Upgrade question

[twolinebob]

I'm new to Partner systems and I have a question I'm hoping somebody here can help me answer. I looked around the forum but I didn't see the answer.

If you put one of the PC Remote Access/Upgrade cards in a Partner ACS system will the upgrade be permanent even if the Remote Access card is removed?

If the battery goes dead will it need to be upgraded again or is the program stored in non-volatile memory?

Thanks for any help

 

[TouchToneTommy]

Assuming that the card has not been used before, yes the upgrade is permanent. The upgrade is applied to the firmware in the ACS. After the upgrade, you could pull the card out and throw it away, except you would lose the abailty to back up/restore the translations and get to the remote modem.

The cards that are shipped with brand-new ACS's are three part:
1 - they are an R6 upgrade card
2 - they are the backup/restore memory card
3 - they contain the remote access modem

Here's the kicker - the ACS that they are shipped with are already at the R6 firmware level. So the first time you power up the ACS with the card in place, you are wasting the upgrade capability of if the card. If you can find someone with a brand-new R6 ACS, that hasn't powered it up yet, you could borrow their card, upgrade your switch, then give them back their card for their system. Keep your old card for the backup/restore operations.

 

[twolinebob]

Thank you for the information TuchToneTommy.

I'm helping a friend with an older system. It's an ACS R1.1. He has a backup restore card and some older version of a Lucent small mail PC card (is there a way I can tell the version of the PC mail card?).

I occasionally see the Remote Access/Upgrade cards advertised on eBay. So, if somebody already plugged the Remote Access card in a system and it upgraded then that card would be useless for upgrades from that point on but you'd still be able to use the modem?

So, to try and clarify my question, the way I understand your reply, if you have a dedicated upgrade card it can only be used once to upgrade. Does that also apply to the Remote Access/Upgrade cards?

 

[itpphoneguy]

Hi twolinebob,
Yes, one use only. Make it count.
-Chris

 

[hdingman]

Upgrade works once only. Remote Access keeps working. If card has backup memory, it keeps working too.

Howard Dingman
Pro-Tel Communications
Endicott, NY