A recent question evoked my response that suggested using rollover extensions of 7 digits to simplify administration and conserve numbers in the dial plan. A reader tells of some great improvements on my way of doing this.
Your response to was nearly complete. We have always begun our rollover numbers beginning with a 7 and had the same problem of having to do a LUDN each time that a new telephone set was being programmed. We had 6 Nortel PBXs at the time but were poised to grow so needed a solution. We now manage 43 Nortel PBXs. More than a decade ago our best PBX technician suggested a change.
Here is what he suggested. Take the 5-digit DN, add the digit 7 in front of it, and a 1-digit number equal to which rollover number it is behind the 7. Format 7+DN+X, where X is 1 through 9. For example, if my 5-digit DN is 23420, then my 1st rollover line is 7234201. If I needed a second rollover line it would be 7234202, and so on. It doesn't work for more than 9 rollover lines, but of course any company knowing in advance that they would occasionally need more than that could easily just use X where X is 01 through 99. The end result after we changed all of our sets is that we have not had to do a LUDN for a rollover DN for over 10 years. A bonus is that if the employee also needs a modem that does not need to be a DID, we use the format 7+DN+0. Thus my modem line is DN 723200.
Q: I need to change a voice prompt in Symposium and cannot remember how I did it before. Seems like I used Call Pilot Application Builder to record the messages but I cannot find the message segment in the file menu. Am I imagining things or am I correct in thinking that CP Application Builder is the tool to use to re-record the message segment?
A: Look in the script and find the variable name assigned to the recording. Open the Script Variables in CCM and then Voice Segments. Scroll down the list to find the one in your script (they default to alphabetical sort, I think). Select the variable, then expand the section below if necessary: Script Variable Properties. Click on Attribute and note the application name and Voice Item number. Open Call Pilot Application Builder, and open the application you found in CCM. Click on Define at the top and select Voice Items. This is where you will find the recordings.
Q: At my previous company users were able to program autodial keys with pauses like for log into voicemail and other systems. Since I came there I tried to help users do the same, but it doesn’t work. I can see the pauses just don’t work anymore but how can they start working?
A: If pauses no longer function, the first place to look is the type of trunks in use. If calls at your previous company were going out using analog trunks or regular T1, the pauses would work. Pauses do not work, though, using PRI trunks.
Here’s why. When the PBX dials a call out an analog or regular T1 trunk, the digits travel out the trunk in real-time, one digit at a time. It’s like when you stand on the back porch and call the kids in for dinner. You can call one name, pause, and call another name; or you can call both names together. It works either way.
On the other hand, initiating a call on a PRI is more like writing a letter. You put the entire address on the envelope and put it in the mailbox. A PRI sets up (and tears down) a call by sending individual messages back and forth across the data channel between the PBX and the central office. Once the call is set up additional digits are discarded.
I’m not going to say it’s impossible for the PBX to interpret Auto Dial digits with pauses and make them work, but so far Nortel has not chosen to develop the feature to the point where it can be used effectively with PRI.
So how do you get the pauses to work in your situation? See if you can send the calls out trunks that are not PRI. If it’s important enough to spend the effort on this, look at the numbers the users are dialing. Can you route these numbers over non-PRI trunks? Look at BARS/NARS programming or maybe allow these users to program access codes to dial the numbers. If that’s unacceptable, perhaps you could program a CDP code with the access code and number. Program the CDP code in the Auto Dial key, followed by the pause and additional digits.
Reach the author at philruffin@hotmail.com.
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