atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Other TDM Phone Systems ESI Telephones & Systems Possible Hack? Or bug?

The other night, on my home IP phone I saw two line lamps were lit, in use, but no stations were. I then programmed an unused button, to each other station number that the system has, and nothing seemed active. I remoted into my workstation and pulled up ESI Access and turned on Privacy Release. Sent the programming and then tried to barge in, to see who was on.... And get a message "Privacy Release cannot be initiated at this time." OK, I figure maybe the feature change doesn't work on a call already in progress.... And my wife is bugging me to get my kid into the shower.. so I leave it be. I check back a half-hour later and the lights are off.

Next day, boss and I check the online billing statement. BTW, at this point I'll mention that one line was Optimum Voice, and the other Vonage... yeah yeah, I know it's more than likely related to not receiving/interpreting call disconnect tones....... Anyway, we only see a single 3 and 4 minute call on each line at roughly the right times... which don't match either. So, we dial the numbers and they're Sprint cell numbers, but local, so who cares....

This evening, I was reading the forum, and happened to glance over, and the same two lines are lit, and no one appears to be using them. Again, I program a button the check all the other possible stations digital, IP and analog... and buptkis. Again, I try to barge-in (I never turned off privacy release). Same message.

No one in the office knows how to do Trunk-to-Trunk transfer, no AA branch does a Goto-OutDial, and we turned off the notification mailbox, because it wasn't working properly.

I can only guess that it indeed is some sort of disconnect error or a bug. It shows on my other two IP phones in the office I'm at now, and at the digital stations in the main office. They get the same message when trying a barge-in.

Just tried ESI Tech support, however they're in a meeting, and since the system's not down, I'm not going to push it.

Years ago, someone hacked our Panasonic and relayed a bunch of calls out to the Philippines, which is why I immediately think "hack".

What I'm looking for is any ways to get an activity report from the system... any codes I can punch in programming mode (PM or email of course) or a telnet command? I know that tech support has done something like this in the past, but I'm wondering if anyone's got the know-how or suggestions to otherwise trouble-shoot this.

Thanks!

Update... Just finished typing and I happened to notice that one line lamp went off and I saw my most "dummy user's" light come on. (He's a great sales-type guy, but an extreme neophyte in technology) So as soon as it went off, I called him and asked if he was on a call or getting messages.

Getting messages.

Were you on a call previously?

Yeah, I was on a conference call with my kids (the two cell phone numbers).

How long?

A few minutes.

How long ago?

15-20.. why?

So I go into the whole story I just posted.

Turns out, he dropped off the conf call and the kids probably hung up at some point as well. But as I had already proposed, the PBX didn't get the proper disconnect tones.

So I had him make another conf call on the same lines, only with my cell and my landline here in the office. While he was in the conference, I could barge in. As soon as he left, I couldn't barge in. I then disconnected the two phones and the lamps are still lit.

So my basic questions still stand, how to trouble shoot this? Because I wouldn't have noticed this if I hadn't spent all the time posting about it, instead, I could have walked out and gone home.... Which would have made the wife over-joyed... but instead, not so much......

Definitely going home now.. look forward to seeing any responses on Monday!

Next time this happens press RECORD-RECORD. Then you can begin your investigation as usual. When you contact ESI tech support you can refer to the point where RECORD-RECORD was activated and they can focus in on that specific time frame.

I do feel your on the right track with the combination of traditional line and vonage line combination and lack of disconnect signnal.

Let us know of your results

what does record-record do? just to get a time stamp or something?

Correct! Since Record-Record being turned on then of creates the location for tech support to begin a point to investigate. Record on, Record off within a 2 second time frame would be uncommon for traditional day to day operations. Once the tech locates that point they can begin looking into on hook off hook, incoming calls and features activated by AA or extensions both moments before and after the Record-Record.
Best of luck

Grider

Check the average CO disconnect time for those lines. Play with the CO line disconnect timer. Default is 6 or 600. Either match the avg. or go lower. You can also try a value of "0".

It's set to 5 right now. I hesitate to play with it much, because as we already know, there may not be a signal at all coming from the VoIP adapter. But the puzzling thing is, we don't have a problem in the AA. If I call in on those lines, and get into a AA or VM, then hangup, it doesn't get stuck. It's only in the conference.

But ultimately, the answer to this is only ESI tech can help diagnose this huh?

ESI TS... will definately have more leverage as they deal with problems day to day. They just may have another story like yours.

DeBug would be the best thing to have them do so they see what the switch is actually doing at the time of the problem.

Take note that ESI likes the end user to press record, record when the problem happens. This lets ESI search just a bit faster.

Cheers,
-MO