you don't know how to put meter in series with a power source to measure current ?

http://www.thetelephonemanonline.com

 

[madwok]

Both Cisco & Avaya are good system to learn and earn $

Avaya is more feature rich and give you a better understanding if you want to learn more on the TDM and later IP as it normally supports both in hybrid model. IP Office 500 v2 is a good little system that you can learn by break & fix . You can download the IPO Manager and configure it to your heart content without having a real hardware . Document is also freely available in the net for you to learn just like Cisco. You can also scout for a small Avaya/Nortel BCM50 to practice as they are getting cheap as Avaya decide to EOL by March 2012 .

On Cisco a 2811 router with FXO and couple softphone make do to get you started . On CM , you can play it thru VM ware till you got the $ to build a true server based lab . Cisco if you know your stuff and configure it correctly is pretty good for general office with unified communication.

On Call Center , Avaya is pretty strong and very robust. Certification is nice to have but nothing really beat the old break & fix and read the heck out of the manual then fix it again IMHO ( LOL )

Cheers !

 

[leoingle]

madwok - Thanks. I guess one of my real questions is should I learn telecom first before getting into Cisco, or just start doing Cisco and learn telecom as I go. I have been thinking about getting the 3 books set from Teracom Training on telecom before diving into Cisco.


cwc3 - I dont recall saying I dont know how to take a multimeter and measure current. What I said is once I do and am looking at the reading, I have no idea if what I am looking at is what the reading is supposed to be or not.

 

[madwok]

Leoingle, I would dive right into Cisco as you already had a taste for it .
There are lots of telephony fundamental that you can get from Cisco site and books that gently get you in at your own pace .You can also invest in CBT ( CCNA voice by CBT Nuggets is quite good ) . If budget is tight, at least get some books

My fav on Cisco books : Cisco UP Communication Expess - Daniel Au etc.

Configuring Cisco Unified Communications Manager & Unity Connection - A step by step - David Bateman

CCNA Voice : Official Exam Certification Guide - Jeremy Cioara etc.
CCNA voice 640-461 Offial guide - Jeremy Cioara etc

http://www.ipofficeinfo.com/

for Avaya IP Office

http://www.avaya-learning.com

Cheers !