Sync Nortel 11C PBX clock with Server or Atomic Clock

[Guest_imported]

Is it possible to either sync my Nortel 11C with my server or the Atomic Clock. My users complain if the clock on their phone is different from the clock on the PC because the PC's are sync with the Server which the Server is sync with the Atomic Clock. Any tips or suggestion appreciated.

 

[JurgenV]

Hi,

I don't think there is an easy way. But if you are good in programming/scripting maybe can write a short program to retrieve the atomic time and then accessing the PABX to change the time in LD 2. You can schedule to run this program at a certain time of day I suppose.

I guess it will be easier if you have connection to the PABX system via the network rather than TTY.
Hope this helps.

 

[pansophic]

I thought that I saw in the Aspect forum on this message board that someone had written a Procomm script to push time down to their Meridian.

The theory was that the PC would run NTP (network time protocol), and it would sync the Meridian with its own date/time group.

Unforturnately, I can't seem to find it. The search engine for this forum is not quite up to par. When I search by "nortel AND clock" I don't even get a reference to this page. Oh well.

pansophic

 

[freddog]

I don't believe the Meridian 1 supports Network Time Protocol. Currently, the only way I know to do what you want is to write a script that logs into the PBX, goes into LD 2, obtains the time from your time server, and then updates the time using the STAD command. The time would run on your time server say, at midnight, and you'll want to build a PBX logon specifically for the script to use. The logon should have access only to LD 2 and you'll need to specify, when building the logon, to permit the TTAD and STAD commands (see password options in LD 17).

 

[pansophic]

Obviously I was unclear. The PC would need to be running NTP and have Procomm installed. The PC's time is set to the atomic clock by NTP. The Procomm script would run periodically (whatever period you wanted) and would do exactly that. Log in, ld 2, and stad, pushing the PC's time down to the Meridian.

pansophic

 

[pansophic]

Found the post, it was on comp.dcom.sys.nortel. I'm not quite happy with some of the waitfor statements, and would probably change them, but the concept is excellent. If this is done from a PC running NTP, the worst case is a time that is off by 1 - 2 seconds.

From: TRReves (triversNOSPAM@snapper.com)
Subject: Re: Sychronize the time
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.sys.nortel
View: Complete Thread (18 articles) | Original Format
Date: 2000/03/09

I wrote a Procomm Plus script that does the dialing and updating of the clocks. It seems to work pretty good. I can Schedule this to run once a day or once a week. The worries expressed earlier in the newsgroup do concern me. However, I think that if there were a modem/phone line error while synchronizing then the PBX would most likely spit out a syntax error and the time would not be updated.

Here is the first draft of the script. I am posting this in hopes I can get some constructive criticism or help someone else out.

My script assumes that the PC's time format is "HH MM SS" (24hr) with a space for the separator. It query's the PBX date and time then writes the date information down in a file to use when it syncs the time. So, it's important that the script not run real close to midnight otherwise a situation might occur where the script reads the date then the PBX time rolls over to the next day before the script writes the date with the updated time. It only take a second or two between reading and writing the date so it's unlikely this will occur.

proc main
#define PBX_Number1 "SEB phone # here" ; Define phone number
string FpcTime = "PCtime.txt" ; Current PC time file
string currentswitchdate ; Switch date output variable
string CurPCTime ; Current PC Time Variable

commandmode on ; Enter command mode.
pause 3
transmit "ATDT" ; modem dial command
transmit PBX_Number1 ; .. the number to dial.
transmit "^M" ; ... a carriage return.


waitfor "CONNECT 14400/ARQ/V32/LAPM/V42BIS"

pause 15
;transmit "^M"
transmit "SEB_Password"
transmit "^M"
waitfor "Command: "
transmit "7^M"
waitfor "Which host port? (1,2,3,4,^H) "
transmit "1^M"
pause 1
transmit "****"
pause 1
transmit "^M"
pause 1
transmit "LOGO^M"
pause 1
transmit "LOGI^M"
waitfor "pass?"
transmit "PBX Password"
transmit "^M"
transmit "^M"
pause 2
transmit "LD 2^M"
waitfor "."
transmit "^M"
waitfor "."
transmit "^M"
transmit "ttad"
pause 1
locate 23, 11 ; Move the cursor to date output
termreads currentswitchdate 11 ; Read current date

if fopen 0 FpcTime CREATE ; Create and open file.
fwrite 0 $time 8 ; Write a text string to file.
fclose 0 ; Close the file.
else
errormsg "Can't open `"%s`" for output." FpcTime
endif

if fopen 0 FpcTime READ ; Open PCTime.txt file for read.
fread 0 CurPCTime 11
endif
transmit "^M"
waitfor "."
transmit "stad"
pause 1
transmit currentswitchdate
transmit CurPCTime
transmit "^M"
pause 2
transmit "****"
pause 1
transmit "^M"
pause 1
transmit "LOGO"
transmit "^M"
waitfor "SESSION DURATION:"
pause 1
transmit "^]A"
pause 2
transmit "X"
transmit "^M"
pause 2

commandmode OFF ; release modem to TAPI.

endproc

 

[pansophic]

Silly me, posting yet again. Just a word of warning about scripting this sort of thing. Gene is the originator and moderator of comp.dcom.sys.nortel, and his advice can generally be heeded without reservation.

From: GHTROUT (find_my_email_addy@

http://www.ghtrout.com)

Subject: Re: Setting the time on an M1 with an Timeserver
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.sys.nortel
View: Complete Thread (5 articles) | Original Format
Date: 2001-10-18 20:40:40 PST

In article <tsv48roqsm50c8@corp.supernews.com>, sparky@tiac.net says...
> If anyone has a script please let me know,
> > Rich
>


I'm sure someone has one (I don't) but you know that the phones will
never all say the same time on a large system. Also, the risk of the
script putting in the wrong time even once could mean a complete purge
of your voice mail system.

--
~

http://www.GHTROUT.com/

 

[Guest_imported]

Freddog- do you by any chance have this running on your system. If so do you happen to have the script and how do you go about setting it up and is it using procomm to deliver the change.

Pansophic- Is that using procomm and what is NTP by the way. I am sort of new to Nortel PBX's and I don't quite have all the abbreviations down yet. And is it possible you can show me how to set this up.

Thanks for all the replies....

 

[pansophic]

The above script is a Procomm script, but don't take Gene's advice too lightly. Losing voice mail messages is far worse than having the time off by a few minutes.

And NTP is Network Time Protocol. Has nothing to do with Nortel or the Meridian PBX. It is a protocol for delivering time over the internet. It has been around since the milnet and arpanet days I believe. There are numerous free clients available at your favorite download sites like

http://www.tucows.com

and

http://www.download.com.

There are a number of Stratum 1 time sources running the NTP daemon, where you can get an accurate time.

pansophic

 

[freddog]

pansophic- You weren't unclear... I just didn't read your original reply carefully enough.

New Techy- no, I don't have the script running. Our WAN is run by folks in another department and I'm wary of giving equipment I don't control access into my PBX.