norstar startalk auto attendant rings 3 times regardless of ring setting

[TedTheITGuy]

Norstar StarTalk auto attendant rings 3 times regardless of ring setting

Hello Techs,

Referring to a StarTalk 2.04L

I had about 6 lines answered by AA at 6 rings for a long time without any problem. After a while, the users requested change from 3 rings to 6 rings. But I found it was already set for 6 rings. This meant the programmed 6-ring setting did not change, but the functional ringing on inbound calls was ringing only 3 times.

I experimented with changing the rings to 0 and made sure the AA answered instantly...it did

I changed the rings to as high as 12 rings, but the AA then would still answer at only 3 rings.

Has anyone seen this behavior before?

These are std copper lines from the std telco. No recent change in carrier.

Thank you for any of your helpful thoughts

Ted

 

[curlycord]

StarTalk is pretty old, maybe HD issues....did you reboot?



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curlycord

http://www.curlycord.com

 

[kelltele]

could also be drt to prime if Vm is prime for lines

 

[curlycord]

Was my first thought but
"had about 6 lines answered by AA at 6 rings for a long time without any problem"

conflicting statements above perhaps.


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curlycord

http://www.curlycord.com

 

[allworxguy]

My money is on DRT.

Marv

http://www.telemarv.ca

 

[TedTheITGuy]

Hello everyone and thank you.

I cannot report an answer yet, but I think you are all correct:

Curly: On result of reboot: can't do until morning at end of third shift. On age: Yes it is old but has new power supply and new hard drive both less than five years old. It is also a struggling shrinking company that has a boss who would tell his sales people to deal with 3 rings before he will pony up for a new system. Besides that, I hate to replace if all it needs is a user phone to have call forward turned off (or something like that)

As for everyone hinting at DRT: Thank you for getting me on the right track.

DRT is set to 3 rings to prime. The lines answered by AA are set DRT to prime (Prime set is receptionist). They are too busy at this hour for me to bother anyone there with testing but in the morning, I will try to increase DRT to 6, to see if that changes from 3 to 6 rings when AA answers. If that works, then I have to accept that this system has not been ringing 6 times since I customized DRT to only 3 rings a long time ago.

But could DRT intercept a ringing line before it is initially answered by the system and transferred?

Then to Curly's point: what changed between when it worked okay and then not?

I am pretty sure I set DRT to only 3 for some other reason long ago and the system PW is not default (I am the only one who can access config) -- So I am trying to think of a way a user (or the VM admin) might have inadvertently done something with the options available to them

What about the possibility of a former user phone that had a deleted mailbox but still had set abilities CFNA 3rings to the VM DN? So it would be a ringing extension that has a Line appearance (or more likely a DN ring and appearance) of reception but the extension has no mailbox. Would that go to general voicemail on three rings, auto-attendant on 3 rings or would it go to prime on 3 rings?

I will update the post after I do a little more testing

-- Thank you for any new input
-- Ted

 

[norstarboy125]

If any phones on the system are set to CFNA on a lesser ring then the AA then of course that will cause a conflict every single time. That is if the phones have lines that ring on them. I would check the ring count on every phone to make sure it is 6 and no less.

Jeremy J. Carter
Charm City Communications

http://www.charmcitycommunications.com

Norstar. BCM. CS1000 Programmer

 

[curlycord]

"I would check the ring count on every phone to make sure it is 6 and no less. "

CFNA Ring count has nothing to do with it in this case....the issue is when AA answers and not that it goes into some random mailbox.

"Would that go to general voicemail on three rings, auto-attendant on 3 rings or would it go to prime on 3 rings?"

CFNA setting to vmails DN with no mailbox would have ALL calls to that phone default to GD mailbox.

"But could DRT intercept a ringing line before it is initially answered by the system and transferred?"

Yes, if nothing answers the line then DRT takes over based on the timer/ring count.
If a client has full AA then it is best to leave it at 6 rings if possible and reception as prime set.....this is in case voice mail fails then calls will DRT to reception.

I am with kel and now bet you had this issue ever since changing DRT timer and changing to more than 6 will solve the issue.



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curlycord

http://www.curlycord.com

 

[TedTheITGuy]

One new piece of information: They have changed from a full-time receptionist to no-receptionist. It is very possible AA has never really picked up on 6 rings like they remember.

I changed DRT from 3 rings to 6 rings -- awaiting report from users.

I am concerned this may solve the current issue but will make a new problem in some other area now that DRT time is doubled. May have to tackle that next (after I remember what initial complaint lead me to set DRT at 3 in the first place) -- But if I just wait quietly, I bet the user complaint will manifest again, then we'll find a new workaround for that.

 

[ironhorse17]

Just set DRT to no and be done.

 

[curlycord]

Terrible advice from somebody normally pretty good!




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curlycord

http://www.curlycord.com

 

[ironhorse17]

Since the Norstar has been out never used it and always cause a situation when implementing other features. I always turn it off, except for Did's.

 

[curlycord]

I thinks it is good practice to use it, otherwise if any of your clients have vmail go down then they cannot hear any calls come in.


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curlycord

http://www.curlycord.com

 

[TedTheITGuy]

Well... it was not the DRT ring setting. It was changed from 3 to 6, but today's test verified AA still picks up after 3 rings.

I found two phones w/ ADN for reception that had CFNA to VM DN set for 3 rings -- one has no vm on the extension, the other had a vm box setup but not initialized -- I deleted the non-initialized vmbox and I have changed both to "none" and will await next report from my site user/tester -- but I have a feeling if that were the issue, instead of 3 rings to AA, it would either go to a mailbox, gen delivery, or get an invalid mailbox error

Does any know if there is a hardware switch within StarTalk that could ignore any number of rings higher than 3 on all lines? Note: we seem to be able to successfully set between 0 and 3 but anything higher than 3 results in the same as 3

I searched my notes to find I had a similar previous incident on a NAM. I do not remember the extent of troubleshooting a couple years ago, but I did have a note on the workaround. It only happened on L001 of an 0x32 w/ the NAM. In that operation, they wanted 3 rings to AA (which we set by 4 rings in programming to get what the users see as 3 actual rings). After years of no problems, Line1, and only Line1, changed from the desired 3 rings to be only 2 rings (programming still set at 4) -- The only thing that changed was the carrier (not 100% sure it happened at exact same time, so not 100% sure it was related to the change in carrier)

So the workaround was to set programming for L1 AA to answer at 7 rings which made it actually ring only 3 times like all the other lines (and it has continued to work that way for about 2 years now).

But that workaround does not work in this current case

I will report back after next 5am test is reported to me tomorrow

Thanks for reading

Ted

 

[curlycord]

- but I have a feeling if that were the issue, instead of 3 rings to AA, it would either go to a mailbox, gen delivery, or get an invalid mailbox error "

I agree

Doing a REINSTALL can clear corruption most times.





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curlycord

http://www.curlycord.com

 

[TedTheITGuy]

For troubleshooting, does anyone think it is worth trying a different Startalk hard drive in the existing StarTalk case? If the ring issue is corrected by the change, we would know for sure this is not a hardware problem on the main vm unit -- if the ring issue persists, it would point to a hardware issue, perhaps in the card that does the switching and answering?

In considering a reinstall:

There are probably 40 user boxes, plus a multi-level AA to rebuild and re-record.

Is reinitialization the same as a reinstall in this case, or do I need to reinstall from floppies?

Do I need to do a complete wipe and rebuild or can I save user configuration, settings and recordings?

If I recall, Utilities like Norstar Manager will not backup the VM the same way Norstar Manager can backup a KSU? -- So do I need to backup to floppy at the StartTalk?

If I backup first, then reinstall and then restore from the backup, is it possible the corruption might be restored along with the user info? (or is the user data separate from the system data)?

Thank you.

 

[curlycord]

Suggest you do a reinstall for the reason I already stated.

I don't think replacing the hard drive is a logical idea when you can try a REINSTALL from F983/1 for no cost except 1-2 hours labour.
Yes you will most likely restore corruption so don't bother with backup.

Did you reboot the systems yet?







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curlycord

http://www.curlycord.com

 

[TedTheITGuy]

Yes, by now, both KSU and VM confirmed to have been reboot.

The reason and benefit of REINSTALL is clear.

If it was a square system with only 3 users and an easy company greeting and GD box, I would have done REINSTALL before posting on Tek-Tips

However I do think it will take a bit more than 1-2 hours to rebuild 40 boxes and the AA. Plus helping users who won't be able to initialize and record on their own (plus help setup and re-test a ton of off-site notifications) -- plus locating or typing out the AA scripts, reprogramming and re-recording the greetings and menus, plus testing and troubleshooting. Not to mention the user interruption/frustration period. Not to mention they would want me to do it between 1am and 5am and then be there the entire next day to address user start-up issues and fine-tuning.

My point was to NOT wipe out the Still Working Hard Drive before I make sure the issue is not a hardware problem. And I may as well test the hardware since it is an easy test. I have spare StarTalks and spare Hard Drives. If the original drive shows the same problem in the new StarTalk CPU, then I will know it is not the original CPU Hardware causing the issue.

Besides that, if I am going to start from scratch on building VM and AA, I may as well spend the time building it on another refurb'd matching StarTalk unit to allow for **offline** creation and testing. It woul shorten user interruption and it would leave the old HD in storage for an emergency spare already setup (except for the darn 3 ring thing)

I do not mind doing the rebuild but I will need to discuss options with the client. But it does look like a complete rebuild is on the way. Or they might just prefer to live with 3 rings until they are ready for a major upgrade.

I will post back with any interesting discoveries or updates.