So what have I been up to?
Well, we rolled out the cisco phone system. The system got configured and is up and running without any problems. We are still using our old PBX and only a hand full of users are on the new system now. I am trying to make this as smooth as possible but have run into one snag.
On the old system we use 4 digit extensions on the Cisco system we use 4 digit extension. So what the issue? Well the, T1 connection between the old and new system require anyone on the old PBX to dial an access code to connect anyone on the Cisco system. So if I am on the old system I have to dial an access number say (6) then the 4 digit extension. This is going to be a huge hassle. We are going to have to tell all the users to enter an extra digit to speak to the users on the new system. But if you are on the new system you don't have to dial that extra digit. All kinds of confusion can happen.
So why can't we setup the systems to hide a digit so it seems like no matter what system a user is on they will only dial 4 digits? Problem is that our PBS was never upgraded though out the years and we do not have an option for coordinated dial plan (CDP). This will allow the PBX to hide or insert a digit right after the access number is pressed. So if the access number is (6) and the extension to the new system is 7560 the PBX will be smart enough to insert the (7) at the beginning of the extension right after you press the access code number of (6). This also brings up other issues down the road as well.
Why can't we do this from the Cisco end then? Well, we can but the PBX will only issue 4 digits. It will only allow use to dial 4 digits once their is a dial tone. If the PBX allowed us to issues only 3 digits we could easily have the Cisco system add a digit. How do I know??? We already got this to work. WHAT? Yes we got this to work then the very next day we come in and it's not working. WTF!!!!!!!! We call in consultants and a PBX guy. The PBX guys are saying we have to spend 30K to upgrade the system just to allows coordinated dial plans (CDP). Screw them. We're not going to spend 30K and will only keep the PBX for 6 months until we get everyone on the Cisco system.
3 comments:
I'm not sure if this falls in the the CDP or not, but I know with Asterisk at least, and a cortelco PBX, you can make it where say 6XXX is forwarded over a certain link. So say your phone is on 6001, and someone elses is 6002. Soon as the PBX sees the first 6, it passes it on, and it passes the full number to the cisco, so you would stick with the 4 digits. The only issue would be given everyone new 4 digit extentions, unless you set each one up individually to dial over. I know how to do it in Asterisk, but I'm not sure about other PBX systems.
Oh, I know with the cortelco because a school district I worked for had a cortelco pbx system, and the new building got a full cisco IP phone system. And they are slowly rolling it out to the other buildings. And thats how they were able to do it. In this case, the new building was 6XXX. mainly where XXX is the room number. all the other buildings were under 1XXX, 2XXX, 3XXX, 4XXX, and 5XXX for admin stuff.
Hey Brandon thanks for the insight. Apparantly the issue isn't the PBX b/c we got this to work once from the Cisco side. We all were thinking something on the PBX may have changed overnight but the PBX guy assured us that there was nothing in the system configured in the first place. But who really knows they could be blowing smoke up my a$$. Our PBX is on an 8 year old retired release so what we want to do from the PXB to make life easier isn't one of the options that was installed with the system. My Cisco guys are saying that it must be on the cisco side then. They are going to try to contact Cisco and see if they can come up with something. Basically from the PBX side once you dial the access digit you are on the Cisco system. Then Cisco system should inject the first digit of the extension so the users thinks they are dialing the 4 digits. I can't see why this is so complex and not working. Then again I literally have these issues where I would places calls with vendors and they tell me we have never seen that happen before. If I were to submit bug reports my name would be all over the place especially at Microsoft.
Thanks for dropping by Noc
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