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Norstar Call Pilot 150 1

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OXendine

Programmer
Feb 25, 2005
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I have a customer with a call pilot 150 and they are using the call center. When the call center is connected to the local network the reporting software shows all agents in alarm status and looses real time stats. I am wondering if call pilot is a robust enough system for this customer. They can average up to 1000 calls per day on busy days. It only happens when the call pilot is on the network. Sometimes it locks up and the agents have to logg off and back on the rec calls. Any ideas?
 
whats the software version? I had a 1.5 that would go unresponsive when connected to the network.

Upgraded- and no problems
 
I have been working on norstar ICS and voicemail units since 1996. Installation programming and trouble shooting.
 
OK?

As I am sure you are aware, there is a 2.1 CP version now. Other than that, I dont know.
 
the average talk time is about 2 to 3 min.
 
When you say unresponsive, did the voicemail stay running and were you running call center at the time.
 
this thread is making little sense and i have not yet started to drink

ski season has started
 
The call pilot that Im working on is only used for the call center and the mailboxes. No AA, CCR or any other features.As soon as it is connected to the customers network it fails and gets error's on the report software. Maybe a software change is next due to the fact that this trouble is so rare. Trust me, I need a drink at this point.
 
Does it fail when connected to a laptop or desktop via crossover cable?

While it may be a software issue with the CP, you could also be looking at network issues too.

Something as simple as different duplexes on the network (I do not know if the CP is full or half duplex, but you could be dealing with issues if the network is one and the CP is the other).

Also, disconnect the CP and see if you can still ping the IP address of the CP. You may have a double assigned IP address.

Last thing I would also check is to see if the CP is on a network branch that is getting a lot of activity.

While I do not know how the CP interfaces with the network internally, I have seen network issues slow down PCs, so I would not find it far fetched that it may also slow down the CP (which is basically a PC).

I would try the cross-over cable to a laptop or PC directly. If the problem does not happen then, I would start to look at the network as a source of problems.
 
The CP is default at (autosense) this is adjustable but no real reason to change this unless you have a certain applications to setup. Agree with achuchman, you have a subnetting problem and probably dual ip address which would cause major collisions to your network, verifiy network settings and ping ip you want to use to verify it is not in use.
 
The origional issue was a duplicate ip adress. Wed of last week I changed the CP adress to what I thought was a dedicated IP adress per the IT MGR.The CP reporting software nor the CP itself seem to have any trouble when off of the network.The only issue that I have seen off of the network is agents were logged on and no calls would come through unless the agents logged off and back on and that only happened once. I will ping the IP adress when the call pilot is off of the network just to make sure that it is not shared.In the mean time I am going to run a cross over cable from the switch room to the MGR's office to keep a clean connection and run real time stats on the CP CC.
 
I pinged the IP adress with call pilot disconnected and got a standard time out. Would changing the default autosence help and how can I find out if call pilot is full or duplex for network purposes?
 
OXendine,

I do not know the exact specifications of the CP in terms of full or half duplex. I assume it would be in the manual somewhere, which I do not have handy right now.

Your best bet is to just connect it directly via X-Over cable to see if it wants to tank out.

If it is a half/full duplex issue, you may need to stick the CP behind a router to isolate it from the rest of the network...

Also, keep in mind that if there is a lot of network traffic, that may be an issue too. Does the CP reside on the exact same network that has the rest of the company traffic?

I do not know the processing power of the CP when it comes to packet inspection, but I would assume that it is far less than a PC. If there are too many packets hitting the CP, then I could see where that would lock up the software on the unit.



 
What do you mean by packets hitting the call pilot?
 
I take it you are not versed in TCP/IP networking...

I will give you a little lesson on how this works, but you really need to involve your network guy for this.

When a network device (computer, router, hub, switch) sends data over a network, it is in the form of packets.

A packet is a unit of data sent across a network. When a large block of data is to be sent over a network, it is broken up into several packets, sent, and the reassembled at the other end. Packets often include checksum codes to detect transmission errors.

When a network device sends these packets out (be it in the form of a WEB request, file request, access to a server - basically any data that a computer sends/gets on a network), these packets hit EVERY network device on that local network.

Everytime a network device sees a packet on the network, it inspects the packet to see if it was intended for itself. If the packet does not contain the IP address of that device, it is discarded. (this includes devices with different sub net masks on the same network.)

The more network devices on a network, the more packets sent on that network.

Now, modern PCs are able to inspect a large number of packets with minimal problems. The CP, however, has a small processor and does not have the speed or memory to inspect a large amount of packets.

If the CP is getting more packets than it can keep up with, the processor will begin to lock-up. This, of course, is the same processor that controls the function of the CP itself.

The only way to resolve this problem is to put the CP behind a router or put it on it's own psycial network (which would still require a router).

The router will inspect the packets for the CP, and will only send the packets intended for the CP.

 
What network is the CP to be working on. And what is the address of th CP.
 
achuchman:

You have no idea what you're talking about. You're referring to the difference between a switch and a hub, and this is at layer 2 (Ethernet), not layer 3 (IP).

Read up on what ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) is, and how it works.

Essentially, this cannot be a problem if the network is switched (rather than connected with hubs), which almost all modern networks are.

Even if switches are not being used, the amount of overhead required to inspect incoming frames is minimal, bordering on nonexistant. This is generally performed by the Ethernet chipset in the CallPilot, and not its main CPU.
 
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