Tek-Tips is the largest IT community on the Internet today!

Members share and learn making Tek-Tips Forums the best source of peer-reviewed technical information on the Internet!

Register Log in
  • Congratulations Westi on being selected by the Tek-Tips community for having the most helpful posts in the forums last week. Way to Go!

Telephony 101 3

Status
Not open for further replies.
MitelInMyBlood

MitelInMyBlood

Technical User
Apr 14, 2005
1,990
US
We've recently had a new fellow join our telecom group with a CCNA after his name (useful in snowing mgmt into giving him the job) but with otherwise zero background in phone work.

I can easily teach him "monkey see - monkey do" for daily moves/adds/changes but for some things (trunking, routing, digit mod, etc) it's vital that he have some fundamentally basic understanding about wtf he is doing and how his job interfaces with and affects the PSTN, (both LEC and IXC). In other words, Telephony 101 with some explanation of PRI ISDN and POTS. Learning all the VOIP stuff and MAC work is great, but he lacks knowledge of simple background fundamentals which (I feel are) critical for this job.

Is anyone aware of any (either generic or manufacturer's) course that teaches the basics? I thought at one time Mitel had some type of a beginners prerequisite course, but I couldn't find it.

Thanks!

Original MUG/NAMU Charter Member
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
There was a Mitel course at one time, I'll see what I can find.

**********************************************
What's most important is that you realise ... There is no spoon.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Thanks!!!
As I recall it was a prerequisite for one of the early VOIP classes if the applicant had no prior phone experience, think is was a prereq. for the 200ICP around rls 2 or some-such.

Might have even been free (all the better)



Original MUG/NAMU Charter Member
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
the Mitel website is down right now, I'll check later

**********************************************
What's most important is that you realise ... There is no spoon.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Thanks Daniel.

That is a great primer for the 3300, albeit still not as "basic-basic" as what I'm after. I don't want to have to spend 2 weeks or more on the white board explaining TDM voice routing and tandem office switching fundamentals and various PRI ISDN protocols.

This guy needs to learn to crawl before he can walk and by the time we get him up to speed on the PBX his knowledge foundation should have him at least up to a medium trot.

He also needs to understand key systems so that he can "construct" VOIP equivalents of them.

The poor bloke is coming in here thinking that daily MACS is literally all that there is to supporting the phone system. He is in for a very rude awakening so I'm trying to dig up some background training material for him to digest before we send him off to school.



Original MUG/NAMU Charter Member
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
MitelInMyBlood,

I remember having seen something very basic on Mitel site but I can't find it right now.

Another way of learning the basics is "Google"...

I'll post back if I find something else.

Regards,

Daniel
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
At one time there was a kind of general telcom certification that people were trying to setup. Can't for the life on me remember the actual name but new a customer that took the course. Ok googled it CTP+ training exists. Convergence Technologies
Professinal.

I'd tell you a UDP joke but I'm afraid you won't get it. TCP jokes are the best because you always get them.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
That's right Loopy!! I took the CTP Convergence in Lyndhurst before the SX2K to 3300 Bridging course... Woooa! That was ages ago, maybe 10 years or so...

It was a good course, I think they also tought about crimping RJ45 jacks, etc...

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Yep it would be a reasonably place to start for someone who doesn't have a telephony background which is what you will find with new people coming into the industry. They got CCNA but don't know squat about telecom.

I'd tell you a UDP joke but I'm afraid you won't get it. TCP jokes are the best because you always get them.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Thanks guys. I'll look into that course. Hopefully it's still available. As we still (and likely will always) have a scattering of analog lines (faxes, modems ARD's, LS Paging, etc) circuits, I spent half a day with him explaining 25-pr color codes, counting pairs and using a (66) punch-down tool. He thought the jacket 'rip cord' was just a piece of string until I showed him what it was there for :)

Speaking of "66" I also turned 66 last Satd'y which I think finally got my mgmt's attention that they damn well better staple someone to my backside (which started all this with the new guy coming on board). Since Divestiture and the proliferation of SNI boxes on the side of people's homes we are now "first call" for a couple of the senior executive residences with voice & data issues. Don't ask me how we ever got saddled with that, but one of the old retired geezers is still on our Board of Directors and still to this day has an old WECO 1A2 'shoebox' in an upstairs linen closet. Geeze

Original MUG/NAMU Charter Member
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Happy birthday first off and yeah a number of us techs are getting up there in age which will be a skill set lost if we all start to retire.

I'd tell you a UDP joke but I'm afraid you won't get it. TCP jokes are the best because you always get them.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
reallyrotten

I tip of the Stetson from me as well. As you say, somewhat dated, but some excellect foundation material. This document along with chapters 5, 6 & 7 from the CTP+ certification training guide should make a good entry point for someone interested in learning the ropes.

Back several centuries ago (seems like anyway) when I attended Mitel SX2000 I&M class (Boca Raton, FL 1988) it was a three week course (15 full class days with a final exam at the end) before they even touched on teaching CDE/System Administration (another full week). Today it seems like everyone wants to go to just the CDE class then walk in the door declaring themselves a qualified PBX tech support person when they would barely make a pimple on a seasoned tech's backside.

Original MUG/NAMU Charter Member
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

bdvtech
  • Locked
  • Question
MiVoice 250 Alarm 101
Replies
0
Views
169
bdvtech
bdvtech
brewski6666
  • Locked
  • Question
moving IP telephony from an overloaded MXE to a vmcd and create a cluster 2
Replies
8
Views
87
Billz66
Billz66
Ollivier37
  • Locked
  • Question
Mitel - Telephony integration - time won?
Replies
8
Views
19
Ollivier37
Ollivier37

Part and Inventory Search

Sponsor

Back
Top