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Mitel Echo Frustrations and issues

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tyler007

MIS
Jan 1, 2014
2
CA
We've just installed the following configuration:

Mitel ICP 200 AX
Mitel 5340 x2 IP Phones
Mitel 5324 x2 IP Phones w/LIM Modules
Mitel 5312 x8 IP Phones
HP 1910 Gigabit POE Switch x2 (pretty much a 3com switch re-branded to HP after HP bought them)
ICP connected diretly to POE switch, and all phones directly connected to POE switch
Computers are being passed through the 2nd IP port on the phones (this caused other issues, we may see if we can install more dedicated lines to desks yet)

Analog Lines x8 in multi-line/hunt group - Telus phone company - one side of the business, one phone number
Analog Lines x4 in multi-line/hunt group - Telus phone company - other side of the business, split between both locations using the dedicated VPN, different phone number

6 Of the phones are going over a site-to-site VPN using Dell/Sonicwall TZ-105's with a dedicated ADSL connection just for the VPN which is only used for the voice.

Currently we are having some issues with echo, with some of the following descriptions from users:
- during the entire phone call, probably 90% of the time (user's estimate)
- sometimes just at the beginning of a call and then echo cancellation seems to take effect and clear it up (not a common mention of this one)
- on both sets of multi-line groups (4-line is newly installed, 8-line one is 10-15 years old)
- additional issue/description, if someone is speaking near (5 feet? 15 feet?) the person that is using the phone, they hear that person's voice echo in their earpiece as well (this was just mentioned today)
- descriptions vary from bad to "horrible"

It doesn't seem to make a difference if the phones are on the local network (to the ICP 200, on the same switch), or going across the VPN, it happens on both, and all 3 phone models.

I am new to this, but my research is pointing me towards possible mis-matched impedance on the lines from the Telco, and we either need to adjust the ICP 200, put in-line impedance adjusters such as "Echo Stopper" by Mike Sandman and hope the impedance doesn't vary depending on the day/weather since the units are a "set and forget" type of thing unless you plan to adjust them regularly, or otherwise figure out what is going on.

The additional description of hearing someone's voice that is standing nearby the phone user, I'm not sure if that's related, it may be a separate issue? Any thoughts on this one?

I've already suggested to users to turn their volume down to see if it helps, in case it's the microphone on their phone picking up the callers voice from the handset speaker, but I haven't had much luck with them feeling that it's helped much/if any.

Thanks for any insights,
Tyler.
 
Have you run the line measurement testing to verify the settings match?
Details are found in the troubleshooting section under audio issues.
From the description of the issues IP to IP calls are ok
 
Not sure if the 200 has the same line measurement test interanally as the 3300 but if it does you should use it because as suggested it fixes a lot of analog trunk issues on the 3300. Also is the system properly grounded? Not just using the hydro plug grounding but using a seperate ground wire attached to the AX body.

Do they ever experience echo on internal calls? I don't have a lot of faith in a rebranded 3Com switch. As you say you got issues with plugging PC's into the back of the phones and in a good network that should not happen ( i.e we have large numbers of customers in much bigger deployments then this that use the PC's on the back of the phones with no issues ).



The beatings will continue until morale improves.
 
Hi everyone, thanks for all the responses so far.

Waldosworld: We have not run it yet, our dealer says they will run it today. IP to IP calls I believe are okay, since it is a remote site (1 hour away), I am not able to quickly check, but all the calls I made from off-site with the VPN were working fine with little to no echo (or echo cancellation took care of it).

danramirez: Thanks for the info regarding Telus, from my research, I saw 6 milliwat in tests and having the telco set one line to 1, or using two LS lines to do the testing with? I am not sure of how exactly it works yet, but I'm getting there.

LoopyLou: I believe the 200 has the same or similar LSMeasure tools as the 3300, possibly not as advanced? I will have the grounding re-checked today when our tech goes onsite again.

The issue's we've had on the 2nd pass-through ethernet ports seems primarily related to if/when the VPN goes down, the phones start their boot loops, which takes out the computer network connections with it, and sometimes even once the VPN is back up, the pass-through port is not passing computer traffic to the network, and therefore the user is "offline" on their computer until we have them power-cycle their phone (which was happily back online already). After cycling the phones, network returned to the computers within a few minutes.

Thanks everyone, I'll be sure to update the thread as we troubleshoot it.
 
You can used the provider milliwatt number or have two of your trunks to do the test by looping them together. I have done both ways but a lot quicker to use their milliwatt number.

However, check if you can run milliwatt tests on the 200, sure you can with the 3300.

Good luck,

 
Would definately run the LSM tool as it fixes a lot of issues.

The beatings will continue until morale improves.
 
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