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What to do if my Tech Support sucks? 9

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pedromt

Technical User
Sep 10, 2003
37
US
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: 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:
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.
 
That doesn't jive.

If you did not change anything on the other controller, then those phones should still be able to connect to that controller.


How are the phones at the other site configured for IP settings? DHCP or are they statically assigned? I am suspecting that however the phones get the IP settings, the IP options are pointing those IP phones to the "Main" controller, not the "second" controller. Check the DHCP scope options or the static options on the phone.

 
Is this due to calls coming through the main site and then being passed via IP to the other?

If you have changed the gateway for the switch to the teleworker you should put your remote subnet into the networks section of your teleworker with the correct gateway to access that subnet (your router).

All of the IP traffic for other subnets from the SX2000 will be routed via the teleworker now and the teleworker needs to know about the destination network to foward the packet.

Might not be the case but worth a shot.


Thanks
Kenny
 
paterson, they receive their IPs through DHCP. Would I find those scope options in the controller's admin?

Also, what's the URL to get into the teleworker? I seem to have lost it. I know the IP of the TW, just not what I put in after it in the address bar.

Kenny, I'll get back to you once I figure the address out again.

Thanks.

 
<ip address>/server-manager will get you to the teleworker admin.

Finding DHCP depends on setup. If the 3300 is providing the DHCP for the phones, then it will be in system admin.

If DHCP is being provided by another server, then you will have to check there.
 
Thanks, paterson.

The controller is not acting as DHCP, DHCP is done by my Win2k3 servers. Also, not sure if it matters but I have two SX-200's. Not 3300's or 2000's.

So... in the teleworker under Security and Local Networks I only had 192.168.0.0 listed, which isn't one of my subnets.
I added my two subnets and will try changing the gateway IP again to test.

 
I'm not really recommending this but, the hosts question sparks a thought.

You could add network 0.0.0.0 with subnet 0.0.0.0 which will have some 4 billion hosts and direct then to the local gateway. This would eliminate the local hosts question.

Sometimes you need to use the sledgehammer approach.

*******************************************************
Occam's Razor - All things being equal, the simplest solution is the right one.
 
one more Q:
When I restart the controller, by going to option 8 under system, do I want to be doing 2-RESET_SYSTEM or 7-SHUTDOWN?
or something else? 3-IP_PHONES 4-RESET_APC
 
Reset system will do just that, reset the system so it comes back up.

Shutdown will do just that as well, shutdown the system. Use this to turn off the system and leave it off.

I would recommend Reset system.
 
OK, I added the two subnets to the teleworker and tried changing the gateway IP to the teleworker again, but same thing... the phones at the other site start receiving MAIN UNAVAILABLE.

Attaching two screenshots of my setup. One is of Form 47 and the other is the Local Networks tab of the teleworker admin.



Thanks.
 
looks like I've reached the end of the road...
 
You've got different gateway/router addresses between the 2. On the 200, you've got it assigned as 192.168.10.251, while the TW is using 192.168.10.1. These should be the same, which would be the gateway address (router address) of the VLAN these devices are installed on.
 
I'll get that changed and report back.
Thanks.
 
Okay man, you really need to get someone in that knows Mitel. Give them access to everything. Pretty difficult to troubleshoot in this manner.

I'm pretty sure you have a network issue. Either you are telling the 200ICPs to go to the wrong spot, or the routers you have listed are not programmed to route properly. I suspect this problem will keep going unless you get a qualified tech onsite that can fix it while there.

One last effort though. In your Teleworker server, look under Configuration->Review Configuration. What is the internal IP address of the Teleworker Server???? Try putting this address in the gateway IP address field in the programming of both 200 ICPs.
 
actually, the "MAIN UNAVAILABLE" message leads me to believe the phone is talking to the ICP, but not able to complete the TFTP transfer of the firmware. Double check your firewalls and make sure port 69 is allowed between the ICP and the IP set.
 
paterson, I figured as much, I'm going to need someone at some point. I just feel like I'm so close and have spent so much time now. Actually got the teleworker working but my remote phones go off-line. Can you believe my original mitel support was telling me the problem was my routers? The problem was he never had the correct gateway in the controller!

Here's a screenshot of my configuration page:

so your suggestion now is to put 192.168.10.251 into the gateway field of both my controllers? I'll give it a shot when I can get the lines freed up.

Lundah, when I reset my local controller to point the gateway to the teleworker, my remote phones go offline, but the teleworker seems to work. I get two way audio when configuring the phone to communicate over the cloud.
I opened up port 69 on my router, though, as I hadn't heard anything mentioned about that port before. Earlier on I had opened ports 2116, 35000 & 37000
 
Port 69 is TFTP, which the IP set uses to download it's firmware from the 3300. Even if the set has the correct firmware, it checks every time the phone boots up.
 
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