Used BCM 50 - Noob Questions 1

[o2manyfish]

Hey Guys,

Thanks in advance for providing me some help.

I have a Norstar MICS system that I installed in my home 15 years ago. I have 4 Phone Lines, 20 7324 Handsets and 2 Doorbell Module.

I overzealously bought a used BCM50 system off of Ebay to upgrade to update the house with some IP phones.

The used system I bought came with:

BCM50e Brain running 2.0.2.05e

GATM4 Module
GATM8 Module
2 - DTI Module
2 - DS32 Modules
2 - Expansion Bay units
4 - 1140
2 - 1120
6 - 1004
6 - 7316

I believe for my home I only need to use the Brain and a DS32 in a single expansion bay.

So I plugged in the brain, and a POE switch and got a couple of the 1140 phones to light up, and a 7316 to turn on.

I then plugged a computer into the OAM port, installed Element Manager 62.0.5 and was able to connect to the system.

When I logged into the system it shows no Key Codes installed....

The phones system is obviously used, and supposedly came out of a working installation. So shouldn't there be key codes for the equipment ?

If Keycodes were purchased for this individual phone system, can they be retrieved?

Will my 2 door modules work with the phone system as it stands now or does it need a newer software?

If the keycodes have been lost, where is the most cost effective place to get keycodes ?

If I want to run a system with 12-14 digital stations and 4-6IP phones, no voicemail - what key codes do I need to purchase.

Thanks again for any help and pointing me in the right direction.

Thanks

Dave B

 

[norstarboy125]

Well first thing is if your system is showing no keycodes then you need to get the system id and have a vendor with access to the KRS to find out if indeed this system ever had keycodes. The codes that your will need are ip seats, digital phone seats, and 1 expansion seat, I believe that is it if your not worried about voicemail. Also if your using norstar bst doorphones then yes you are ok, just connect them to digital ports like you did on the mics.

Jeremy J. Carter
Charm City Communications

http://www.charmcitycommunications.com

Norstar. BCM. CS1000 Programmer

 

[o2manyfish]

Thanks for giving me a starting point.

If I have 4 incoming phone lines (Vonage) Do I need to buy a keycode for that as well, or does the base unit allow incoming phone lines ?


From my brief bit of reading, and exploring with the elements manager, it appears that with the built in router (BCM50e) it runs several different subnet loops.

If I have an all gigabit network in my house running on a 10.10.1.* system, do I connect the the BCM to the same network, and run it on the same IP's and have computers and phones on the same system?

Sorry for the novice questions, but I have no knowledge on the IP (phone) stuff.

Also when purchasing the Key Codes is that something that is done over a phone call and I get immediate access to the feature set? Some quick browsing online showed people selling key codes and charging for shipping?

Thanks again for sharing your experience.

Dave B

 

[norstarboy125]

You need keycodes for everything with a BCM 50, nothing works without keycodes. If you deal with the right person then you can get the keycodes that you want immediately, as far as connecting the 50 to your lan it's quite simple. You just need to pick a ip address within the range of your network and then change the ip of the BCM to it, that will be the address that you point your ip phones to when your connecting them for the first time.

Jeremy J. Carter
Charm City Communications

http://www.charmcitycommunications.com

Norstar. BCM. CS1000 Programmer

 

[phoneguy610]

you will need a keycode for each ip phone
you will need a keycode for each mailbox
and you will need an expansion keycode for the expansion unit, the dsm 32 will give you 32 digital stations

ddcommllc.com
Avaya/Toshiba/Nortel

ACIS

 

[bluemr2]

It will be cheaper to buy 2 expansion keycodes instead of the digital station and analog trunks for the main unit. Put the dsm 32 and the gatm 8 in the two expansion cabinets and you have an 8x32 system with just those 2 keycodes. Typically voice and data are in 2 different subnets, but since this is a very small install I would just use 1.

 

[phoneguy610]

Oops forgot about the trunks

ddcommllc.com
Avaya/Toshiba/Nortel

ACIS

 

[pmcook]

Skip the VoIP. All it does in your situation is cost you a lot of money. You will get nothing at all for that money.

 

[o2manyfish]

PMCook,

Thanks for the tip. However, one of the main reasons for the upgrade was to get the 1140 phones that illuminate when a call comes in with Caller ID information. This system is in my home and I think the only way to get visible caller ID at night is with the 1100 series of phones.

Thanks

Dave B

 

[phoneguy610]

They are still some of the best looking ip phones on the market

ddcommllc.com
Avaya/Toshiba/Nortel

ACIS

 

[pmcook]

The cheapest way would have been to install a used Partner ACS with backlit phones like the Euro and Euro II. More phone system than you could ever hope to use in a home. NEC has backlit phones, too. Backlit dialpads as well. Neither option have any licensing issues. You can still buy license keys for the BCM but they will cost you an arm and a leg. Whoever sold you that system defaulted it and wiped out the keys in the process. By the time you add up all the costs you've paid for a brand new Avaya IP Office or NEC DSX 40 with new digital backlit phones.

I'm not down on VoIP. It has its place but it is expensive and has so many of its own issues it's just not worth the hassle and expense most of the time.

 

[pmcook]

Forgot the link:

http://www.metrolinedirect.com/bcmkeycodes.html

 

[phoneguy610]

If there ever was key codes on it.. Any avaya vendor can have them regenerated

ddcommllc.com
Avaya/Toshiba/Nortel

ACIS

 

[o2manyfish]

So I contacted the ebay seller regarding the key codes and he told me...

"No u have to buy key codes for the hardware to work
I transferred old key codes to another system"


So someone I had contacted regarding this told me:
"If the codes were transfered, you may not apply new codes to the system. You have a main cabinet with spare parts. You will need to get a new main cabinet and add the codes to it."


Is this true ?

Thanks again for helping out.

Dave B

 

[bluemr2]

You are screwed. As soon as the keycodes are migrated from that system to another in KRS, the system ID is taken out of KRS so you can't add additional licenses. In the past you had to ship the system back to Nortel once this was done. My inventory guy says that once Avaya purchased them, this hasn't been the case.

 

[pmcook]

You could try eBay remediation and see if you can make a case for non-disclosure. Worth a shot.

 

[phoneguy610]

Wow people are scumbags



ddcommllc.com
Avaya/Toshiba/Nortel

ACIS

 

[telcodog]

You won't even be able to buy licenses for that box for 2 reasons. One, the sysid would have to be reset in KRS (this can be done if you know the right folks at Avaya) and second, you would have to be at release 6 as the order codes for previous releases have been removed from the Avaya order system. The only way to get licenses for previous releases is thru a stocking supplier who may have some paper ones in stock.

At this point you only have a couple of options left. One is to try and get the system regenerated as decribed above and another is to look at an EMetroTel box. You would have to buy a UCx50 and a digital gateway drive and license and the appropriate number of user licenses but almost all of the equipment you bought could be re-used. The GATM and DTI modules wouldn't work but at least they could sold on ebay separately.

Whatever you choose, good luck with it.

 

[o2manyfish]

Hey Guys,

Well the seller returned all the codes on for the system. And the codes installed and worked. Now I have way more phone system than I needed.

Since this is for a home office I don't know if some of the features will benefit me, Call Center, Universal Messaging, Lan CTE, etc.

Once I got the codes the switch out from my old MICS to the BCM50 was pretty quick and easy. Only glitch was I had two doorphone modules, but only one was a BST.

So now I have some questions, and thought I could keep them in this thread rather than starting new threads.

1) Using the IP phones is there any way to get the 2 lines of caller ID information

2) On the IP Phones it displays the DN Number on the screen... Can that be changed to the extension name?

3) On the IP phones it displays 'Nortel' in the middle of the screen... Can that be customized ?

4) On the Ip phones there is a 'Directory' button. When I press it, it says 'No Dir Available' - Can this button be used to access all the inhouse extensions, or speed dial number.

5) While testing the IP phones I somehow added 2 additional DN numbers. Is there a way to delete these DNs ?

6) With the LAN CTE Code I got 4 Users. All my computers in house run Windows 7, from a little reading online it seems that the Personal Call Manager won't work with Win 7 64. Is there other software available to integrate the phone system with my Windows computers?

7) Is the Call Center code anything I can use in a home office setup?

Thanks for the help and insight.

 

[phoneguy610]

1) I believe there is a feature code but you can set in em to display name or number or both
2) no
3) no (maybe if you browse into the phone ? Never tried it with the nortel ip phones , Astra and Cisco phones I've been able to put our company logos on them
5) deregister the dns if you have registered them to a phone. If not just let them sit in em , not hurting anyone
6) u will need to upgrade to 6.0 to use win 7. And I am assuming the guy u bought this from just gave you the old lic file. Doubt you will be able to get an upgrade license with that sys id
7)it depends how you run your hom office, call center will provide you agents and call center ques (skill sets) if that seems like it would help your business then Yes.



ddcommllc.com
Avaya/Toshiba/SyntelSolutions

ACIS