Tracing call progress through Merlin Magix System

[kurtr1]

I have a Merlin Magix 4.0 system with Intuity Audix Voicemail system. I'm getting reports of extensions being dialed and misconnected and other similar problems. Is there some way to log or trace the progression of calls through the system to help me discover what is happening? I looked at the Intuity Activity Log Report but it doesn't contain any useful information for what I'm seeing, it's all about the voiccemail - I thought it would also include auto attendant logging.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Kurt

 

[kurtr1]

I might not have been clear in my post as to what I am looking for. I recently had a problem with a voicemail port going bad - very low volume, lots of static. On the Intuity, under "Voice System Administration / System Monitor the screen shows our voice channels ((1-5, voicemail ports), number of calls today, Voice Serrvice, Service Status, Caller Input, and Dialed Digits.

As I call in from my cell phone from an outside line and the auto attendant answers, on the Intuity monitor under one one of the voice channels, shows Voice Service "AUDIX:2" (the "2" is the voice channel), Caller Input "#03##773#". On my cell phone I enter extension 110 - On the Intuity Monitor I see Caller Input now shows #03##773#110". Dialed Digits shows "0" momentarily. As the call goes to voicemail, a new voice channel shows Voice Service "AUDIX:2" (the "2" is the voice channel), Caller Input "#03##110#".

773 is our auto attendant, 110 and 113 are two physical extensions.

If I dial extension 110 from 113, as the call goes to voicemail, I see Caller Input "#02#113#110#".

If I can track this info I might be able to see what is going wrong; more so if I can track transfers and more than just voicemail calls.

Other more unusual entries come up but I haven't looked into what is being reported

Is there any way to retain this information, or more general information from the Merlin system? For example, I'd like to note that a call was received from some number or extension, to some extension extension, at a specific date and time, and whether the call was answered or went to voicemail or was transferred or what. I did look at the Intuity Basic Administration Guide at producing an activity log report, but there's not much detail there.

Kurt

 

[kurtr1]

Searching through the forums, a couple of threads (such as

http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=1285156)

seem to indicate there's no way to trace call progress in a Merlin system, unlike in Definity systems.

Are there any third party monitoring software packages that might do this? Of course, I could only see those running on our Intuity Voicemail system. I don't know if that's wise or even possible.

I'm thinking the only option might be to train a camcorder on the Intuity system display while it is running the System Monitor - Voice Channels. It's not a lot of information, but it may be all I can get.

Seriously, any add ons? If not, is it really impossible to do? Seems like an awfully useful product.

 

[merlinman]

I guess I must ask, exactly what is the problem you are having?

Are you just trying to determine which T&R Port is failing?

As far as "3rd Party" software to do what you are looking at in a SYSTEM LEVEL, I am sure the TASKE software will do this for you.

However, you may find that the $10K Price Tag may be a bit much for you to do what sounds to me like something you can figure out by some different method.

http://home.comcast.net/~merlinman

 

[kurtr1]

We have a small Merlin system with Intuity voicemail - less than 32 extensions, 8 trunk lines. We added two trunks, and four extensions which we send to a new Multitech VOIP Router to communicate with a partner system which we added behind an identical Multitech VOIP router at our new satellite office.

Since them, I've been getting reports of calls going to the wrong extensions (both internal calls and incoming calls), long empty voicemail calls to an extension at our main location marked as being from an extension at our satellite office, phantom rings. Not constant, but often enough that the bosses want some answers. No known problems prior to the upgrade.

I'm half serious about the camcorder approach. 10K is definitely out of the question. I can spend plenty of time on it if I have an approach. I'm not a professional in the field, but I can (carefully) program through winSPM and centralized programming. I've been through the manuals online but I've never found anything clear and comprehensive on winSPM and the Intuity. I know you've posted before about manuals for the systems. I'll follow up on anything you point me to.

Kurt

 

[merlinman]

The first step in trouble shooting this is to get SPECIFICS, and keep LOGS to see if a pattern develops.

(...calls going to the wrong extensions (both internal calls and incoming calls)

What extension received the call, who were they trying to call?

(....long empty voicemail calls to an extension at our main location marked as being from an extension at our satellite office)

Again, what extension, which voice mail? - Did you eliminate that Voice Mail Box? - Is there a conflict in the extension numbers?

(...phantom rings) - Again - What extension?

This is where I would start.

http://home.comcast.net/~merlinman

 

[kurtr1]

I have been keeping written logs, whenever reported to me; although details are sometimes sparse. As far as I know, the phantom voice mail was reported once with the comment that it had happened before, the extension misrings are much more common. I've found that if I call in and request an extension too early in the auto-attendant message, I'll get the wrong extension - though often I'm just told that the extension doesn't exist. The delay through the VOIP may make that situation worse (the partner system in our satellite office functions simply as extensions on our Merlin system in our main office).

OK, so simply a paper log of specifics of each instance. Easy for internal calls, and I'll have everyone question any seemingly misdirected calls, and report specific details to me in email. When I have some data, I'll post again. Of course, when everyone has to actually report every occurrence, it might be that the problem isn't significant enough to worry about. Either way, I'll post again.

Thanks for your advice.

Kurt

 

[cvrbob]

since you did not have this problem before you added the VOIP, that is were I would start looking, is the problem on the VOIP lines on the legend, or stations going to the partner

 

[kurtr1]

Merlinman,

I remember a post of yours mentioning that you'd written some of the Merlin Manuals. I've never had a strong sense of the documentation for the systems I have.

I've never found much on winSPM, other than the Merlin Magix Integrated System System Manager's Quick Reference.

I have the following for the Merlin Magix:
MERLIN MAGIX Integrated System Feature Reference.

I also like the MERLIN MAGIX Integrated System Pocket Reference.

For the phones I have the Merlin Legend Communication System MLX DL Console Operators Guide, and MLX Display Telephones User Guide, and Single Line Telephones User Guide.

I feel like I'm missing the overall though. When I look at a print all of the system and say, I see how a pool is set up and assigned, now I want to do that with another group of lines, I have no idea where to look. I guess in a sense, I'm looking for some way of learning that when I look at a winSPM screen, if I make a change, what will change in the print out of the system, and vice versa?

Or does it just take working often enough on programming systems until you reach a critical mass of knowledge where you begin to know where to look?

Kurt

 

[merlinman]

Kurt,

Most of what I do is in STANDARD SPM.

To add lines to a pool:

In Standard SPM, Under LINES & TRUNKS > POOLS > Pool Number > Enter > and then light up the Lines you want assigned to that pool.

If the line you want to use is Assigned to another pool, it will have to be removed from that one first.

It's not that difficult.

I use the GUI interface for changing LABELS, mostly.

http://home.comcast.net/~merlinman

 

[SYQUEST]

kurtr1,

To get a better "feel" for the Legend/Magix, you might try the Planning Guide. It is downloadable for both the Legend and Magix, also the System Manager document might help.

Getting back to your problem, the Multitech is where I would start first. What type of data path are you using? Is it just a DSL connection, shared with other data traffic that may be hogging bandwidth? Some of the symptoms you describe, ringing wrong stations, dead Voicemails, seem to me to be transmission related pointing to the Multitech. In regards to the wrong numbers, what kind of number patterns are you seeing? 232 gets 233 or 332 or something completely erroneous. What happens with outgoing calls from the Partner or is it one-way? Signaling and transmission do not tolerate delay for voice communication. Did this problem start right a way after the Multitech was installed, or did it start at a later time?

....JIM....

 

[kurtr1]

Sorry I've been away. Thanks for your replies.

When I run WinSPM, I click on Standard SPM. Sounds like you're talking about running Standard SPM outside the WinSPM GUI. Is there an advantage to that? How is that done?

I have the Merlin System Managers Quick Reference and the Merlin System Planning Forms; both for relase 3.0, So I also have the Supplemental Information for Release 4.0.

Regarding Multitech, datapath is Verizon FiOS. Minimal other network traffic. Some of the errors are over the Multitech path, others are separate from it. I need to ask all users to log errors for me. If the log suggests the Multitech is directly involved in the problems, I'll start there. The problems did occur (sporadically) right after the Multitech was installed, but also at that time two trunk lines were added, and the people in our satellite office had not previously used phones much, now needed to communicate by phone.

I'll be gone for a while to read (a Quick Reference of 184 pages?) and log problems. I'll stop back in a while to update. Thanks for all your advice.

Kurt