What to do if my Tech Support sucks? 9

[pedromt]

Hi Gurus,

Last July I purchased two Mitel systems for my existing office and a new office I opened in San Diego. I'm happy with the system for the most part. I have two SX-200 controllers and my phones are all of the 5212/5224 variety.

I have a few issues I'm experiencing, though. Most notably being that I can't get tech support through the company who sold it to me short of threatening lives. I've learned some basics about the controller and figured out how to get into the console myself. I've been assigning desktops and renaming extensions, deleting MAC addresses, all to keep us afloat.

I have two users who travel often between the two offices. Rather than packing the phones with them each time they go instead there's phones for them at each location and when they arrive I've taught them to overwrite the extension on the other phone using ###ext. I've heard it called the cheap man's hotbox. This works great for us but it seems to be upsetting the phones. Several of my units are now stuck with the "WAITING FOR COMMS" screen. I read through this thread:

http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=1155756&page=64

but I'm about as make-shift an IT person as make-shift gets. The one time I was able to get the tech out here to do something about it he restarted the controller and it fixed all the phones. I was hoping someone could tell me what form I find that under before I go breaking something more than it already is or if someone could let me know how to fix this permanently it would be more than appreciated.

My second issue is with what I believe is called the "teleworker." When we were sold the system we were told we'd be able to take these phones anywhere there was an internet connection and it would operate like it was in our office. That hasn't quite been the case. I've worked with the tech a little when I was screaming because our CEO was leaving the country for three weeks and we got the one-way audio problem I read about in this thread:

http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=1145843&page=64

We were trying to open up ports on my routers to get it working but never quite figured it out. Does anyone know exactly which ports I need to open or does it differ per installation? What we were trying was opening 6801-65535 to get the voice to go through. Either they weren't open correctly or the port range is somewhere else.

Anyway, if anyone could give me a hand it'd be appreciated. Furthermore if anyone could recommend somewhere I could get a service contract for my system in the San Diego area, please PM me w/ contact info.

Thanks.

 

[lmb2]

I'm not familiar with the SX-200 so I can't help you there...but the Teleworker uses ports 2116, 35000 & 37000 for Teleworker traffic. The phone itself also has to be programmed to be a teleworker phone with the public IP address of your Teleworker server.

 

[nytalkin]

Where are you? No excuse for not having good Mitel support.

NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED!

 

[lmb2]

We used to have really bad Mitel support. I contacted our Mitel Account Exec and got a lead on a new vendor. We've had absolutely the best support since.

 

[pedromt]

I don't have a Mitel Account Exec.
I'm in San Diego...

No one has any suggestions for my WAITING FOR COMMS issue?

 

[kwbMitel]

At a guess, you are running out of IP addresses and the reset is clearing the leases.

Pure guess, but a good one.

*******************************************************
Occam's Razor - All things being equal, the simplest solution is the right one.

 

[pedromt]

can someone point me to where i can find a mitel support contract?
thx.

 

[Lundah]

http://www.mitel.com.

They've got a dealer locator on the website.

 

[TheMitelGuy]

You should also be able to contact Mitel USA (formerly Inter-Tel, a Mitel company) and they should be able to provide services via a local service branch or get you in touch with a Mitel authorizedPARTNER in your region.

As for your "hotbox" (Hot Desk) issue, I would recommend you create two separate extensions. I would then enable the Call Forward feature before one leaves, and send their calls to the other office. I will also see if I can work a real solution, so that both phones ring in both offices at the same time (I've spent so much time on the 3300, I'm starting to forget the advanced features of the SX-200 ICP).

In regards to your Tele-Worker problem, can you please provide a basic network topolgoy (what the network looks like) and if you are using the Mitel Tele-Worker solution...

MITEL Its about | YOU!

 

[pedromt]

MitelGuy,

Thanks. I called and am in the process of getting a contact person from Mitel to troubleshoot our Teleworker installation. I'll try to address your questions:

We've tried twinning the extensions for our hotbox issue in the past, which made the phones in both offices ring at the same time... it didn't really work out for us because of the way voicemails are handled if I remember correctly. I like the swapping extensions between phones, it works well, and now that I've figured out how to restart the server once the WAITING FOR COMMS appears, it doesn't seem to be that big a deal any longer.

As far as a network topology goes, I'm not so sure I could accurately do one. I'm hardly an IT person myself, I just pretend at times. I do believe we are using the Mitel Tele-Worker solution. We have a server running some kind of Mitel Linux OS on it, I'm not sure how it all works.

You wouldn't happen to be in the San Diego area would you?
Thanks again.

 

[TheMitelGuy]

No, I am not in San Diego. I am in Canada.

It sounds like you are using the Tele-Worker solution. Port forwarding and "opening ports" is not a supported configuration for a Tele-Worker server. The server MUST be in Server/Gateway mode (with one NIC connection on the Internet) or it MUST sit in the DMZ - hence your one way audio.

I will do some research and see if Message Waiting Appearance is applicable across an IP Link. It sounds like you just need a second extension in a second site with an appearance for an extension number on another system with a indicator for voicemail?

 

[pedromt]

This Tele-Worker, the server, is a relatively new addition. I think he thought he could get it working without it at first and then resorted to putting one in, but it's still only got one way audio. He's blaming my routers which I swapped out in February after some advice I was given here:

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19576801

and basically wanting to charge me time and material to diagnose it any further from this point on, despite the fact that from July to February it wasn't working with the routers he installed anyway.

In any case, I got a call back from Mitel and will probably open a support contract through them directly. They told me that without a maintenance contract their rates were $265/hr for the first hour and $200/hr after that. Ouch...

 

[TheMitelGuy]

I don't know who your VAR is (and don't particularly care to know either), but unless the Tele-Worker is placed directly on the Internet or in the DMZ it is not supported and is probably the root cause of your one-way issue (as I think we have documented in the manual).

 

[tommylux]

We had Teleworker phones only operating in one way audio twice in the past. Both times, this has been relating to our firewall.

 

[nappyshock]

Login to your teleworker admin (

https://x.x.x.x/server-manager)

on the left hand side click on review configuration, this brings up a page with your teleworker setup. At the top it states server mode, this will be either servergateway or server only.
If it is servergateway you should have two NIC in your server with one on your LAN and one attached to the internet with a Public IP, in this setup you don't have to worry about your firewall etc as the teleworker is acting as a firewall and it should have unrestricted access directly to the internet.
If the mode is server only it should just have one NIC attached to your LAN/DMZ and should be going through your firewall. It requires ports TCP 22 (outbound and replies), UDP 53 (both in and out), TCP 6801 & 6802 (both in and out), UDP 20000 to 23000 (both in and out).

 

[pedromt]

it's servergateway and it does have two NICs. Still waiting on Mitel to get back to me about a support contract.

 

[kwbMitel]

Curious, Where is the gateway for the sx200 pointed.

It should be pointed at the internal side of the TW server at both ends.

Within the TW you would then add Local networks for the DATA/Admin Networks.



*******************************************************
Occam's Razor - All things being equal, the simplest solution is the right one.

 

[kwbMitel]

Curious, Where is the gateway for the sx200 pointed.

It should be pointed at the internal side of the TW server at both ends.

Within the TW you would then add Local networks for the DATA/Admin/remote Networks.



*******************************************************
Occam's Razor - All things being equal, the simplest solution is the right one.

 

[paterson]

If I say it twice, does that mean I'm right?

One way audio can be caused by a number of different things. The most common I have found is lack of accurate local network entries in the Teleworker as suggested by kwbMitel.

Another one I have seen is where the External IP address has been changed from the original public IP address programmed on the server. Changes like this are usually because of a new ISP account or a customer request for a new block of static IP. Changing the external IP address would have been done from the console interface, not the web gui. The problem that I have found is that the new IP address does not get updated in the Teleworker software programming of the 6000 MAS. If you log in to the web gui and navigate to the Teleworker page, near the bottom you will see a field that says "Voice First Server" or something like that. Check to make sure the IP address in this field is the proper address. If not, then delete the old IP address there and click save on the bottom. DO NOT enter in the new IP address because you cannot overwrite this field, it will just give you back the old IP. When the field is empty, the Teleworker software will then look to the server configuration and update the field with the new IP address.




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What if I don't want to put a signature on my posts?

 

[pedromt]

kwbMitel: I'm not sure where the gateway on the sx200 is pointed. If you told me where to look I could check but I'm hesitant to get too far in there, so many forms... so little knowledge.

paterson: I checked the Mitel Voice First server address and it was blank. I put in the external IP of the TW but still only have one-way voice. Thanks for the help, though.